Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

I was just sent a link to a new membership parrot site, canned variety, where for just $10.99 you can get access to SECRET information like this preview!

How to tame your parrot

Taming your parrot is the first step towards training it. Taming your parrot includes making it comfortable in your presence and in its surroundings so that it doesn’t aggressively resist training. Our membership site tells you the secrets of taming your parrot. Here are a few pointers.

[You don't want your parrot to resist training aggressively. Resisting passively requires less first aid.]

• Clip its wings…

[Of course the first thing you want to do is make your bird totally dependent on you and unable to get away.]

• Praise and reward it every now and then…

[Just every now and then. Avoid making it systematic or having any logic behind it because you might inadvertently teach him some behaviors.]

• Carry it around your house or garden. Initially, wear protective gloves when handling your parrot…

[Don't forget the protective gloves! Your bird can't fly, so if he wants to tell you he's had quite enough carrying around thank-you-very-much he will probably bite you, and then you won't be able to keep carrying him around.]

• Keep other pets at a safe distance from the parrot…

[Your parrot might fall off your hand and bite them, and they aren't wearing protective gloves.]

• If it behaves aggressively or bites, don’t shout or punish. A firm ‘no’, over time, does the trick…

[You would not want to punish under any circumstances, because by definition 'punishment' is anything that will decrease a behavior, so be careful that you say 'no' in a tone the parrot finds pleasant. Eventually he will realize that no matter what he does, you're not going to stop carrying him around the freaking house and he'll just give up.]

• Let it roam around the house on its own at times. Just make sure it is safe…

[I personally recommend protective 4-toed gloves]

• Introduce your parrot to other family members…

[Suggested introduction: YOU: "Parrot, this is Sally." SALLY: "Pleased to meet you."]

On the positive side, almost everything is spelled correctly.

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been 7 months since my last blog post.

Carly’s beach flying was on a bit of a hiatus for awhile after I discovered last fall that there were two nesting pairs of Peregrine falcons whose territories overlapped right around Scripps Pier (our usual starting point). So we have been flying a bit around the Cuyamaca College campus — with Piper — and hit the beach again this weekend on a beautiful warm day after a kelp tank dive (see the nice new Kelp Cam!)

Instead of flying by the pier, where there are fewer human distractions, I let her fly around La Jolla Shores area where there is less likelihood of falcon distractions. Lots of pigeons and seagulls there, and fortunately the crows that had been abundant and always harassing her were no longer around. But instead of getting lots of exercise in the air she chose to do just a couple trips and then spend time visiting with people. What can you do? You can lead a bird to the beach…. She met a nice family of surfers who had just been competing in a girls competition — ages 8 to adult — and enjoyed a lot of time being adored. A new trend? Girls??

Carly & Piper's love nest.

On the home front, breeding season has been highly active! Piper (4 years old) has still not quite figured out the mechanics, but they are working on it daily. I don’t know about other Grey couples, but this one is not shy about when or where. Carly has been in full nesting furor. I had to put up a sliding door to block off the kitchen because she was so determined to make use of the kitchen cupboards. I think I have successfully set up an area around the cage that is keeping their interest with lots of stuff to chew on and crawl inside: bottlebrush branches, bamboo cuttings, baskets, a wooden nest box, and other goodies. Right now Carly is over there chewing while Piper is keeping watch. When I walk up he does a very fierce display of floofed feathers. At least I think it’s supposed to be fierce.

The nest watch.

This morning I was biking through Balboa Park, and the San Diego Bird Rescue group was there as usual on Sundays. They have a very nice 7-month old Grey named Siri (great name for a Grey!) who is up for adoption. From what I have heard them say about training it seems the group is on the right track. They have an application process for adoption that includes a home visit, discussion about the responsibilities involved in having a parrot in the home, a visit to their aviary to find a good match, and classes on caring for parrots for those who need them. They directed me to the web site for more info — I asked if they offered classes for other parrot owners — but the web site doesn’t say much. I’d like to know more about how they operate, and their facilities, training methods, etc. It’s nice that they bring a group out to the park to be outdoors and be around different people. (All clipped of course…)

Siri, age 7 months.

