Mr Video the cockatoo

A few days ago, we were in Castlemaine when Kurt pointed out a man who was walking on the street with a cockatoo on his shoulder. A few people had gathered around him and I asked Kurt to turn the car around! Kurt sighed indulgently and did so.

I got out excitedly from the car and went up to the man with the cockatoo now on his arm, admired by a few people gathered around. The cockatoo whose name is Mr Video was very relaxed about being patted. He was so gorgeous, totally at ease with the strangers touching and stroking him. When I gently stroked him, he turned shyly to look at me while he snuggled close against his owner's arm, like a shy child.

His owner told me that they'd owned a video store in town and Mr Video had been the resident bird. Mr Video has been with him 17 years, and loves riding on the motorbike. That's true, as I saw for myself later, when we stopped at the traffic light and next to us was Mr Video on his owner's shoulder, on the bike. When the bike took off, Mr Video ducked his head to the front of his owner's chest and hung on, looking like he was enjoying himself immensely!

Tutti's spring fever

Tutti the cockatiel is temporarily unavailable to us as he goes through spring fever. He calls out non-stop to some imaginary mate of his, cheep cheep cheep all day. It's loud & shrill, and there's nothing we can do to quieten him. He's hyperactive, flitting from the top of one door to another, calling, calling to someone who never seems to respond.

Breakthrough for Kokola

Miracle of miracles! What I've been trying for ages to get Kokola to do but he was too scared to, he's just achieved in minutes when I used positive reinforcement. He's always been too nervous to step up on my forearm, ever since he flew away by accident and learnt to fear the unknown (a couple of years ago now). Every time I'd tried to get him to step up, he just ran away.

This time, he was being reinforced for saying "Hello Kokola" and waving, and just when he put his foot on my forearm, I decided to extend the positive reinforcement I'd learnt and gave him his cashew nut reward. It wasn't long before he was putting one foot on my arm, then both feet on my arm, and soon he'd let me lift him off the cage (his security blanket), as long as I stayed close to the cage. I was amazed! He'd never have stepped on my arm before, let along stay on it. I realised I'd been building him up to it the last 6 months - when the only past occasions he'd step onto my arm was to hitch a ride from his cage to my chair beside it. At all other times he'd avoid my arm. But now, he's learnt to climb on at almost any time!

It's probably a first for me too - patience has not been my strength in bird training. Now I can see it pays off!

Chojo in the office

Remembering Chojo

I found by chance an old email I wrote to my sister on 10th Sep 2001 (1 day before Sep 11)! It was a bittersweet letter about Chojo our beloved budgie who's left us.

"Hi Pauline,
Glad to hear you're safely home & well. I've forwarded you a budgie email re training. Oh, and guess what, we have a new baby budgie!

We picked up a new little baby budgie yesterday. We had planned to get one in a couple of weeks, but when we met this little one, it won our hearts. We had started our research yesterday, and our first stop was a pet shop we know well: I asked to hold a particular baby budgie - a grey/blue one with yellowish feathers on his head, and when the shopowner put him in my hands, the little budgie promptly found the opening of my sleeve and crawled all the way to my elbow and stayed there, happy to snuggle. It was a very young one, the beak was still black. He's incredibly sweet and tame. He prefers snuggling to perching, and right now is asleep with his head on his "chin" in a pile of birdseed, within the folds of a blanket. We've named him ChoJo. He's so heartbreakingly soft & trusting.

In the car whilst driving back from the pet shop, ChoJo was happily snuggled up in my jacket. He can't get enough of snuggling. We should have named him Snuggles! He's not afraid of anything. We can stroke him anywhere and he happily continues eating; he doesn't startle easily, he's just so tame. The only thing he doesn't like is being picked up bodily, he'll struggle. But if you hold him against your body and he can snuggle against your hand, then he settles down. You can pet his head, stroke his wings, his feet, tickle his chin, scratch his head -- it's all the same to him - no need to worry. Very relaxed.

Will send you pics soon.

Isn't it always strange when we return from hols overseas? I feel really different this time, a little sad, a little optimistic about my future, and a faint longing for M'sia. (and a painful feeling in the vicinity of the bank account!) Hope you're settling in well."

another Corella party

Check out the Corella party in this tree! We see this scene often around our area but have never been able to capture in photos, until I came across this gorgeous picture when looking for bird toys for Kokola our Corella at http://www.budgieworld.net/ParrotShack-Largebirdtoys.htm
The new toy arrived today - a ring of chewable native seed heads & nuts - but Kokola is not having a bar of it today, though he wasn't freaked out when I placed an eucalyptus branch on top of his cage yesterday. And yes, he's now accepted his new water bowl and will drink from it, but will freak out & yell at it occasionally.

Weeding bonanza for Kokola

The last 2 days have been weeding days in the front garden - pulling out the weeds and the grasses which are growing where they shouldn't. Kokola loves chewing on the grass stems at the juicy roots, preferably with soil attached. The last 2 days have been a bonanza (overwhelming) for him - the bottom of his cage is piled high with clumps of grass. He's often more fascinated by my rubber gloves than the bunches of grass I hand him!

His continuing passion for cashew nuts has increased his repertoire - when I ask him "Who's my darling?" he replies, "Kokola". He's almost perfect now in mimicking my random sequences of "Hello Kokola" & "Go to Bed" and in his over eagerness to earn the cashew nut, he overshoots me and continues talking when I've stopped. He has the cutest way of waving & saying Hello. And in his enthusiasm, he says "Come!Come!Come!" as he hurries to the door to greet me.