It's that time of year...

After living with parrots for close to 8 years now, you pick up on some things.

Like what the change of season does to maturing birds - and one of the "ugly" sides to living with parrots. (Ugly as in it can get difficult!)

Fall and Spring are the worse here - when hormones flare up, so does their attitude. Being mentally prepared for it helps, as having gone through the ropes a few times.

But somehow, this year it seems different. They all seem more on edge, if that's possible. Piper in particular seems to have a death wish, trying to go face to face with the bigger guys multiple times a day. I have actually found myself putting him in earlier from time to time, for his own safety. And given Fall has just started to show itself, I'm dreading what the next few weeks will hold in store for him. I am definitively longing for him to return to his little lovebug self, perfectly content to perch on my shoulder/head/hand for hours on time - because even that he can't do anymore. He'll run all over me, getting into precarious situations.

With the change in season normally comes molting time and Shade has a few new wing feathers growing in which makes her cranky. She's not as bad as others, but she's definitively not herself. And while she's in that mood she tends to want to perch away from me, which can make her an easier target for Pixel (extra vigilance required!)

Pixel..well she's trying to be opportunistic during these time. She's also a bit more bold which can get her into sticky spots such as trying to get too close to Petey who isn't really any different in all of this (he is also much older) but might try a few more attacks on me if he can. What can I say, he, like others, seems to get somewhat bolder.

Joey so far this year has been pretty ok, although we need to keep a close eye on him since he can be a bit more jumpy and unpredictable.

That leaves us with Zuri - and he seems to be doing the same as Joey. I think being in a "post-collar" mind frame, he might not act as brash as he once did, but who knows how it'll be down the road. He has, however, decided to be more noisy, and that high pitch screech is definitively not the most pleasant sound he's capable of.

Luckily, Léa is still quite young and doesn't seem to react the same way to season change, at least yet. Her time will come too, though.

While in the process of writing this, Pixel went in for trying to get close to Petey one to many times (which caused a general panic), Petey went in for trying to attack me (separate incident) and Piper went in for having flown right into Petey's face (after having tried a few more confrontations prior to it) when the Boy tried to get him to step-up to bring him to his cage. Sigh.