Pale Male and Octavia's Pin Feathered Little Guy, and Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot Chews His Way Into a Drawer

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
One of Pale Male and Octavia's eyasses works on a pin feather.  Actually all the new feathers eyasses go through in babyhood rather drive them mad.  If you've not done it, watch a hawkcam a night when the eyasses fledgling feathers are coming in.  They sometimes spend the whole night trying to deal with the pin feathers. 

I'd been told that hawk parents did not preen their young and I admit I've not seen them do it in the daytime, but I have seen them doing it many times at night on cams.  In some cases if an eyasses sleep becomes too disturbed by them Mom will work on particularly bothersome ones.

I thought that things might be calming down, at least Silver hadn't bombed me lately, but no, when I came in to check on him he was hanging off the cupboard door in front of his currently chosen shelf...excuse me, cavity.

Then he flipped round and I got ready to duck. 

Instead he flew over to his old stand by the clean laundry.  (I was actually able to catch up a little on  the laundry while he was sleeping last night.  Woooo Hoooo!)

Considering Silver's expression I decided not to push my luck and retreated to a safer room.

 1:41 pm  He turns his head and gives me a look.  I tense.

And though Silver keeps one eye on me he turns back enough to keep the other eye on the bird feeder.

It is a gray chilly day, but there are some signs of Spring.  The Goldfinch are sporting their Spring colors...

...and a lactating squirrel is about to leap the baffle and raid the sunflower seed feeder.  (Hey, she needs the calories.)

And as all seems well, I head back to my chores.  

I'm typing away when I realize I've been hearing a sort of wood grinding noise for awhile.  What is that?  It stops.

Click, clakity, click...geeerrrrrind

That's it!  What IS that sound?

My first choice as to where to look for mysterious sounds...the laundry room of course.  I go in.  Look around.  No parrot.  No more grinding wood either.

"Silver.   Silver?"  

Where is he?

I look behind things.  I look under things.

No parrot.  Right.  

Wonder if he is back excavating under the chest of drawers?  I'm in the process of getting down to look under it when...

Is there an eye looking at me from that drawer?  I change angles.

Not only is there an eye, I'd say there is a parrot head  and likely the rest of him.  He looks a little squashed and he didn't get in from this side.  Did he really chew his way in from underneath?  I gently pull it a touch more open.

Looks like he could use it a touch more open.  Another gentle pull.

Lookin'  kinda grumpy  there, Silver.   Actually he looks rather like the F word might be forthcoming.  Parrots are experts at picking up swear words...anything with high expletive drama will be copied.  It is in their nature.

Ah he seems to be accompanied by some wood splinters.  What a surprise.  One in his feathers...two visible in the drawer...  Will have to check that out when his hormones have settled down.  I don't think moving furniture is in the cards right now.

Still lookin' grumpy?  No perhaps stunned is a better word for that expression.  Hon'  you did do it to yourself.  Not fun squashing yourself into a full drawer from the back or the bottom?

 Sorry.  I know.  Nobody likes to be mocked at a time like this.

Do you want to go in the other room?  

He steps up so I figure that's a yes.

 Squirrel is already in residence but they often sit here companionably together. It is the best seat in the house for the southern exposure bird feeder.  Though currently Squirrel is considering leaping on Pyewacket, the (other) cat. 

 Eventually Squirrel sleeps and Silver is content enough to stay put.

Thank goodness.

And tomorrow, more hawk news plus what do female African Grey Parrots act like at this time of year!

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot and the Laundry Room Cupboard Battle, Part 2, the Washington Heights Red-tails and a Trio of Water Loving Species

As those of you, who visited the blog yesterday will remember ,  Quicksilver being a mature African Grey male, is drenched in hormones and he is bound and determined to guard a "cavity",- in this case, a shelf in the laundry room. (If you haven't seen yesterday's blog, scroll down and read the first part then come back up for this one.

You will also remember I ended up nailing a blanket across the entrance to the laundry room, while holding an umbrella over my head to avoid parrot dive bombs.   The laundry room  doesn't have a door hence the blanket so Silver couldn't go back in, inhabit a shelf "cavity", and do fly outs at my head some more..

Well, Silver got up this morning, looked at the blanket over the door and decided revenge would be sweet.  So periodically he landed on my desk, my nightstand, where ever and attempted to chew paper, books, pens, bobby pins...anything he could get his beak on out of sheer pique. 

I covered the desk and it's contents with a sheet.

