Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

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.)

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:

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.)

Shiera is home! She is in good shape, minus all those nice wing feathers she grew in last winter.

Shiera piggy-backed out of the house Saturday, Nov 7, got brushed by the screen and flew. She spent an hour in the top of a 70 ft eucalyptus tree, got scared out by a crow, then flew high across the park, calling back and forth to me, until I lost sight of her. I put up posters around the neighborhood, called, searched, contacted vets, pet stores, put ads online, in newspapers, on 911 Parrot Alert. She has the best recall indoors of all my birds, but has no experience outdoors at all, on a harness or otherwise. She called to me from the tree (including “come ‘ere! come ‘ere!”) and back and forth to the emergency recall whistle. But she had no idea how to fly down, and her last flight looked very panicky. After a few days, my best hope was that she’d made it down to someone’s yard, who knows where, and they’d taken her in.

It turns out she was found Monday, Nov 9, in downtown La Jolla, about 5 km away, when she dove down next to a coffee shop and landed among some boxes. A couple saw her and took her home. They are actors from NYC, and one is performing in a play here until mid December, so they are just temporary residents. The guy has a cockatiel back home. They went to Petsmart (where I had a poster up) and bought her a nice cage, a bunch of food, and toys. They clipped her wings a bit because she was spooking in the house and they were afraid she’d hurt herself on the windows. Two days later they took her to one of our few board certified avian vets, Dr. Jenkins (where I had left information about my lost bird also). Despite fitting the description to a T, no one there made the connection, but they gave her an exam, a psittacosis test, blood test, and nail trim. AND clipped her wings even more, and bobbed the end off her tail. AND told the couple she was probably a male. This vet has a reputation for being good, but is not well liked. I’m stunned that he — or someone on hs staff — clipped her tail and couldn’t even recognize the difference between a male and female cockatiel!

The couple were considering taking her back to New York, or giving her to his sister who lives in town. For some reason today he thought to check Craigslist. He called and said she looked exactly like the bird in the picture. I’m very grateful they called after falling in love and taking very good care of her.

Here’s where she was found (she was heading east, very high and fast when we lost contact):

[oops -- cancelled idisk, picture back soon!]

So, my little house bird has travelled further than either of the Greys ever has! The biggest distance Carly has ever gone is less than a mile (1.6 km) down the beach. The furthest away she has been when she was missing (i.e., taken in by someone) is about a quarter mile from where we were on the beach.

So we are all happy now. But this winter, instead of learning how to fly, Shiera is having to learn how NOT to fly. She’s done quite a few take-offs and clunks down to the ground. But I have all her ladders back up, and she just walked across the floor and climbed the ladder up to her little house where she’s sitting with Rocco now.

It’s terribly bad timing to be unflighted (and not really knowing it) since we have a 4 month old very hyper kitten in the house. More remodeling on the horizon I think!

BTW, Shiera is named after the woman I adopted her from, and also the DC comic action hero, Shiera, Hawkgirl!

I don’t always take Piper into stores like I do with Carly, because of his tendency to freak out at things.  I try to pick times when it’s not too busy.   But late last night, making a quick stop at the neighborhood liquor store (greeting: “Hi Bird!” — whether I have a bird with me or not) I took both kiddos in with me.  The 5 police cars in the parking lot should have been a tip-off.  There were not just MEN in the store, in a tight space (recipe for freakout), but Many. Big. Loud. MEN. With guns.

Which according to Piper is fine.  Just no big loud men with beers please.

• other acclimation posts

Welcome new readers from West Valley Bird Society in Los Angeles county where I spoke last night about my journeys down the bird training maze. After a loonnnng maze through 4 1/2 hours of Friday afternoon traffic, followed by an uncooperative AV projector partnership, it was a fun talk to give. (Intimate, shall we say?) Always delightful to have lots of audience input and questions.

I also enjoyed seeing so many social birds (Carly approves!) and especially enjoyed meeting Francis, the friendly Fancy Fan-tailed pigeon. What a beauty, and an expert beak wrestler. I’m sure I will have another pigeon again someday!

I will post a link to the presentation on this page when I have it uploaded.

(I also got the cool October poster )

The building where I work has a floor plan like a rectangular ring: offices (36) along the outside walls, labs on the inside, and a wide corridor in between. 422 feet of corridor in fact, in a big loop. Yeah, wow. And by the time I leave at night I’m the only one on the floor.

So the last two nights I’ve started flying Piper there — it’s fantastic! We can do 150 ft straight line recalls, big loops where he’s out of sight 3/4 of the time, and loop around as many times as we want for stamina building. I hadn’t thought about it much because Carly never wanted to fly in the building (except to go visiting neighboring labs); she’s always preferred being outdoors, even as a youngster on walks. But for Piper it’s perfect. He’s already very good at flying down; the very first time he attempted it from a tall eucalyptus tree he did it like a champ. And he’s fearless with maneuvering tight turns. But he still spooks far too often outdoors for my comfort (or his) and his body language can go from relaxed to tense very quickly; it’s a danger that I want to take my time with to avoid, especially in a young flyer. His recall inside and outside is great, but that doesn’t help if there’s a panic flight. So getting lots of flying practice inside, while continuing to mature with handling unfamiliar things outdoors, is a very good combination right now. I have a feeling it will increase his confidence level in general too.

He was panting after two laps last night, so it will be fun to monitor changes in that.

That’s longer than the Infiite Corridor (825 ft)