Monday, December 31, 2012

Do you think she enjoyed her raspberry??



What better way to end the year on the blog than by showcasing one trait that defines a lot of parrots - messy!!

The poor raspberry that ended up in Pixel's bowl this morning was, once upon a time, nice and whole. Now it's smeared all over TWO food bowls as well as Pixel's flagstone perch (where she seems to enjoy the very best of her food).

At least it was enjoyed.

366:365 - Bonus picture!



It's not a great one by any means (Joey is essentially the only one who kinda is in focus and sharp), but all I got to take was one picture before mayhem ensued and I had to separate the three of them.

See, normally I could take a picture of this trio in one small area without too many issues. But Zuri has been really moody lately and Joey is acting a little more crazy than usual (and is actually the reason why I only got one picture).

Why not include any of the others?

Léa - she's not let out with the others because of her size and putting her close to them on a whim for a picture didn't seem like the best way to do introductions...

Piper - he wants little to do with pictures lately and would much prefer being on me so no cooperation from him (and I don't trust Joey close to Piper when he's in his extra crazy phase.)

Pixel - would relish the opportunity to being able to chase Shade from a close proximity so no go.

 Petey - he just doesn't do well with other birds that close to him.

So here we go, the very last picture of the project, featuring a little less than half my flock!

(Oh and this makes it 850 posts for 2012!!!)

Fluffy Petey



Sunday, December 30, 2012

365:365 - Day 365!

And here we are, the end!



Given my little miscalculation, I figured why not feature every bird on the last 365 picture. And because they won't all play nice and pose together, I had to go for the montage.

The blog will only allow me to go so big so if you want to see the above bigger, click here!

I'm happy it's over, but I'm also very happy I took on the project. However, I am looking forward to not having to take a daily picture for a while.

And because I can, here are all the individual pictures that went into the montage above!


Piper


Shade


Joey


Petey


Zuri


Pixel


Léa

Do I have anything else to say? Maybe, but not now, other than I find it awesome that Pixel spent her little time out for her picture yawning!

I should come up with some random stats from the pictures taken throughout the project, but not tonight.

And maybe there will be a bonus picture tomorrow..but just maybe!

Meyer's, close those eyes!

Petey -



Zuri -

Perch replacement

Yesterday I replaced a few of Léa's perches and had to reassess placement of a few of them, mostly on the left side, as she had a tendency to make a mess of them by pooping on them.

The first ones out were her platform perch and skywalk from Oliver's Garden. She LOVES those perches and while the platform (which was located on the door) wasn't too bad, the skywalk was terrible and in dire need of in depth clean up.

To replace the platform perch on the door, I used an almost "U" shaped ribbonwood perch I have had for ages. I know of others who have ordered it and have sworn by it. I asked the store owner what size would be appropriate and he sent me what he thought would be good. I have always found the diameter to be rather large and since ribbonwood is rather slippery, had held off giving it to Léa.


Ribbonwood "U" perch

The one big advantage of it, however, is that it will be hard to poop on it, which makes it ideal for Léa. If she ends up taking a liking to it, I might try ordering another, insisting on a smaller size. She has spotted the little pieces of smaller branches sticking out here and there and has started to chew on them, but it's obvious she's finding it difficult to perch on at the moment.

On the left side panel of her cage, she used to have an  ocotillo perch and her skywalk at about the same height, a pedicure perch near her food bowl (which happened to be perpendicular to the higher ocotillo perch) and a shorter mulberry perch underneath the skywalk, but because of the width of the skywalk and the fact that there was always a toy near the hole of the skywalk, it was protected.

As I mentioned above, the skywalk was removed for a much needed cleaning. Upon close inspection, I decided to replace the ocotillo perch as well, as on one section it's clear Léa has taken a liking to rubbing her beak clean on it. Finally, the pedicure perch, which I had placed in a "highly likely to get soiled" location, but figured it was ok because the perch was plastic and easier to clean, also came out for a in depth clean.

Where the ocotillo perch was I placed a nice soft cajeput perch - given it's one of the spot Léa likes to roost, I figured a nice soft perch for her feet would be nice.


Cajuput perch

Given I didn't have anything to really replace the skywalk, I decided to change things up a little. I wanted to put in another pedicure perch because I have noticed a difference with Léa's nails, but I didn't want to put it anywhere she would spend hours. So I placed it a little lower than her skywalk was, and, because it was no longer shielded, removed the mulberry perch.


Pedicure perch


Left panel of Léa's cage

I'm hopeful that perches will stay cleaner with this layout, but I'm sure I'll have to mix things around as Léa (and the Boy) seem to miss having a perch close to her fresh food bowl. I might attempt butting a single ribbonwood perch next to it and place it aligned with the cajeput perch so that any droppings from above will hopefully miss it.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Yes, I took a bath...

...how can you tell?



Well, Léa, your somewhat wet head (the only part of you that is any wet) wasn't the only sign. The flooded paper at the bottom of your cage and wet floor around the area where your water bowl is located were far stronger indicators of what you have done.

364:365 - Petey



Here we are, today's post. One post away from "the big one".

I don't know if anyone had noticed, but lately I had always posted pictures the day after I took them. Not sure why, it was a habit I had gotten into. But I figured I should really post today's picture today. The perfect lead up to the last one.

I'll also let you into a little secret, which I guess will show how bad I thought things through. This picture is the last picture for this week, I completed another series of 7. When I initially started the project, I thought it would be perfect to do this with 7 birds, as there are 7 days in a week and 52 weeks to a year...I didn't think of that extra day.

