Back

Kwe is back - arrived with a mate just after lunch today, so about 16 hours away. Put me through a certain amount of hell, of course. He came back into the aviary of his own accord and the other bird complained a bit, but then just flew off. Good to know Kwe can survive out there.

Kwe

It looks as if Kwe chose to go wild, after all this time. He went out this morning and did not come back. There has been building and disruption here and that may have given him something of a push but it’s not the whole reason. He came and went as usual yesterday. He is at about the right age for a lourie to grow up - about 18 months. It hurts like hell and I just wish I could know if he is alive. If he is, I believe he will visit with the wild ones tomorrow morning, and if we don’t see him then he didn’t make it.

I’ve been treating the canaries’ foot disease (all 3 birds) every day until 2 days ago and will now do it about twice a week.

Photos of me talking Scruffy for a “walk” yesterday.

 

  
 

beautiful song no more

Little Runty died last night.

Redbird does also have the foot disease, so I kept him isolated for half of today - until I saw that apparently one of the females may also be starting the disease. This means I will have to treat them all, so I will go into the night-time avairy to do that every night. I don’t want to keep them all in small cages. Redbird’s condition is also quite advanced, so I hope it’s not too late to save him too. The females, if they do have it, are not nearly as advanced.

bumblefoot

Is anyone still reading this neglected little blog ? !

My trip to Israel went off just fine in terms of the birds - Johann coped really well with them and there were no problems at all. Most encouraging!

Runty the canary is sick with what appears to be a bad case of bumblefoot. I have isolated him, got vitamins into him, and have applied one dose of iodine to the feet already. I’ll have to do this 2 or 3 times a day and hopefully it will clear up soon. This morning I thought he probably wouldn’t survive the day, but he’s looking ok now. I need to check Redbird tonight too. The females don’t seem to have any problems but it looks as if Red may have beginnings of it too.

preparations

I am due to travel this coming Monday - gone for 11 days. Of course I am anxious about the birds, but Johann and I have done 2 trial runs this week where he’s changed the shoes himself (I usually do it). Today, we asked John to come and hold Chubby while Johann changed the shoes. Chubby didn’t like it at all, but she did relax eventually. I feel reassured that if Johann needs to check her hocks while I’m gone, he’ll manage with John’s help.

Little Kwe may have to forego his outside jaunts for a bit. Johann will try to let him out first thing in the morning on a couple of days, before other birds are allowed into the aviary, but if Kwe won’t go, there’s nothing else he can do. I have my doubts, because a) usually Kwe doesn’t like to go out first thing and b) usually I end up carrying him outside in my hands anyway. (There is no way he’ll let Johann do that).

So all in all, I am somewhat anxious but not freaked out. I know that no matter how great my trip is, I’ll be glad to get home to the birds again!

a long silence

I haven’t written anything for a while because 1) nothing’s happened and 2) even if it had, I’ve been too busy to write about it! I’ve been swamped with work lately. Still am, but not as much now.

This morning there was a green pigeon calling in the tree outside my room. It’s a sound that always - since we raised and released Greenie - makes me feel happy.

A bit later there was a herd… a troop… a gaggle… a hive… (ok, a flock) of about 20 wild louries! They danced all over the trees around the aviary, kicked up a big fuss and made lots of alarming and alarmed calls, got our lot into a real tizz, and finally disappeared. Johann said one was pecking at the lounge window in the main house and he came hurrying through to ask me if Kwe was outside, since he thought it might have been him. It wasn’t Kwe. The only time Kwe did go outside it was at the end, when there were only 1 or 2 louries around, and then he had a large mass of feathers pecked out of him by one of those wild things - who proceeded to gobble all of the food which I’d put out for Kwe. Needless to say, Kwe couldn’t wait to get back into the aviary. He’s a real softie. 

a glorious moment

A few high jinks this morning, when I opened the door to let Kwe out, and Scruffy sailed out… straight over the poles surrounding our little courtyard, and into the lower branches of a nearby tree. Where he got stuck, hanging upside down and squawking. Kwe said to me “Silly, I was busy playing with Scruffy when you grabbed me to chuck me outside - so why shouldn’t he also come outside?”

