More Rocky box fun

One of Rocky's friends gave me an extra large shoe box for him (thanks, Strider!)  I threw in a bunch of 2X4 wood slices for him to chip, and he was a very happy parrot.  I still haven't been able to take a picture of him entirely inside a box, but I'm getting a bit closer with this one:

I thought he might go inside, but then he apparently decided that the hole wasn't yet large enough.

When I got home from work yesterday, he'd demolished the entire box and all of the wood slices had been chipped as well.  He had a busy day!

Head pets

Thomas was sitting on the kitchen table, so Max flew over and rested her head against his leg, hoping for head pets. Of course he complied -- how could he resist her?

Even though she was receiving head pets, she'd occasionally pull her head away and scratch her own head for a second, which is her way of letting us know she wants head pets. 

Then she'd put her head back on Thomas's leg for some more.

She especially loves it when we pet the white part of her face, but we have to watch out for sudden movements on her part so we don't get her eye!

Crumbs!

I got home and decided to spend a bit of dedicated time with Calypso before letting the rest of the parrots out. He's a bit more reserved, so can fall between the cracks if I just focus on the parrots who demand attention.

He was sitting on my knee and I gave him a cracker.  It was a tiny, caique-sized piece.  Given the crumbs on my pants, I'm not sure how much of this cracker he ingested!

Sticky beaks

Last week, Basil had a down feather attached to his beak.  We joked he was dressing like Santa a month early:

I couldn't figure out which picture was my favorite, so I'm posting three of them!

Feather in motion:

There must have been something in the air, as Rocky got part of Thomas's dessert stuck to his beak that same evening (it's an oat):

Stella's drive to nest

Stella has a very strong drive to nest in dark places.  Because we don't want to encourage egg production, we do not allow this.  However, every time we open a cabinet, she flies down and tries to go inside.

Yesterday morning, she tried to get into the space above our stove and microwave by knocking over a decorative panel designed to look like a cabinet.

I removed her right after taking this picture, otherwise who knows how far inside she would have gotten!  She might still be lost in the bowels of our house as I have no idea where this false cabinet leads.

Max lurks around

Last night, as I was putting the parrots to bed, Max flew to the stairs and then ran into our bedroom.  She doesn't like to go to bed and would stay up all night if we allowed this.  Of course, she'd then be extremely crabby the next day.  This is in contrast to some of our other parrots, especially Calypso and Basil, who eagerly go inside their cages to nap when they're tired.

Smart parrot that she is, she ran under the bed, as we have a harder time reaching her, especially if she stays in the middle of the bed, since our arms are only so long.

I was kneeling on the floor, talking to her, so she came out to get some head pets, but then quickly ran back under the bed:

I know we shouldn't have turned this into a game, but it was so funny.  I hope we didn't inadvertently start a new bedtime routine.  After a few minutes, we told her we were serious and she had to step up; she complied, and ultimately went to bed. 

This did not appear to be nesting behavior (it seemed to be "I want to stay up late" behavior) but since she is 10 and therefore mature, we'll have to keep an eye on that.

Pants macaw

Most nights, Rocky likes to spend some time in Thomas's pants, chipping up 2X4 slices.

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In the comments, Beloved Parrot had asked how the other parrots were taking Brian's demise.  They don't seem to be affected at all.  Last Friday, before I buried him, I took his body around to show everyone, so they could see him.  Stella did a double take, Max and Rocky just stared at him, and everyone else (Basil and the caiques) seemed oblivious to what was going on.

When he was alive, no one ever really seemed to consider him part of their flock.  He didn't call back and forth with anyone, and we were so careful not to allow any sort of physical interaction (until, of course, the fatal accident.)  For them, life is back to normal.  The humans in the house are not yet to that point.

At the rescue where I volunteer, the budgies are in a flight cage.  None are tame.  Yesterday, I was watching the budgies play and enjoying their antics.  Several came up to the front of the cage, intrigued by my presence.  I hope they find good homes.

Obsession

Beeps has recently started flying into the kitchen on a much more frequent basis.  He's not looking for trouble; he just wants to be near us.  Unfortunately, this riles Calypso up, who feels the need to keep track of Beeps's every movement and frequently threaten him.  Beeps appears mostly oblivious to this.

Calypso stops what he's doing -- whether that's playing with a favorite toy or eating, but usually one of the two -- to stare at Beeps.  This continues until Beeps flies back into the living room.

Both caiques have been extra loving to me in the past week.  This has been most welcome.  Now, if only they could put aside their differences and befriend each other!

Precarious

Earlier this year, Thomas and I competed in a race in which age group awards were hand-made and hand-painted mugs.  To our surprise, both of us won a mug!  This has also created much laughter in our house, as my mug was larger (I was in the top 3 overall females and he was in top 3 for males in his age group), so he'll joke about just being a little thirsty or needing a tiny drink of water.  It's all in good fun, as this is definitely the nicest prize either of us has won in a race.

He keeps his mug out on the counter so he remembers to drink from it daily.  Thus far, it's pretty much been ignored by the parrots.  Except one time, when Thomas left it close to the edge and Stella threw it to the ground in a fit -- luckily no damage occurred!  Since then, he's remembered to push it far back from the edge.

Over the weekend, I saw Max trying to perch on it.  I warned her she was too heavy and she'd tip over, but she succeeded, even resting on one foot!

I'm still surprised it could support her weight.

Nature weekend

Thanks again for all of your support -- it means a lot.  We are still missing Brian immensely.  I buried him on Friday after work.  I scratched his head -- something he never let me do when he was alive -- and thought about the good times we had together.  My tears fell on him, and I was thinking how wonderful it would be if they had some sort of magical power that could restore him to life.  Of course, nothing happened, but I pulled out some of his lovely blue feathers and have them safe in a drawer.  He's now resting in the back yard, along with the rest of the budgies who've left us over the years.  Lenny, Ethel, Jeff Saturday, and Daphne.

Until this point in the day, I had not cried and was able to look back at pictures and videos of him fondly.  I think about him almost constantly, but it makes me happy to remember how wonderful he was and how lucky we were to have as much time with him as we did.  I know I shouldn't but I keep thinking of different "what ifs" -- it's amazing to think how decisions made nearly a decade earlier were ultimately instrumental in what happened.  For example, if I'd taken a different job in 2002, I probably wouldn't have been home until much later, sparing his life.  Or, if thugs hadn't broken into our house in 2005, we wouldn't have moved, which means we wouldn't have had room for Rocky (though we would have had room for Brian), and he'd still be alive.  It's just interesting how seemingly unrelated events can conspire against me.

We decided to try to spend much of the weekend in nature, as that always helps to raise our spirits.  We went to one of Thomas's favorite places, where there are lots of natural springs.  It was peaceful:

Some of the springs:

And we even saw a few cedar waxwings, Thomas's favorite wild bird:

We both felt much better.  Thomas is adamant that we can't add any more birds to our house.  Maybe when we move and the set up is different.  We have no plans to move.  I'm not sure if he'll still feel this way once he can process more of his grief.  In any way, it's way too early for us to think about adding anyone else.  Of course, I had three different people ask me if we'd take their special-needs birds since Brian died.  I had to turn them all down.

I had figured that our bird-bath activity would mostly be done for the year (it certainly will be soon once we turn off the outside water and close down the bird bath for the year) so it was a pleasant surprise to see a dark-eyed junco bathing this morning:

We'll definitely get out hiking some more this holiday weekend.  Nature really helps heal us.