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Certifiable

It’s a teeny-tiny backyard, but this year we added six bird feeders, some native plants, a composter, a bird bath and a mister. Now we’ve got a bunch of regulars who visit throughout the day, including cardinals, goldfinches, chickadees, woodpeckers, purple finches, squirrels, chipmunks, butterflies and bees. And we’ve been certified by the Canadian Wildlife […]

Favourite Field Trip

Last weekend we drove out to Smith Falls to visit the Parrot Partner bird sanctuary in their groovy new digs. Since our last visit, they’ve become a registered charity and they’ve moved out of Judy’s house, which had been taken over by all the parrots she had rescued. You know how it goes. One […]

Christmas in May

Parrots are smart. They need plenty of stimulation or their mental health will suffer. Parrots are difficult enough to live with when they’re mentally healthy; you definitely don’t want to push them over the edge. So parrot toys are a necessity. And, since many good parrot toys will quickly be reduced to piles of rubble […]

What is she saying?

Kazoo is a 16-year-old Double Yellow Headed Amazon parrot. She talks. We don’t always know what she’s saying exactly, but we always know what she means because she’s remarkably expressive.

Take a look at this video and see if you can tell what she’s yelling at the 7-second, 27-second and 37-second marks. This is something she […]

Two new birds!

Well, they’re not NEW, exactly. The original lovebirds – Oboe’s parents, Billie and Lester – have moved from GC’s house to mine.

It’s really nice to have them here, and they’re adapting very well. At first they squawked like crazy, and their arrival happened to coincide with the arrival of new next door neighbours, so […]

Duncan meets his match

We have a bird perch in the shower – Simon showers with me, Kazoo showers with GC, and Oboe is versatile. Anyway, yesterday, after Simon and I finished our shower, we saw that Duncan was crouched in the doorway looking profoundly disturbed.

A few weeks ago, a hinge for one of the mirrored panels on the […]

Oboe's New Girlfriend

Oboe used to have a girlfriend. Her name was Oboe’s Girlfriend. We got her in a bundle of used bird toys from someone on Kijiji. She didn’t look all that special to me, but Oboe fell head-over-heels in love with her. She was lovely and soft and she had a sweet little bell-like voice, and […]

The birds and the birds and the bees

This is what I see: Simon is on the floor of his house. He’s holding a baby toy in one foot and chewing on it. Oboe is on his rope perch, preening his feathers. Kazoo is sleeping in her house, a hanging baby toy draped over her back. Duncan is sleeping on the back of […]

Diagnosis: Too much freedom

We took Simon to see the avian vet yesterday, to consult about his behaviour problems. She thinks he’s got too much freedom and he’s taking advantage of it. He has overthrown the rulers and seized power! I need to rein him back in, start some daily training and convince him – gently – that I’m […]

First week of work, and a psychotic parrot episode

So far at my new job I’ve been immersing myself in reports and files and getting up to speed on the subject matter and my projects. The subject matter is fascinating but the projects are a little intimidating because there are so many, and some of them require skills I’m not sure I have, like […]