I also covered the keyboard of the computer with a towel.  He once popped every single letter, number, whatever, off the keyboard.  Sure they'd pop easily back on.  But who knew exactly where each one went.  I had to have a friend take a picture of her keyboard and give it to me so reconstruction could occur. 

Silver says, "Want carrot".  I get him a carrot and put the carrot and the parrot on his play area by the window so he can watch the outside birds at the feeder while he eats.

He appears unimpressed but decides to eat the carrot anyway.

Suddenly about an hour later I look at Silver's play area....no parrot.

The bottom of the blanket over the door is in a different position.  The little bugger has gone under.

I go to the laundry room and there he is sitting as above, with one foot on a box of Arm and Hammer and the other on a can of Resolve carpet cleaner in a bottom shelf, looking baleful.  

He does not fly at my head.

Fine.  I leave him there.

  I go back into the laundry room to check on him.

11:25:42 AM  Well, my my, he's gotten the cupboard door open, he's hanging by his feet...and staring at me.

 11:25:48 AM  Silver puts his head down, and appears to be attempting to slide his feet toward the unattached corner of the cupboard door.  He loves the top shelf of the top cupboard best.

11:25:58 AM  He looks at me again.  I guess he doesn't want me to see his technique.  Fine.  I head for the living room.

11:44:45  AM   I return.  Silver is hanging from his beak feet scrabbling for purchase.

Is he stuck?  Did he go up the side of the door but now that he's no longer in reach of the side while his beak is on the top of  the door...is he having a problem?  His expression is either very intent or...

11:45:03 AM   I come round the door for a different angle.  His feet continue to grope for purchase.  Is his beak stuck?  Maybe.  I better get him down.  I get the perch stick and put it under his feet.  They grip.  He turns around and flies at my head.

Stuck or not he didn't appreciate the help.  He is on the dryer now, feathers on end, glaring at me, crouched for another pounce.

I leave the laundry room.

2:13:07 PM  I return to the laundry room.  Silver is still, or back on the dryer, one foot up, dozing.

I say, UP.  He steps up onto my hand nicely.  I take him to his cage for a nap.

And while he is napping I decide I have to do something so he doesn't get stuck on the cupboard door again.

While Silver is sleeping I take the perch stick, actually a length of PVC pipe, and zip tie it to the handles of  the cupboards.

OK, I know it isn't foolproof.  Conceivably he can even stand on the pipe and clip the zip ties off with his beak. Zip Zap. Though he couldn't stand there and clip the second one...likely anyway.  It would take awhile...

With a parrot there isn't much that is parrot proof.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

In the meantime,

Photo courtesy of http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/

Rob Schmunk, of Morningside Hawks took a trip over to see the Washington Heights Red-tails and yes, there has been a hatch.  For more click on the link under his photo above.

But while I was looking at the photos I noticed that Dad has a very long cowl.  The length of it over the front of the shoulders of this hawk is somewhat rare.

                      Photo courtesy of http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/
See how the color of Dad's head continues down past his shoulders?  The only hawk in Manhattan that I know of with this characteristic is Isolde, one of the Morningside Park hawks at the Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine.  And the Mom of the Washington Heights nest appears from the photos to have the physicality of Pale Male's line.

All conjecture of course but we do know now that Red-tailed  Hawks do tend to come back and nest in or near their original natal territory. 

 And Last But Not Least...Wisconsin Waterfowl...taken near dusk.
And I will be the first to admit my waterfowl identification skills are rusty...Blue Winged Teal...

  And the mystery birds of the day, two little shore birds...

This one?

And this one?  

Both taken near the end of the day on the Mill Race of the Sugar River, Brodhead, WI

Anyone want to take a crack at them?

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne 

Pale Male Hangs Out, and Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot Guards the Chest of Drawers

     photo courtesy of palemale.com/

  Pale Male and a helicopter.  Note  the Monarch of Central Park isn't phased in the least.

(Blogger is once again malfunctioning.  Sorry for any inconvenience. ) 

Longtime NYC hawkwatcher and astronomy buff Mitch Nussbaum  nabs a shot of Pale Male.

  I was back in NY last weekend for a family re-union. I found him atop the Carlyle at 5 past 3. I feel lucky to see him, for the park was packed at that time, and the other birds were being skittish. I always wanted to image PM with this camera. Truly-Mitch
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51058083@N03/9544374648/ (Preview)

Now the strange occurrence of the splinters on the laundry room floor and Silver, the African Grey Parrot, clicks, menaces, and charms. 

 It all began, well it didn't really all begin here, but it was the first rather mysterious occurrence.  Suddenly splinters began to appear on the floor of the laundry room.

