Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

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.)

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)

Carly made a new friend flying today, a Willet. They’re about 16″ high with long legs. She called to him repeatedly with a dog-calling type whistle while they were flying.

By the way, there are some amazing photographs of birds, especially shorebirds, at Morris’ site, Birds As Art

How do you find a source of training advice you can trust? Is the bird training world really as brutal as some make it out to be, wrought with conspiracies against individuals, professional jealousy, and continual arguing over methods? Who do you believe?

No one. That’s right, no one. All the highly respected trainers I have met or seen in action do not work in isolation. It’s not a huge community, and most bird trainers from zoos and shows know each other — the “degree of separation” probably averages 1 or 2. Attending the IAATE meeting in Cincinnati this year, the collegiality among trainers from different parts of the country — and the world — was even greater than I expected, and I learned as much from talking to people as I did from the talks. If there’s a conspiracy out there to shut out particular trainers, it must be super secret, because no one I’ve ever met knows about it. Or perhaps more likely is that you reap what you sow, and those who cultivate sound training practices, professional friendships and sharing of information earn that respect.

Avoid: Sites [trainers] that lack any references or affiliation to other materials and professionals known in the field. Established professionals usually work together in a cooperative and/or collaborative way with other recognized professionals. This usually includes references to other sources of information and products on their sites in addition to their own. — Barbara Heidenreich, Good Bird Blog

Observing the trainers I have learned the most from, it’s also striking that they rarely toot their own horns, claim to be “the best,” or that they are the only one to ever do this or that. They do not make promises about training outcomes, or take ownership of established methods by branding them as their own. Training is a science, and like other sciences, is built on what has come before. Good practitioners recognize this. “Revolutionary” is pretty much reserved for those exercise machines advertised late at night on infomercials. The art and science of training is an ongoing learning process that takes patience. It really is true that “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Anyone who believes they don’t need to learn more is only at the outer layer of a very large onion. (To paraphrase Donkey.)

Continued education, and close mentorship with respected, well-known professionals in the field is paramount. . . . Courtesy, reliability, and accuracy are also trademarks of the “expert”, as is willingness to share freely their knowledge. — Animal Education Foundation

These are some things I ask about trainers:

• Can they give you good references? If not, run, don’t walk. Expert trainers work with others and never stop learning, whether it is through informal relationships or formal collaborations. Any good trainer should be able to provide several names of professional trainers who can vouch for their ability. Talk to them, and ask them about the other references as well. Is this trainer someone who has really made a difference?
• How do they care for their own animals? Do they know about mental and environmental enrichment, and practice it? Do they feed a balanced and varied diet that includes fresh food? A good deal of training is about relationship building and general standards of care — what happens outside the training session does matter.
• Is there a strong emphasis on fast and/or easy? This is typically an indicator of exaggeration, a shallow understanding of training principles, or over-reliance on weight management.
• Who have they learned the most from? Who has had the biggest influence on their training, and why? Can they recommend to you a few other good sources of training information? Every single trainer I know who is respected among their peers can and will refer you to others that you can learn from as well. While it’s good to work with a single trainer on specific problems to avoid giving mixed signals to your birds, any good mentor will encourage learning as much as you can from other sources they trust.

. . .

With the internet there is the possibility of sharing information now as never before, but it also opens up the door to just about anyone who wants to call themselves an expert. The cream of the crop among trainers are those that can convey more than just instructions; they demonstrate the principles they are teaching in every interaction with birds. It’s a rare gift, but well worth seeking out those who have it.

I just got back from a 6 day trip, and when Carly was younger she was so unfazed by me leaving that I seriously wondered if it mattered at all that I was gone.  But since she started seasonal feather snipping at 3 years old she has also been snipping when under stress.   Her seasonal snipping was reduced to almost nothing with the help of lots and lots of foraging (for most all her food) as well as lupron shots every 4-6 weeks during the spring.  Since then her feathers have been growing back in nicely, with just a few exceptions, all of which are stress-related: me leaving town for a week (twice), and the death of another pet in the household.

This is her at her worst, after I was away for a week at the IAATE meeting in February; she stayed at Tex’s house with a pet sitter and did a lot of feather damage, both snipping and plucking.

The next snipping event occurred in mid-April, after she had stopped for about 6 weeks. It lasted 36 hours, starting the evening my vet came to the house to put my cat to sleep (after battle with lymphoma). This was such a short duration and intense bout of snipping it’s hard to see it as coincidental.

When Grace and Roelant visited at the beginning of June, many feathers had molted out and were starting to grow back in. That continued through July and into August.

She was a velcro bird when I was packing for my last trip, and for the first time gave me an enthusiastic greeting when I arrived home (instead of the cold shoulder). The snipping is not as bad as before on the belly, but she did crunch her upper wing feathers quite a lot.

During both trips she was with Piper, with lots and lots of foraging material. The latest trip she stayed at home, with familiar people taking care of her, and her snipping started the third day, immediately upon hearing me talk to her over speaker phone. (Note to self…. ) She had already been behaving oddly, including hanging upside down rubbing her back on the cage, even with the door open; something she’s never done in front of me.

Since I’ve been home she hasn’t touched a single feather except for normal preening, and is carefully de-sheathing some newly grown feathers.

It was nice back when she didn’t notice I was gone! I’m not sure what can be done to make these trips less stressful. Perhaps a few short overnighters to break the routine that every time I leave it’s for a week. But then when it gets to be day 3, day 4 on a longer trip…? I wonder if it’s possible to train an alternate behavior for stress relief.

Before restarting outside with the harness on Piper I want to build up a strong history of positive experiences. So in this phase I’m doing our usual indoor recalls with it on, giving bonus treats, and giving him dinner while wearing it.

If he happens to have a bad experience outside or gets spooked, I don’t want there to be such a strong association between outdoors and harness that he doesn’t want to put it back on.

A very different training experience than with Carly. She was calmer outside from day one, so there was very little risk of anything associated with the outdoors becoming an aversive.

This is not from day one, but day two, after coming home at age 4 months. In the background is the rest of the gang, Fergus the cat at right, Moby my homing pigeon walking on the path at the left, and Ripley the dog in the center (over Carly’s head).

* No, she is not on any kind of restraint here. She was always so calm and stuck to me it never even occurred to me that she should be on a harness (at the time I didn’t even know such a thing existed). She was also given an extremely severe clip at the store, so she literally couldn’t fly, period. In a very stiff wind it might have been possible, but we don’t get much of that here so it was easy to avoid. As her wings started to grow out, and before I learned about training, I was very fortunate that she was never inclined to take off.

For more information about using a harness, see the Complete Harness Training Series of blog posts.

Piper had his first exam at the vet today, and the doctor said he looked a little fat. I didn’t think that could be true, since he is barely over his newly-weaned weight from a year ago, but he thought he looked a bit chubby around the pectoral area. Then when he got to the physical exam he felt Piper’s chest and said, “Ah, muscles!”

He has said before that he rarely sees birds who fly enough to have developed pecs. Kind of sad that even a good, experienced avian vet sees muscles so seldom that he doesn’t recognize them by sight.

During the exam and nail trimming Piper did a stunning performance of non-stop growling, in between flying loops around the office. Carly went first, and acted (as usual) like she goes there for social visits every day.