I was still in pyjamas, and there was a guest sitting just a few meters away, so I ran inside and through our rooms and stuck my head out of the door to yell for Johann. Also, Johann is a lot taller than me and I didn’t stand a chance of reaching Scruffy. He had apparently gathered that something was up - he was sitting having breakfast on the main verandah - and was halfway across the lawn by the time I pulled on some jeans and a shirt. I went back outside and by then he had already plucked Scruffy from the tree - he said he was still stuck, but no longer upside-down. Kwe was in the trees shrieking at Johann, together with a wild lourie (I think).

So all’s well that ends well. No other news… Chubby’s hocks are fine now, starting to callus over again - no infections etc.

wild things and birdie-sattvas

Too many monkeys and wild louries round here lately. We’ve had to chase them away a lot - Johann is better at that than I am since he makes impressive noises and throws sticks much further than I can into the trees. He also recently bought a kids’ water-cannon thing, and it reaches quite far. The aviary is a restless place at the moment and Chubby doesn’t enjoy the frenetic activity.

Today the wild louries disappeared quickly - they seem to have realised we’re serious now about shooing them away - though the monkeys were more persistent. It can make my work life a bit difficult I must say. Not easy to have to jump up from the PC all the time to attend to the wildlife!

I had Scruffy outside in his harness yesterday morning for quite a long time. Took him for a nice walk, and also left him alone for a while on the bird table, while I kept a close eye on him from the building. Four wild louries came down and ate right next to him, which I think he really enjoyed. The bully-boy lourie came back afterwards and started roughing Scruffy up a bit, so I made myself visible and he disappeared. That’s the same bird that bullies Kwe so badly. Must be a dominant male. Really gets nasty sometimes. Yesterday Kwe was a subdued little wreck after being chased, and I thought he’d never go outside again. But he went outside today for a good long time, so no worries there. Apparently I just have to change my strategy a bit - until yesterday I’d got quite strict about chucking Kwe out of the aviary whenever he and the wild one start their nonsense of pecking at each other through the mesh. In future, I’ll focus on chasing the wild one! Those are the worst possible times to chuck Kwe out, since the outcome is always the same for him: fear and humiliation.

Chubby’s hocks are being doctored following the calluses falling off last night. It’s been needing to happen, but the left hock in particular is very sensitive and raw now. It will take a while for the calluses to develop again - she does need them - and then fall off again. A cyclical process taking a few months each time. So for a while we will have to change her shoes and dressings on a daily basis and I’ve put her onto antibiotics as a precaution because there is a large wound on the left hock. Hopefully it will heal over quickly - they usually do. But it’s not guaranteed. This is her greatest vulnerability, after all.

She’s incredibly patient and trusting when we have to handle her like this. We both are still awed by her, even after 3 years of doing this. Tonight I told Johann that Chubby must be a birdiesattva! (For my non-Buddhist readers, a bodhisattva is a being of great compassion and wisdom, if not spiritual enlightenment).

really… no news

There really isn’t anything to say, so I’m just checking in. It rained solidly for nearly a week and the birds just sat around, bored and cold but otherwise fine. Now the sun is back and the louries are very content. Everything is peaceful. I still think about the most recent barbet now and then, and feel a bit sad. Wish I could have helped him.

But life goes on, and it’s good that the louries are happy here. Kwe still goes out now and then, but he prefers to be in the aviary most of the time. He loves Chubby very much, and he’s also fond of Scruffy (who is of uncertain gender and independent spirit).

I called FreeMe yesterday to try and find out if the black-collared barbet survived. it seems he didn’t. The lady who answered said she could find neither his card nor the bird himself. That either means he didn’t make it, or he was taken home by a volunteer. I hope he wasn’t euthanased, but he may well have been (FreeMe have a rather enthusiastic euthenasia policy, I have heard).