Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

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