Sue and the Birds

One-tail lives!

Sue Randall — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:44:24 +0000

Gladness and joy… the little one is visiting today, and is busy growing an entire beautiful new tail.

bully or be bullied

Sue Randall — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:46:24 +0000

Poor little One-Tail must have died. This was one of the two juvenile louries that visited now and then. It hasn’t been around lately, though the other one has. They’d both got to the point where they weren’t afraid of me and I could hold a food bowl while they ate from it. One-tail had some problem which caused all the tail feathers except one to fall out. When I first saw this my heart sank – something like this can be a death sentence for a young bird out in the wild. And indeed now a few weeks later, it looks that way. Louries need their long tail feathers to steer and brake by, and I could see that One-Tail was struggling.

The other juvenile’s been around and 2 days ago I let Kwe out at the same time. Kwe turned into a total bad bully and pecked the youngser the way Kwe himself has been bullied by one of the adult wild birds. The little one fled and I haven’t seen it since, and Kwe sat contentedly in the trees above the aviary for the rest of the day. I did try to chase him off the young bird, but no luck – they just went further away.

So that’s how it works.

family of five

Sue Randall — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:27:06 +0000

I took the female canary’s eggs away for easily a week – must have removed 6 or 7 in total. I put them in the bush, where they were all rapidly eaten by goodness know what predators. The female finally stopped laying a couple of days ago, thankfully. We now have a family of 5 canaries and they are all trained to go into the night-time avairy, which is great. For that reason, I feel no urgency about taking them to a horrible pet shop or whatever. It seems manageable.

Runty the Second

Sue Randall — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:21:02 +0000

Two canary babies are almost fully grown already. The third is a runt and is still getting full feathers, and can’t fly properly yet. It’s about half the size of the others but has double the personality. I’m sure it will always be smaller than average.

The female has started laying again but we won’t let any eggs hatch.

The louries are all fine. One of the wild juveniles has lost all of its tail feathers (bar one very scraggly one that probably won’t last much longer either). Something must have attacked it, because that’s not normal. Luckily it seems fine in other ways.

funny little chicks

Sue Randall — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:01:39 +0000

These babies really are quite odd-looking, with piebald orange and brown colouring. The first one left the nest this afternoon, but the smallest one still hasn’t got any body feathers, not even pin feathers. But the parents are still feeding it – so far.

bit of this and that

Sue Randall — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:39:39 +0000

Took Scruffy out on the leash yesterday – it’s become a more regular event and the struggle against having the leash put on is less now.

Moved the canary chicks today, from the filthy old nest into a new clean one, disinfected the cage against mites etc. These chicks are going to have interesting colours – looks like bright orange combined with dark wings. One chick looks just about ready to leave the nest but the others are still almost embryonic. The oldest two have eyes open but the smallest chick is just a little blob one stage past the egg. A huge developmental gap. I hope the two little ones make it because as usual the parents feed the biggest one more all the time. Nature is really a crooked business I must say.

Two juvenile louries were above the aviary today, together with their parents. They still have the baby lourie call (very cute and distinctive), and they were bedraggled from the rain – clearly not yet properly waterproof. How any small creatures survived last week’s hailstorm I don’t know. Apparently 10 km from where we are, 50 people ended up in hospital and a couple were killed. it was a ferocious storm and I just wonder where these louries were, that they survived.

one down

Sue Randall — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:07:55 +0000

Yesterday, 3 living chicks plus one blue egg.

Today, 3 living chicks plus one dead body – already starting to smell enough that the flies were gathering. I’m not sure if it was the runt but it may have been. It had got pushed to the bottom of the pile, smothered and starved to death, probably overnight or this morning. To save the rest of the clutch, I had to take it out when the adults weren’t around, and buried it.

It’s always like this, a relentless counting process. Counting up, then counting down. Nature moves on. You get your turn at life, and then it’s quickly gone and it’s someone else’s turn.

For two seasons now, we’ve watched the masked weavers build nests above the aviary about 2 weeks before the rain comes, and within days there is nothing left, no trace of that merry wing-fluttering attempt at family life. It’s sad, really, but that’s the way it goes. I do wonder if these potent storms of late have started to reduce bird numbers though. Global warming clearly takes its toll not just via the heat itself, but also with the storms.

nogga chick

Sue Randall — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:01:53 +0000

only one egg left and I’m hoping it won’t hatch as it will be a runt. These things are all beak, with a bit of skin and fluff attached

hatchlings

Sue Randall — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:17:07 +0000

Two out of four canary eggs hatched this morning.

I will be making an effort to take Scruffy out of the aviary more often. Had him/her out two days ago and again today. I stood with him for quite while under the trees on the veld side of the aviary today, and was rewarded with a strange little series of what seemed to be kisses. I don’t know what it meant and it’s never happened before, but it could have been affection, as Scruffy seemed very relaxed at that point (after being very stressed earlier).

routine deworming today

Sue Randall — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:45:03 +0000

They aren’t crazy about the yellow gooey medicine all over their food, but it only lasts a day. We dose them about once a year. I believe it is helpful, perhaps even necessary. Kwe kept going outside to eat and then coming back inside quite soon, and eventually I realised what he was doing. It’s not him I’m worried about, but little disabled Scruffy, so his eating out didn’t worry me.

Otherwise all is fine. The rain has arrived and is wonderful, though it’s only happened at night so far. The female canary is sitting on 4 eggs, and started sitting on Day 2, which means that if the 4th egg hatches it will be a runt. The male canary is a super little bird, a very relaxed and happy fellow. He was sunbathing the other day and I thought he was half dead as he was lying partly on his side. But he was just having a wonderful time and flew away when I got close.

We’ve had all 3 louries outside fairly frequently of late, with Scruffy on the leash and Chubby closely watched, and Kwe lording it over everyone from a branch above.