Enough About Me

... as I am not a happy cheese this evening. I had a fine enough time at work this morning, but ran into choppy waters with my WoW friends today. The Knitter is having some socialization issues.

The baby cockatiel is turning into a little bird! Took her out today for some snuggling and was amazed to see her practicing her flapping, standing up tall and stretching her wings, shuffling about, trying to preen and nibbling my fingers. Her little crest goes up and down - it is all gray except for one or two yellow pinfeathers. I totally forgot to get a legband while I was at the birdfarm buying food today, and I was even discussing her with the fellow stocking the shelf (who, by the way, bore an amazing resemblance to Ralph Feinnes. I think I might soon be spending more time there). She is going to be too big for it to fit over her little foot. I also handled Hamlet for a bit today. As long as I am constantly bothering the parents in order to snuggle the chick, I may as well get back to keeping them hand-tame.

Speaking of the bird farm, I realized after a stroll through the flights that the don't have the quantities of cockatiels they once did. I wonder if they are out of fashion? There weren't very many budgies either. I did see vast quantities of conures, though. I would prefer a cockatiel over a conure any day, for while the little guys are cute, flashy and more clownish than 'tiels, they are far too loud for my lifestyle. Even Kiwi can be rather ear-splitting when she wants. They did have quite a few pionus; an adult blue-headed, a bronze wing (rather infrequent in aviculture), 3 Maximillians' (a single adult and a pair), the 3 white capped babies they have had since last winter, and Clyde, the 15 y.o. white capped I have been eyeing for about the same amount of time. None were quite as adorable as my Beaker, although the bronzewing is even more pretty in person than in photos. They are very dark birds, unusual for parrots. In fact, the whole pionus species is very subtly colored. I am continually surprised by how much I adore Beaker -he is just about my dream parrot! He is beautiful, a manageable size, does not scream, talks, and has similar food and housing requirements to the rest of the flock (read - no huge expensive cage, huge toys or specialty food like a large macaw or cockatoo). We had some porch time today and were visited by the local hummingbird (who, I think, was trying to drive me back inside) and saw a house finch in the yard. No goldfinches today, but the local sparrows are raising another crop or 12 of babies in the eaves.