A friend is in a difficult situation and needs temporary housing for her African Grey Timneh and her Green-cheeked Conure. She has had to quit a job that involved a lot of standing and lifting because of health problems, and because of that she has had to move in with roommates. Unexpectedly, the landlord just informed her she could not have her birds there. She would like to keep them in the area so she can visit if possible, and expects it will only be a couple of months until she can find another place to live.

The Timneh, Ragga, is one of Wendy Craig’s wonderful birds. He is very active, flighted, and does not normally spend much time in a cage. He is very affectionate with the owner and most other women, and does a lot of talking. It would be best if he could be in a place where he could be out a bit each day. He not very comfortable with the men he’s met so far, and is aggressive toward the conure so they can not be housed together. He has done fine with smaller birds like cockatiels, but she is not sure how he’d interact with a bird his size or larger.

The conure, Dobby, is a sweet little guy who gets along with most anyone and generally likes to be handled. He also is chatty, and is better with being in a cage when he needs to. Both are comfortable traveling, so they shouldn’t be too rattled by a new environment.

We’re going to see if Ragga can stay with Piper and Carly for a while, but I don’t have a large space, and close neighbors on all sides, so if he and Piper don’t get along it won’t be workable.

If you can help with one of these birds temporarily, please drop me an email. It’s hard times these days, and I know this is the kind of situation we all dread facing.

My boy Piper is growing up and getting used to the world. He is the one I rarely took out because he behaved so skittishly around new people or environments, and has shown little interest in going with us. (No flying to the door to come along, like Carly does.) I decided early on to just let him take things at his own pace, and I didn’t know if he’d ever change his preferences. Now he and Carly love the new digs, and both want to be outside all the time. They play outside on the stairs, we do training down in the courtyard every evening, and they can hang out in the trees. I think the way it is semi-enclosed felt comfortable to Piper. However, he has also become a great fan of flying in the nearby park — big rambunctious flights, high and fast, with lots of screaming. For some reason he has never had a big problem with learning to fly down, even though he hasn’t been outside that much. He will often make a few passes if he gets going too fast, but doesn’t hesitate to take the plunge. Perhaps flying like a kamakaze inside my old apartment got him over the fear of crashing. (He certainly crashed often enough.)

In addition to the flying, he is becoming friendly with new people. The other day he was seriously flirting with a neighbor woman on the stairs. We’re talking kisses and the whole nine yards. Fergus the cat was getting quite pissed off at the shift in attention. He is also getting much more comfortable around men, as well as larger groups, and he often goes with Carly and I to the neighborhood pub now. Here they are making out on the stairs:

His behavior change seems to be closely related to the new environment, though I’m not sure exactly why. But I think we’re all happier and more relaxed here, so that may have something to do with it. I would not have thought that moving away from a large, suburban greenbelt area into the heart of the city would be an improvement from the birds’ perspective, but this little piece of garden heaven in the city is unique.

And did I mention there are palm nuts on the property?! (That’s the tree in the background, one of many in the neighborhood.)

As with Carly, I’m glad that I let him take his time with this and “come out” when he felt comfortable. He is actually the same age now as she was when she first started flying at the beach. She showed no interest in getting off my shoulder there for 3 years, including 6 months when she was flying outside at home. It is possible both could have been pushed harder in their training to acclimate sooner, but I personally find it much more interesting, and respectful of the animal, to let them find their own pace. We’re not doing a show, and this is all about their enrichment, not mine. I must say though, it is great to get madman Piper doing some vigorous flying, for the sanity of the whole household!

Playing on the stairs… (Piper goofing, Carly sneaking, Fergus being sneaked upon.)

This is a staple at our house. Everyone has to fight over it: Greys, cockatiel, cats, and me. Some humans might not find it sweet enough, if they are used to a lot of added sugars. You can substitute in any number of things, like shredded carrots or greens, or other fruits or berries. I try to use ones that have the highest nutrient content (dark colored berries or fruits, orange vegetables).