How odd.

Well okay, perhaps not as I live with a parrot and Silver had decided that the laundry room was a great place to hang out.  Hence the towels covering the furniture.

Plus during the day, the curtains are open and there is a sunflower jungle just outside the window.  Therefore there are many bird visitors to watch.  Plus chipmunk skirmishes, squirrel sex, and the occasional crow looking in a Silver.  Kind of a in the moment nature cam for parrots.  I thought that this was the attraction.  Silly me.

The splinters kept appearing though I lifted the towels looking for secret gnawing...nothing.

Wait, lets backtrack a couple of weeks...just past Silver's chest of drawers perch and to the left, is the small downstairs bathroom.  Whenever I went into it, Silver would fly off the chest, walk in the door, say very sweetly, "Hi hon."  and pinch my big toe with his beak.  

Very amusing.  At least he thought so as he'd then laugh.

Well the other day when I came out of the bathroom and past the chest the other direction he followed me on foot.  Hmmm.

And he'd keep coming...

And he kept coming.  The toe pinching thing was getting a little  aggressive no matter how sweetly he said, "Hi hon."  I told him to knock it off.  (The debris on the floor behind him contained some splinters but it was also the result of a sunflower knosh.)

The next time I passed through the laundry room I heard this weird clicking sound coming from under the chest of drawers.

Guess who?

Silver appeared from under the wreck of chest of drawers.  Note the different posture from the previous advance.  This posture is aggressive.  Do Greys actually have an innate warning noise that is a click?  He'd never done it before.  

Note all the splinters.  Silver appears to be excavating a nesting cavity under the chest  though I'd never caught him under it before.  The little sneak.

I'd kept walking and evidentally passed some invisible line as he then, neck feathers still standing turned back to his "nesting cavity".

 

And back under he went.

Gnawing sounds wafted from under the chest.  I said "Silver! What are you doing?" in one of my best I'm-the-boss-voices.
We'd already had this argument about him opening the kitchen cabinets and removing things, which he'd lost.  (I put up a magnetic screen door so he couldn't fly into the kitchen anymore.)

Blogger has frozen when it comes to photos...

 MORE TO COME...

DB

Could Eradibait be the Answer to Stopping Secondary Rodenticide Poisoning in Raptors? And an African Grey Parrot Cam!

Earlier today as I was checking my email, I cruised past the chat room connected to the NYTimes City Blog and Hawk Cam which features Rosie, Bobby, and the two new fuzz heads of the Washington Square Park nest.

I suspect that due to the loses of so many beloved Red-tailed Hawks in New York City, when the words rat poison scrolled by the corner of my eye on the chat, heart in mouth, I focused.  What?  

WHAT INDEED?  Is this a DREAM???

There is actually a rodenticide, apparently non-toxic to everything except rats and mice and there is absolutely no chance of secondary poisoning from it?


Number one, this I had to see!  

Number two, why didn't we know about this before?

My apologies for not nabbing the screen name of the person who was the fount of this information I just grabbed the link and went.

The PDF was on the website of the Barn Owl Trust in the U. K. who are out to save Barn Owls from secondary poisoning.  Barn Owls also are often victims just like our Red-tails...and our owls and other raptors as well.


After comprehensive information concerning the first generation poisons, the second generation poisons, then came the usual first step sane suggestions. 


Number 1-the need to eliminate food sources.
Number 2-the need to eliminate areas of rodent entry. 

Then came Number 3- the folks at the Barn Owl Trust's  recommendations for rat killing.  

Their recommendations were...?


Number 3. Use non-toxic products such as Eradibait (see box)
or alternative methods of killing such as traps, cats,
terriers, ferrets or shooting.

(They're so British and so practical you can just see the tweeds and the sensible shoes can't you.) 


Though Central Park has used traps,  an officially sanctioned Rat Killing Day once a month in which you bring your black- hearted assassin  Fox Terrior, Fred,  or James, your Jack Russel, your pet ferret Francis, or Francine your fluffy Persian cat lusting for blood, and of course your rat killing rifle just didn't seem to be in the cards.


BUT ERADIBAIT ?  COULD THIS BE THE ANSWER WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?

They said (SEE BOX), and I was on it!
 

Eradibait

Also sold as -

Growing Success Rat & Mouse Killer

NON-TOXIC PRODUCTS

Made entirely of food-grade natural vegetable

materials with NO added toxins or artificial

chemicals.

Environmentally safe.

