Thursday, April 17, 2014

Birdbrains

I'm not using that phrase in a derogatory way. I actually mean the brains of our resident birds. I haven't posted about Elwood, Stanley, Calder and Norris lately. Sounds like a law firm, doesn't it? The feathered four have been getting into trouble recently and I'll share it with you.
First, if you've never lived with birds, they are messy, and noisy and a lot of fun. They like to scream and yell most when you're on the telephone or watching the news. They throw feathers and seeds all over the place and if they see the dogs responding, they throw even more at them. But when I uncover their cage in the morning, Stanley always says "tweet tweet", which I take to mean "good morning". It's the only time of the day that he makes that particular sound so it seems to be a greeting. My cockatiels could all say "hello" so I enjoy this little greeting.

Now for the trouble part. Remember this toy that Santa brought to the birds? For days they stayed as far from it as they could get, staring suspiciously at it.
Well, they got over that and have been industriously working on taking it apart. As they tear off a bit, they push it out of the cage for me to find.
OK, taking a toy apart isn't so bad, but there is a much worse event. One evening a couple weeks ago, I was putting the cover on their cage. In case you're wondering why I cover them, I want to discourage Elwood from laying more eggs. She laid 23 of them and I want to trick her into thinking that the days are getting shorter, not longer, so she won't think it's time to start laying again.
Anyway, as I put the cover on, I noticed something was wrong. It took me a minute to figure out what it was. Then I saw this. If you look closely, you'll see that Elwood has a black eye. I was surprised and upset. I do not condone domestic violence anytime anywhere by anyone and that includes the birds. One of the male birds had beaten up Elwood and given her a black eye. Rob and I both examined her and the eye wasn't injured but the area around it was badly bruised. We decided to watch her closely and get the spare cage ready in case it was needed. I also gave the boy birds a lecture on unacceptable behavior and the consequences.

Elwood is all healed up. The side of her face is no longer bruised and her eye is fully open. There has been no rough behavior or any sort of disagreement among the flock. Everyone seems to be cheerful and busy so I'm hoping this was a one time unfortunate accident.
But I'm watching!

10 comments:

Jan said...

I'm sure it was just an accident during horseplay and they took your lecture seriously.

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Sounds like the boys were listening. Poor Elwood.

XXXOOO Bella & Roxy

Anonymous said...

It's always fun to learn what other animals do, we never had a bird here, Elwood is pretty hope them guys weren't picking on her!

The Mad Scots

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Sheesh, and to think of all the trouble we get into for destuffing our stuffies - at least we don't batter each other:)

Just joking around - we hope the birds will all be OK and play nice.

Woos - Phantom, Ciara, and Lightning

Jo's World said...

The fighter bird sounds like Zkhat. She will just take me on and bite my ears every chance she gets (that is when I am sniffing her which is a nice commonplace activity.) No harm is done except to my ears. My Mom doesn't scold her at all just tells me to quit sniffing her! Not a bit fair.

Stella

Ruby said...

Oh, Ma knows how messy burdies can be!! She has a male parakeet that looks almost exactly like Elwood! His name is Blanco. He makes a real mess I tell ya! And Ma doesn't let me sniff him either...meanie.
Anyhu, I'm sure glads Elwood has healed up fine, she looks FABulous BTW!
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

Molly the Airedale said...

We hope there are no more shenanigans happening. We're glad you're healed up, Elwood!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

Lapdog Creations said...

They are indeed LOUD and messy! :)
Glad she's ok!

Marjie said...

My daughter has parakeets. She usually has 2 or 3 at a time. Right now she has Mar ( a female) and Mort (a, um, mentally challenged and half blind male). They conspire to take down the toys, food dish, and whatever they can find. But the chirping and yelling always make me laugh. The strewn-about seeds and feathers get annoying, but usually the birdies are in Philly, and only here a couple of days at a time.

And, yes, your flock would make a very important-sounding law firm.

Happy Easter, Sue, Rob, pack and flock!

SissySees said...

Thanks for the insight into life with birds. I do hope they took your lecture seriously and will be kinder to each other.