Carly Lu’s Blueberry Mango Bread

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray 9″x11″ pan or 24 muffin tins with cooking oil.

fruit:

On the last day of the big golf tournament in January, I took Carly up to Torrey Pines gliderport. It was too windy for me to practice, but there was a big crowd of spectators, and quite a few of the more advanced fliers in the air. I normally only let her fly a few times around the fields on top, in case she draws the attention of any falcons. She screams like a banshee when she’s flying. Not exactly discreet, and I worry that it will sound threatening if falcons are on a nest on the cliffs below.   Shanti, the Harris Hawk flown by paraglider Kurt Sellinger, has been chased by Peregrines before when she is up in the air with him. None have ever shown up when Carly is out. Until this day.

It was her first flight, and she was quite rambunctious in the strong wind. She’d been up less than a minute, and — according to a pilot who was up between 500-1000 ft at the time — a Peregrine was circling at that height and suddenly took a dive at her. It was very fortunate he didn’t hit the target on his first try. He chased her several laps around the gliderport field and over the canyons. She tried to get down to me a couple times, but couldn’t shake him off her tail so she aborted at the last second. I lost sight of her when she flew behind a hill where some hangliders were parked, and ran in that direction. Men were yelling at the falcon and throwing hats — anything to distract it. I was calling to her and yelling out “where is she??” and kept getting “over there!” from all different directions. Finally someone said, “Behind you!” and THUNK, she landed on my shoulder at full speed and buried herself in my chest.

Peregrine Dive, by G. Castellano

The spectators (including the ones in the air) said she was doing phenomenal flying, turns, and dives to get away from it. I probably saw less than half because she was diving behind the glider shop and into ravines. But I do know one thing — there was no place to land safely for a long distance. No trees or areas to hide. Getting down to me was definitely the safest option. The falcon flight was like nothing I’d seen before, including when Otis and Gizmo (Red-fronted Macaws belonging to Hugh Choi) were chased on the beach. This one was diving at her repeatedly at very high speed, though fortunately not from as great a height as the first attempt.

You hear some people say that having a good trained recall is irrelevant in a raptor attack. And that it may even be dangerous if the bird is focused on recall instead of evasion. I have called Carly back before when I’ve sighted a hawk in the area. She also got to safety on my when she was being chased by a large flock of ravens. Clearly in this case she was attempting to get down to me right away, but she knew when it was and wasn’t safe to land. She may have been able to outrun it eventually, but I have no doubt the chase would have gone on much longer, and with an uncertain outcome.

She was remarkably calm after it was over, walking around with me at the gliderport. Not agitated, and not frozen like parrots sometimes are after a fright. She didn’t show any interest in flying though, and was holding on to my hand with a pretty firm grip!

She will not be flying at Torrey any longer, unless I know for certain from paragliders and birders that the falcons have moved on after nesting season is over. But it looks like they are pretty much year-round here. According to Janet Linthicum, nesting starts in March and fledglings leave the nest in August. We have seen them off the cliffs from October to February also. And there are shorebirds here all year, which appear to be their major prey.

Peregrine at Torrey Pines cliffs

By the way, the last time Carly met up with a Peregrine, several years ago, she was flying with a large number of seagulls and started to get a bit too far away. I called her back and it looked like she was bringing a friend with her. As they approached overhead I realized it was a Peregrine Falcon, flying side by side, about 10 feet apart. She came down and the falcon kept going. Weird.

For a wonderful set of photos of Peregrines in the area, see
Peregrine Falcons at Torrey Pines

Now Carly gets to teach me how to fly.

Stay tuned.

Carly doing safety check of the gliderport.

Here are our instructors:

Some photos from the start of fall flying season.  (Fall flying season: Permissable to shoot stray tourists and high school students cutting class.)

Thanks to newbie flight photographer Frank Rodrick for signing photo rights over to Carly.

[click for larger images]

I just came across some books by Dr. Patricia McConnell, an applied animal behaviorist, that are very intriguing.  One is called The Other End of the Leash: Why we do what we do around dogs. She discusses human-canine communication and reading each others’ body language.  It seems to me it could have some great insights for parrot behavior as well, especially regarding what we humans do around our birds.   I don’t know how many times I’ve had conversations — including with very experienced trainers — where one of us was wondering with frustration what kind of body language we might be sending out that inadvertently reinforces or punishes something our bird does that we don’t intend to.  Here are some of the first sections in the book:

• Little movements have big effects
• Hey Human! I’m trying to tell you something!
• Humans as Random Signal Generators

I’ve just ordered it, but thought I’d pass along the title and link to her blog: The Other End of the Leash, which also has some interesting posts.