For a while, people have been asking me on a forum where I've been posting the pictures throughout the project if I was going to take a picture for day 366, given this year is a leap year, and I always replied "maybe" and I had something in mind.

But given the recent realization of my little "problem", guess I'll have to use that idea tomorrow. As well, should I decide to take a picture for day 366, I have another little idea budding in the back of mind, but whether or not it'll come to fruition is still up in the air.

Nevertheless, the fact that there only remains one last official day is making me very happy right now!

363:365 - Almost window sill Zuri



Obviously I was trying to get him to stand on the window sill to take his picture yesterday.
But he didn't want to step down. So I went with it, given I still wanted a picture lit by natural light.

I like the result.

A splash of colour

Léa's coral has recently expanded nicely on her head and ankles and continued to grow strong on the bottom part of her wings.

The one part that needed to play catch up (and still does) is the "shoulder" area of her wings. However, some new little feathers have appeared, making the spots of coral bigger and bigger and I'm guessing that shortly, if all continues, everything will connect nicely into one big strand of coral!

You have orange juice? You must share!

I like a glass of orange juice in the morning and normally, I'm smart enough to drink it away from the birds.

This morning, however, the glass was with me in the room with the birds...and Shade spotted it.

She LOVES orange juice. We normally get the stuff with extra pulp (since I like it) and it seems Shade also does.

She took over my glass and kept dunking her beak in. I actually had to remove her from the glass and place it somewhere out of reach or she would have spent all her time out on it.

Friday, December 28, 2012

She was all cuddles today!

I don't know if it's because I was feeling under the weather, but Léa has been all cuddles today with me. She was snuggling close and was quite happy getting her head scratched. She even stepped up rather nicely on a few occasions and when I had to leave her with the Boy for a few minutes, she apparently tried to follow me.

Getting hopeful everything will get back to what it once was. This is another step in the right direction!

I made it!!



Lately it has seem that one of Petey's goals when out of the cage has been to make it onto the Boy's camera bag. Something the Boy was quite adamant about preventing since he's afraid of holes and chewed zippers.

Then yesterday it happened - the Boy was too engrossed in an article he was reading to notice Petey inching towards his bag and eventually getting on it. He was totally oblivious.

Which I found rather amusing.



To be honest though, Petey is pretty good. All he did was what I like to call "measure" the bag, aka rub his beak back and forth as long as he can. Had it been Joey, I think the risk of holes and chewed up things would have been exponentially higher.

362:365 - Pretty Pixel

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Silly Léa!

Trying out a new feather-do!

Two Pois, one atom



Given how cranky Zuri has been lately, Shade keeps her distance.
I do think they are as far opposite as they can be on there.

Watching the snowstorm cozily from the wingdow

From earlier this morning -


What is all that white stuff?


I can't make out anything outside! It's all white!



Well at least it's nice and warm in here with a lot of stuff to destroy!

And my favourite -


Why...won't...you...break!

Allo!

Since Léa's change last October, she's slowly progressed back to how things were before, however the one thing she wasn't really doing anymore where her cute noises around me or talking to me. I would hear her in the next room and she would taunt the Boy in the morning when he's alone with her with some "Viens" when she's was flying from place to place, but nothing around me.

She even started using some new things like "Hi Lé", things that I say to her (more so than the Boy), and she says it using my voice, but again, not to me.

Over the last week, she once again started to do some of her cute cooing noises in my presence and I thought this was a good sign.

For three days they had little to no time out in the evening because of family meals we had in honour of Christmas. Yesterday, after the Boy and I made it back home from a late dinner with my parents, I went in the dark birdroom to check up on them. When I got to Léa's cage she gave me one of the sweetest looks she's got and said a very low but completely adorable "allo!" (even though the Boy tends to greet her with a more English "hello" I tend to keep it French with her and that is what she chose to pick up). The Boy wasn't in the room, it was entirely meant for me!

I truly think that was one of the best gifts I could have gotten lately!

Some of Zuri's feathers

This morning I found a few more pictures on the ground, including some quite striking feathers of Zuri's.



There is no mistaking that blue feather belonging to anyone else, as Zuri's rump is quite unique with that colour here. And those two tiny yellow forehead feathers - they were found below Zuri's hang out spot, somewhere Petey is never really close to.

361:365 - Chew, chew, chew!



This is how he decided to spend his photoshoot.
Made for a different "Joey" picture.

Avian Antics order

This order came in earlier this month but I only recently had time to sit down and take pictures.

Avian Antics recently had a sale and I decided to get a few toys since they had natural wood coins and slices of pine which weren't dyed.

The toys are essentially the same, I got a larger version for Léa and 6 smaller version for the smaller guys.







The Boy found it amusing that I took two pictures of the smaller toys, making sure to use all 6 (there are three per picture). What can I say..I'm a purist!

They are pretty nice toys, the base is a solid block and it looks like sea grass rope has been used to tie everything together. I hope the birds will like them!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Head scratch - Instagram style


Scratch me?





360:365 - Trying something different



And given she wasn't in a picture taking mood, I had little to work with.

5 more days.

I wonder who will be the happiest when this will be over - the birds or me...

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

359:365 - What?? I wasn't thinking about it!



Here is Léa trying to convince us that she wasn't thinking of licking the condensation off the window...

Preening by the window





More Shade pictures

I feel like she's been under represented lately on the blog...





And given I had a few extra pictures of her taken with natural light in the orange room, where I find her colours are really at their best, why not post a few more pictures just for the sake of posting pictures?

This was almost the picture for day 358

It was a tough call - I really liked both pictures!

Léa and her Christmas stocking



Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone!