Posts Tagged ‘bird’

I can’t even imagine how long this took to train and put together.

Last week Sammy, big lummox that she is, let loose with some really horrible gas. Honestly, I’ve never seen (or thankfully, smelled) another dog like this one. It’s not her diet, we’ve tried everything. It’s just her. She can take the most innocent kibble and turn it into toxic waste.

So Sammy lets one go, and I jokingly say to her “Sammy! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Pew Pew pew!”

And, you guessed it. Pratchett LOVES the sound. So now, even when the dog’s not doing it, the parrot’s sounding the alarm.

I’ve been trying to get a video of Pratchett doing this so, of course, he stops as soon as the camera’s out, which is why it’s so far back and showing off my beautiful vacuum and the Halloween Harlot which has yet to get put away.

When I was closer, all he wanted to do was show me just how much noise he could make:

He’s got a real talent, as you can see. My favorite move is when he hangs on the outside of the cage with his beak and one foot and searches around with the other foot, trying to find something to bang around. I took this video first, before stepping back to get the longer one, and I even tried to get him to echo me, but he wasn’t having it.

I know you’ve got to be careful what you say, around parrots, but it’s kind of maddening how they’ll ignore the hundred things you’d like them to say and pick up on the one thing you said in a random moment. I’ve been trying to get him to say “WHO DAT!” for weeks and he couldn’t be less interested, but the dog farts and now I’ll be hearing about it for the rest of my life.

A tiny bird takes a dip in Jackson Square’s fountain.

My morning missive from home:

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Subject:bird breakfast bulletin

Charles Burck to me
8:27 AM (1 hour ago)

Mix of yogurt, mango, strawberry, blueberry, and blueberry jam pretty much a hit after a cautious approach?I think he wanted to be settled securely on the crossbar first. Blueberries rejected, all else consumed w/pleasure. Lapping up the soupy yogurt-mango mix, he made those little gargling sounds he does when drinking water.

We went out last week, walking in Jean Lafitte park, having realized it’d been way too long since we’d done it. Many (many many many) photos were taken, but these were the prizes, I think- caught by Charlie who very patiently took photo after photo of this bird, waiting for it to do something.

Finally, it obliged, taking a short but glowing flight, and he was there to get it.

In the wild, parrots spend most of their waking hours searching out and prying loose their food; having it just plopped into a bowl leaves a bird with a lot of free time on their talons. A bored bird is a terrifying thing- your furniture, your woodwork, your fingers, your eardrums- all are in jeopardy.

So lately I’ve started introducing foraging and more complicated puzzle-type toys, where you’ve got to work for it. He’s still young, so we’re starting simply- these are wadded up water cooler cups with dried fruit inside.

This, obviously, isn’t much of a challenge- the idea is that he comes to understand that one thing can be inside another- and that the reward is worth the effort.

Not much doubt here- this is a boy happy in his work.

We recently went on a little expedition out into cajun country, wanting to see a little of the area’s history and some of the swampland as well. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of the National Parks out that way are still not reopened.

We were just about to start heading home when I saw this massive pink bird in a tree at the side of the road. We pulled over and realized there were a couple dozen of them around. Within half an hour I think we saw more wildlife than we would’ve if the Parks had been up and running.

We took lots of photos and later found out they were Roseate Spoonbills, which run about 2.5 feet high with a wingspan of about 4 feet. They are waders and use their bills to poke around in the water and muck…but hopefully not right under where they were, since there were dozens of alligators beneath them.

Okay, so no one should be terribly surprised that I’m looking around at local bird breeders. There’s this one chick (har har) who was highly recommended by my vet but… frankly, I just don’t get the warm and fuzzies from her.

So I googled her to see if I could find more info and came across her mySpace page. It is horrendous. I’m not sure if I should paste the link, but it resulted in an exchange with my darling daughter and this subsequent email, sent to about a dozen friends & family:

Had a brief disagreement with Alison this morning (surprise!), and I think it?s largely an age gap issue?but she just thinks I?m being an old fart.

Here?s the question- Can you hold what someone puts on their mySpace page against them? I was doing some research on a woman I was considering doing business with, and didn?t find much?but I did find her myspace page (here I included link).

Thoughts? Am I being a curmudgeon with this new fangled interwebthingy?

My arguments:
1) If she is 26, I?m Kate Moss.
2) Regardless?even if we give her the benefit of the doubt, how mature is she to have this page, which is unreadable, migraine-inducing and has a UNICORN cursor?
3) If she has chosen to put her business name in her profile so that it gets picked up by google, than I get to use it to determine whether I wish to use her (very expensive) services.
4) Teaching moment for Alison: what you put out on the web matters to actual grownups- like potential bosses and suchlike.

Alison?s arguments:
1) Everybody lies about their age on myspace, I?m making too big a deal of it.
2) Okay, so her page is awful. So what?
3) It?s not fair to judge her business services on this, since this is her personal page.
4) It?s not like her boobs are hanging out all over the page or anything, therefore it?s not so bad.

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The responses I’ve gotten back pretty much side with me. Some of my favs:

From my brother:

If that picture is the woman you are referring to there is no way she is even in her early 30s. Obviously what she does has to do with birds; maybe that is the sort of industry where that sort of thing is accepted (you know how people expect artists and musicians to be strange??!?!) Just a thought. After seeing that site I wouldn’t use here service unless I had testimonials from a LOT of people that she was good, but thats just me.

From my Godmother:

I?m not much help. I AM an old fart and don?t use my space at all. I tend to agree with you.

From wonderful French Christine:

26, right !

First time on Myspace ever. My conclusion : I’ll never go and visit anything of this time ever again. My eyes hurt. I’m about to throw up.

My personal message to your daughter : “Ali, I’m afraid I’ll have to follow your mom on that one… Being an old fart myself, the foundator of the Old Fart Universal Club, I totally understand why your wonderful and shrewed and experienced mother is reluctant to have any kind of a contact with that lady. First of all, because the fact that everybody lies about something on doesn’t make it right. Why would a real grown up lie on his or her age ? Why would we do that? Our age shows. Everybody can tell. Because we are old and proud of it. We earned it the hard way, girl ! Second, if you make something public, why should people act as if they didn’t know it ? If you want to keep something secret, don’t put it online !

From Carolyn, good friend & one of the most sarcastic people I know that I am not related to by actual blood:

You know what I am going to say. Not a snowballs chance in hell. Just for her web page alone I would refuse to give her my hard earned money. The fact that she is allowed to procreate should be enough for her.

From Ellen, the kindest person I know(so it goes without saying we’re not related):

Thank you for the headache. Between the music and sparkliness of it all, I need a migraine pill! I must be an old fart, too. What you put on the Internet is fair game and, it seems to me, is put there for people to judge you by. Why else would you advertise yourself? There is no line between them when your boss/potential business partner AND HIS/HER CLIENTS can Google you and find unicorn cursors and/or boobs. Or no boobs. Just male friends with no shirts on. I’m considering becoming a Quaker and dragging my kids along with me.

A couple of people were so offended they had to call me up and not just send an email. To paraphrase Michelle, “It was over when I saw the unicorn.”

So far I’d have to say it’s a lesson to the young ‘uns to watch what they put up, because us old farts are going to hold it against them. Let me know how you feel and I’ll take it into account. I’ve got a month or two before I have to make a final decision, and I’m open to suggestions. If you want to email I’ll send you the actual links so you, too, can be blinded in your own personal home!