Highly effective against rats and mice (when used

properly) and apparently safe for other species.

Humane

For more information and a list of suppliers

please visit www.eradibait.com or phone the distributors

Ilex EnviroSciences on:

01673 885175

You ask, how does this stuff work?  

"It coats the lining of a specific part of a rodent’s lower gut.  The coating of the “fine hairs” in the lower gut called “villi”, disrupts the message system of the rodent’s brain causing it to stop drinking.  This leads to dehydration, blood thickening, kidney dysfunction, coma and eventual death."

And as rodents can’t vomit and get rid of it, there we are.

Death occurs in 4 to 7 days.

Okay, supposing this really works and is rodent specific, what about other members of rodentia?  What about squirrels?  Can a squirrel vomit?  (I have that query out to some squirrel people. )  Or perhaps more to the point,  they don’t have the same breakdown of brain signals that rats and mice do from coated villi.  Or we use squirrel proof bait boxes.

Wow.

Here are the links.  Check them out.  I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping to see a safe avenue of rat control plus a new rat control brochure in our future. 

http://www.eradibait.com/

http://www.eradibait.com/EradiBait_FAQ_SHEET.pdf

Remember hawk watching Jackie Dover of Oklahoma?  She's sent a heads up about a cam that watches Bibi an African Grey.  Bibi has quite the vocabulary to say nothing of personality.  She's well worth a look.

In fact, I can't wait to show the cam to Quicksilver, the Grey who lives with me and see his reaction.  He is constantly attempting to get other birds to talk. The resident pigeons though proven to be extremely smart in any number of ways don't have the double larynx which allows parrots to speak English, and are therefore  a sore disappointment to him. 
Check out Bibi's cam by clicking the link.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Watch-the-Birdie

Happy Hawking!

Donegal Browne

Pale Male, Pale Beauty, and Quicksilver's Vent

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

Pale Male folds his wings and brakes. I'd seen abrupt descents, in this case to the Carlyle, from a distance, but this photo shows the fold and angle of the wings necessary to make it happen. Pale Male is indeed a master flyer.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

A little later Pale Male and Pale Beauty copulate on the ledge above the balcony rail on Linda, 920 Fifth Ave., on which Pale Male so often perches to survey his domain.

Looking at this pair of nether regions, reminded me that I had a question about another nether region.

Quicksilver's vent.

Now it is a bit of African Grey owner folk wisdom that an owner can sex their mature African Grey by looking at the bird's vent. If there are red feathers beside it the parrot is thought to be male. If no pink or red is in the area the bird is thought to be female.

Silver is definitely male. He had a blood test done for DNA. But a blood test isn't all that fun for a bird. At the time he had some health issues so he had to have blood drawn anyway, the vein in their neck is used, so we just added the test for sexing onto the list.

The nest issue is of course is that the bird has to be sexually mature. By the time a Grey is sexually mature, around 7 to 9 years, if he's perched somewhere and you attempt to get your eyes enough below his tail to look, he turns around rapidly and looks at you like, "WHAT are you DOING?

You haven't been creeping around before looking under his tail previously, and as these birds are prey animals they don't really like anybody to touch their tail in the first place, and I assume there is a natural suspicion that you might be up to no good back there doing whatever it is you're doing.

And when Silver is wrapped in a towel at the vet's office for an exam, he is growling and struggling so, or running around the floor like a mad thing or flying circles around the light fixture in the ceiling that I've never remembered to take a peek.

So the other day when he was climbing up a seated friend's bluejeans to say hello, and paying me no never mind, I grabbed the camera. He did turn his head around to check what I was doing when I got low and close but if he had turned completely around, as he normally would have, he'd have lost his grip on the cloth, ended up on the floor (only less than a foot away) but he was bound and determined to make the climb for some tickles so I got the shot.

And indeed Silver who is a male African Grey does have reddish feathers around his vent.

Now we need some other Greys to add to the sample. If you have or if you know any African Grey Parrots, not all are as concerned with their dignity as Silver is, so I hope you'll have an easier time getting a look, I'd like to know what you find out.

They have to be sexually mature, and it would be helpful if their sex was known by other means. Obviously in females they may have laid an egg and in males there are other behaviors that owners may have noticed and of course they can now sex a bird with feathers instead of blood, though that test is not thought to be nearly as reliable. And there is the blood test. By what means the bird was sexed would also be helpful with your information.

Let me know. And thanks in advance for scrutinizing parrot vents. (By the way if the vent is dirty the bird is ill and should immediately see a vet.)

Donegal Browne