Patricia is not of the Millan persuasion, and in other books debunks the “dominance” theory.  She is from an ethology (biological and genetic basis of behavior) background, but her training methods appear to be entirely based in applied behavior analysis and positive reinforcement.

Another book recommendation I have that is more species specific but still has lots of insights worth sharing is a book called Cat vs Cat: Keeping Peace When You Have More Than One Cat, by Pam Johnson-Bennett. A friend sent it to me (thanks Russ mommy!) when I was dealing with the prospect of getting my old kitten used to a new kitten, and then “rehoming” my older cat back into our household after he’d gone AWOL because the old kitten was just wearing him out. I think many of the ideas in here are useful in thinking about working with a multi-parrot household as well.

The concepts are grounded in ABA also, including suggestions for using positive reinforcement to make certain behaviors worthwhile (such as being in the same room together!), using very small approximations to work toward an end behavior, and using “diversionary tactics” (reinforcing alternative behaviors) to prevent unwanted situations.  (And I just noticed one of her books is recommended on Dr. McConnell’s web site!  Small world of animal behavior.)  The recommendations appear to be working.  We went from hissing and growling in all directions to this in about a week:

Gatos negros

Birdwatching

Pam also has a blog and web site with great behavioral tips, many of which can be translated into Parrot.  For example, on her blog is this wonderful post about the dangers of falling into constructs like attributing behavior to anger or spite, instead of relying on what we can actually see:

All about Cats and Dogs: Is your cat mad at you?

Happy reading!

Carly and Piper were home in their cage during the 7.2 quake near the California-Mexico border, while I was off eating bunny cake, and it’s been interesting seeing how they have behaved since then.   When I got home they were a bit jumpy, but nothing too serious.  In San Diego, about 100 miles away from the epicenter, it was definitely the strongest one I’ve been in having lived in California for 33 years. (I missed Northridge, though I lived right at the epicenter of that one for several years).  But it was mainly rattly, a few small things fell over, nothing violent.  The oddest thing was that it lasted so long — about 60 seconds — and got stronger at the end.

Whenever there was a large aftershock (over magnitude 4.5 or so), if Piper or Shiera were sitting on a solid perch they would fly off (Shiera with a loud call) and be jittery afterwards.  If they were sitting on a rope swing or net, they weren’t bothered; probably you can’t feel the shaking when suspended like that.  Shiera normally hangs out in part of the kitchen where her cage stands open, with a gym, ladders, and a boing around it.  After the quake she did not want to go in or on the cage, and just started to go back there today.  It’s quite rattly when it’s bumped.  She had flown onto the big rope net in the other room when I arrived home after the quake.

Piper had a big night spook at 4 am when we had a 5.1 aftershock. That’s just a small rumble here, but he went flying all around in the dark and crashed in the bathroom.  Then he wouldn’t sit on anything high up.  He slept the rest of the night sitting on the bathroom counter, even though there was a boing and his normal sleep perch nearby.  Carly didn’t move from the sleep perch during his scare.

I really didn’t see Carly react to any of the aftershocks at all, though she appeared a little tense that first evening (tense muscles, reacting quickly to sounds).   But when I went to put them in their cage this morning, two days later, the first time since the quake, neither Carly nor Piper would have any of it.  It took me almost 45 minutes to coax them in.  (Brought out the heavy guns — peanut butter — and even that took some coaxing.) It didn’t even occur to me at first why they might be reluctant to get in today, since they normally have to be battled off while I put their foraging food in the cage.  Piper was especially reluctant.

Very unfortunate that they were inside the cage when the quake happened.  At least Shiera was able to fly away from the shaking metal.  But I think they have enough positive associations with it from all the foraging and toys that they should get back to normal quickly.  Providing we don’t have a big aftershock today! (Below: the 1,064 earthquakes we’ve had in this area in the last week. 46 of them were before the big one, the rest after.)

Lots of shaking going on here this week! The big yellow square under the others is the magnitude 7.2 quake from Easter Sunday. (San Diego is just west of El Cajon.)