Pining

Thomas has had to work a bit later than usual this month, and while it makes us all sad, Stella is probably the one who misses him the most. When he gets home at a normal, more reasonable time, she flies to the fridge when she hears the garage door open so she can be right there when he enters the back door. When he's (60-90 minutes) later than usual, she flies there frequently and makes sad sounds while staring at the door:

I tell her he's coming back soon and try to have fun without him, but she really wants him.

I took this picture about 5 minutes after he got home from work, just after he'd changed out of his work clothes (in case you were worried he wore a housecoat to the hospital -- nope!)  Rocky had walked into the kitchen, so the two of them were standing at the patio door, watching the squirrels.  Both greys missed him, so they flew over and then the four of them watched the squirrels:

Concetrated parrots

All four of these guys have their own cages, in this room, but they frequently all hang out on the stand:

Of course Rocky had to threaten me:

Wood chips

If I'd known how well Calypso would take to the kitchen, I would have moved him years ago. He's loving it! He's been warming up to Thomas a lot, which has been great to see.

This morning, he grabbed a wood slice out of his foraging bucket and started chipping it up. He usually doesn't photograph well, but I thought this picture turned out beautifully:

Clown loach disappearing act

We have a very sneaky clown loach in our aquarium. She manages to completely disappear for hours at a time! We don't have that many hiding spaces, so I have no idea where she is. After several days of not being able to find her, I thought perhaps she'd died and been eaten by the other occupants of the tank, but yesterday when I got home from work, she was out and begging for food along with the other two:

This is reminiscent of our pleco, who would disappear for months at a time.  Ultimately, I was able to discover her hiding place.  Unfortunately, she died in August while we were on vacation.  It was a shock as we should have had her for many years yet.  We have not replaced her, opting for more frequent tank cleanings.

Rocky and boxes

I was a few seconds too late to get the picture I wanted. I had given Rocky a box yesterday morning. The first thing he did was chew an entrance hole so he could easily go inside. When I first saw him, he was completely inside the box. I'd called his name and he stuck his head up through the far right side top. Adorable!

By the time I got the camera, he was leaving the box in order to threaten me by banging his toys against the side of his cage:

Max needs a break

When we were bottling, the greys were in the kitchen. Of course they would occasionally start chasing each other around, usually instigated by Stella. Max must have gotten tired of this, as she went to sit on a chair that was pushed in to the table, giving her privacy:

She stayed down there for probably 30 minutes or so, until we left the kitchen and I took her with us into the living room.

Brian eats apples

During breakfast, Brian runs around on the table, stopping occasionally to eat some of Thomas's toast or my cut-up apple.

Over the weekend, Thomas was eating a whole apple, and was resting his hand on the table, when Brian ran over and started helping himself:

It's shocking that I managed to get a picture before he ran over to pose for the camera.

Beeps and the fish

Having moved Calypso into the kitchen, we needed to move one of the stands in order to have room for his cage. The stand is placed in front of our aquarium, across from Beeps's cage. Surprisingly, the parrots love having another stand in the living room, even though they have their cages as well.

Beeps particularly likes the stand. If he's on the end and stretches his body out, he can glimpse what's going on in the kitchen without having to fly in there. I'm not sure this will have a positive impact on his fitness level!

He also likes to watch the fish swimming around. I tried to get a picture of him watching the fish, but he turned to me as soon as he saw the camera (the camera is something that can trigger attacks.)

In this picture, it looks like the fish are ganging up on him to launch an attack!

Cage sharing

Yesterday, we were doing some bottling in the kitchen.  Our birds who live in the kitchen (Calypso and Brian) were there with us and so were the greys, who'd flown in as they like to be where we are.  Basil was hanging out on his cage.  Beeps was locked inside his cage as bottling is an activity that triggers him to attack us.  Rocky was free to roam around the living room, which usually means he's ripping up phone books under his cage.

What this boils down to is light supervision of the parrots in the living room (Basil, Beeps, and Rocky.)  By "light supervision" I mean that we listen closely for any sign of trouble (Rocky and Basil are notorious tattle-tales; we also listen for any flight) and I go in to check on everyone approximately every 3 minutes.  I must also add that Rocky and Beeps get along and ignore Basil.  I would never trust light supervision with Brian (due to size difference) or for any birds who have shown any problems with each other in the past (Max-Beeps, Calypso-Beeps, Max-Rocky, Calypso-Basil...)

On one of my three-minute checks, this is what I found:

Yes, that's right.  They were both in Beeps's cage!!!  Rocky will frequently spring Beeps from his cage by opening up one of the food doors.  However, yesterday, unlike previous times, Beeps decided to stay inside the cage with Rocky!  They were both happily playing with Beeps's toys!

This is not acceptable.  Even though they get along, I didn't want to run the risk of something happening in a confined space where it would be difficult to easily escape, as only the food door was open.  We opened the main door, as well as the nest box door, to provide options.  I stayed there until the cage no longer had two occupants.

Beeps immediately climbed on the nest box door; I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of him perching on it, as Rocky decided to exit as well, prompting Beeps to take flight:

Rocky on the nest box door; of course he had to come out to threaten me a bit, but then he went back inside Beeps's cage.  We decided to let Beeps stay out, as long as he didn't come into the kitchen to attack us.  He didn't; preferring to go inside Max's cage and play with her toys (Max was in the kitchen with us and does not know about her intruder.)

Back inside:

Every time I'd go in to check on them, he'd threaten me a bit through the door, but then retreat back to the inside of Beeps's cage once I'd left.

About a minute after one of my checks, Rocky started screaming.  Even though three doors were open (regular door, nest box door, food door), he was upset that he was inside the cage!  Due to our policy of parrot personal responsibility, I told him it was his duty to improve his situation.

With an audience, this is the first way he chose to approach his problem:

As soon as I returned to the kitchen, he got himself out of the cage and then walked in to the kitchen.  I suspect he wanted to show me that he knew how to get out all along.

Night fright club

On Fridays, we don't run, so we sleep in a bit later than usual and then have a more peaceful morning.  This morning, Thomas got up at 5:30 and I was still in bed.  About 10 minutes later, I hear one of the parrots thrashing about their cage.  It was Max, having a night fright.  Thomas went over to make sure she was OK, and then I heard him say something like, "I guess you can come out since you're up anyway."  The parrots are supposed to sleep until 7 so they get 12 hours of sleep.

Guess what happened next?

That's right -- Stella had a "night fright."  And yes, I am putting that in quotes as I suspect it was faked as she saw that it worked for Max.  Thomas thought the same, as I hear him say to her, "I probably shouldn't reward you for this, but if you want to come out so badly..."

I told him this better not have started a trend as they could injure themselves by having "night frights" frequently.  Yet again, these greys are too smart for their own good.