Slow motion stretching

I'd been taking pictures of the greys this morning (which will be my next post) when Calypso started begging for my attention.  This was odd, as he's usually not the biggest fan of getting his picture taken, but I went over there and captured elements of his ritualized stretching.

At the very beginning, he's about to lift his leg up:

Stretching one leg:

Then his wings:

Rubbing his beak on his perch:

Complete!

He'll usually do this with the other leg a few minutes later and repeat the entire process.

Guess what Rocky's doing today?

As I've mentioned many times, Rocky loves shredding boxes.  It keeps him busy and not screaming.  The trouble was, even though Thomas and I run, and therefore change our running shoes on a frequent basis, that still only worked out to maybe 8 boxes a year for Rocky.  Of course he'd get the occasional other box, but shoe boxes are his favorite.

I was mentioning this to a friend who is the manager of a running store, and she told me she could get me boxes as many customers don't want their when they buy shoes!  What an exciting find!

Here's Rocky, enjoying one of those boxes this morning, before I left for work:

I suspect that it will be in shreds when I get home in an hour or so.

I really am trying to get a picture of him inside his box, but as he comes running out to threaten me when he senses my presence, this may prove difficult.  Perhaps I can see if Thomas will be able to get the shot.

Parrot alarm clock

Over the weekend, I had an idea for a product: the parrot alarm clock.

Let's say you set your alarm for 5 am.  For the first 5 minutes or so, it could be very sweet noises -- light chirping, a sweet grey saying, "wanna get up?  I love you!"  Maybe some pleasant whistling.

If you don't turn the alarm off and get out of bed, it slowly escalates the parrot noises -- repetitive caique beeping, perhaps, or violent bell-ringing.

If you're not up by 5:10, it starts in on amazon alarm calls or macaw squawking.

5:15?  The big guns are called in: cockatoo screaming.

Bath time!

Since the floor was getting washed, we decided it would be a good time for the parrots to get clean as well!  Max loves getting sprayed, though she dries quickly with a shake and rarely looks as wet as the other birds:

Like Calypso.  He had to go and bath a little more in his water dish after I'd sprayed him, even though I'd completely drenched him:

Basil also joined in on the fun:

The rest of the parrots were uninterested, so we didn't force the issue.

In the kitchen

I think one of the reasons Calypso loves being moved to the kitchen is he gets many more treats than he did in the living room.  Just because he sees us with food, and since he's right there, we acquiesce.  Here he is, eating some celery that he probably wouldn't have gotten if he were still in the living room:

Thomas was washing the living room floor, so he moved all of the parrots' cages out his way.  This meant that Basil got to spend the afternoon in the kitchen.  He really enjoyed it there as well.  We'll definitely have to get an open concept floor plan in our next house!  Basil, with celery:

Max had flown into the kitchen, as usual.  I was making cookies, and from the start, she started dancing and saying "want some!"  She would not be deterred, even when all I had was flour in the bowl.  Yes, here is Max, eating flour!  What is wrong with her?  Who eats just flour?

Of course I removed her as soon as I took this picture.

Taking a drink of water

Last night, I got home from work a bit later than usual, so Thomas had beaten me home.  As soon as he heard me, Beeps flew into the kitchen. (He's at that stage of his hormonal period where he wants nothing more than to be on, or at least near, me at all times.)

However, Beeps got a bit distracted when he saw a mug of water on the table and decided he was thirsty.  The mug was perfectly caique-sized, and it was so cute watching him drink out of it.  However, before I could take a picture, Max flew over and bullied him away from the water.

I don't even think she was thirsty; she just wanted to prevent Beeps from doing what he wanted to do.

Happy ending for Beeps -- I picked him up and spent some one-on-one time with him, which he much prefers anyway.

Greys and greens

I had some greens left over from making Andreas's food for the week.  Max loves tearing into greens, so I'd set the bunch on the stand; she immediately went down there to destroy.  I know I should have expected this, but Stella also climbed down and the two of them got to work:

Amazingly, this went on peacefully for probably 20 minutes or so.

Brian wants to come out of his cage

When Brian's in his cage, he's usually on his boing, trying to make it swing more.  Whenever we approach him, he leaps to the front of the cage, hoping to come out.  Unfortunately, I was on my way to work, so he just got some verbal attention and foot rubs.

If you listen closely at the very end, he starts to whistle, but I turned the camera off too soon to hear much of it.

The potato eaters

Nope, not the Van Gogh masterpiece, but a little bit of weirdness from the greys.  Earlier this week, I had set some vegetables out on the counter so I could chop them up and throw into the slow cooker.

As soon as I left them unattended for a minute, the greys flew over to the counter and started creating havoc.  That's what they do best, after all.

Parrots do not eat raw potatoes, so I thought, if anything, they'd go after the carrots.  But I was wrong.

Of course, they are not eating any of the raw potato, just destroying it.  Max had been doing more destroying when I first came upon them, but when I came closer to make this movie, she stopped and came over to me, hoping I'd pick her up.

In which Rocky talks like a robot

Not sure what he's saying at all, but as Thomas was scratching his head yesterday, Rocky was talking like a robot.

Of course, at the beginning he has to come over to threaten me a bit (half-hearted attempt this time.) This ends up getting him a little too excited, so Thomas withdrew his hand as soon as Rocky started showing signs that he might regurgitate.