SIX budgies, a Conure, and a fiddle

[Laurasea]

Can't get enough! more pictures! More happy updates@

 

[fiddlejen]

So for some time, my Sunny had been acting jealous whenever I would practice fiddle. To the point it was discouraging me from practicing. Previously she always liked my fiddle playing, as do the budgies, but for some time she had decided to be jealous of the large creature that took up HER shoulder space and sings to me...

However more recently she decided she likes my playing after all. Apparently she has re-realized it is part of me, singing To Her. (Well, she will No longer remain on my other should when I play, like she used to, way-back-when.) When I get out my fiddle, she immediately flies to her cage and takes up her spot on rope perch in the back. If I take too long to get myself set-up, she yells angrily. But once I get started, she will dance around excitedly, occasionally ringing her bell or, rarely, contributing a yell.

I am again, as previously, required to do any practicing in full-view of all my birdies. The budgies arrange themselves as an audience -- although, with the babies full-grown, it is less obvious, as they spread out across the room.

Whenever I look up while playing, the budgies will be sitting attentively across the room, watching or singing along.

So about a month ago, one Sunday I had not practiced the hymns. I thought they were familiar & comfortable tunes, I was just gonna quick-review before church on Sunday.

Well. Two of them were fine. But one of them... I know I've played it before. But maybe from a different book? Or, maybe at a time when I had been diligently practicing.

Anyway, one of the hymns was in the key of Too Many Flats. For anyone reading this who doesn't play fiddle - that means, All the Notes are in the Wrong Places.

So i figured - good thing I at least allowed a little review time before church. This many flats will be tricky, but I'm sure I know this hymn.

And, I tried. My fiddle has five strings, sometimes flats work better an octave down; tried that also.

Tried for a while. I could tell it wasn't working. But i Persisted! Concentrating on the notes, trying (and failing) to find the right ones. Until, all the sudden.... I realized... the budgies were No Longer sitting attentively across the room.

In fact, they were zooming back & forth past my head!

Not only that - and what had finally gotten my attention - one of them had managed to give me a good THWACK! in the head on their flyby.

And yes, that THWACK! was deliberate. These are my baby budgies. (Full-grown babies now, of course.) They've been flying all their lives. They know how to fly and have never Ever "crashed" into me. Not even when I'm moving around, much less sitting there concentrating.

So a THWACK! in the head while i was practicing. Yep. That was Definitely deliberate! Definitely expressing an opinion.

I could easily translate from birdie-language. "OMG STOP that horrible NOISE, stop it NOW!!!!!"

Hahaha. If they would've had tomatoes I guess they would've been throwing them.

Well I took their advice. I stopped practicing and headed off to church.

I did not attempt to play that hymn at church, nor in anyone else's hearing that morning!!

 

[fiddlejen]

Shirt Deco Bird

(Just wanna note - I chose the pic to highlight HER not me. My teeth are not usually that brown; i had some coffee just before!)

 

[Cottonoid]

The best accessory!

 

[Laurasea]

gorgeous green shirt I so love green!
Beautiful picture all around! You joy and love shine bright as your parrots feathers!

 

[fiddlejen]

gorgeous green shirt I so love green!
Beautiful picture all around! You joy and love shine bright as your parrots feathers!

Thank you, that is so very nice of you to say!

 

[fiddlejen]

Sunny says,
“After a shower, I like to enjoy snaccs in the sunshine!’

 

[fiddlejen]

A rare picture with Four of the budgies together in frame, and in-focus:

 

[fiddlejen]

My drink has been garnisheed!

 

[Cottonoid]

And a perfect garnish it is!

And wow your budgies look like they had a meeting about the photo shoot. What a great picture!

 

[fiddlejen]

Sunny is orange. Sunshine colored. She does love orange food! At this point she also assumes she loves anything that comes in the plastic-clamshell containers (like the salad mixes come in). Sometimes she is wrong -- but, if so, she likes to try to chew the container anyway.

Well yesterday I brought home some chopped cantaloupe in one of those containers. I don't get canteloupe often, but had a taste for it.

Well she was, uh, "helping" me put away groceries, and when saw the canteloupe-in-container, she turned into a compass. No fussing nor yelling, just a true-north focus on the container...

Well how could I resist? (Plus I was a bit hungry myself.) Opened the container, took a piece for myself, offered her a piece.

Offered her a piece....rrriiiigghtt.... ha ha ha... she was Not Interested in A PIECE. She wanted the CONTAINERFUL!

Climbed right in. Yes, she had to get her feet all over every piece. Also needed a Little Bite from Each Piece. ONce she had satisfied herself that she had Claimed All the Canteloupe - THEN while standing atop it all, THEN it was time to intercept the canteloupe pieces on their way to my mouth....

(p.s. Did i say she got her feet all over the canteloupe? Maybe I should rephrase that: canteloupe all over her feet. And wings, and wherever else. So, of course, after the canteloupe we had to finish up with a nice splashy bath.)

 

[fiddlejen]

Some thoughts about communication.

Was telling some of my budgie stories to a friend. Who asked if I was possibly imagining some of the things Jefferson communicates to me. (No. The answer is that Jefferson, tiny little budgie, is Very good at communicating with me. NOT imagination.)

Then this week I have been noticing, I think Calliope MIGHT be trying to communicate with me... and I have NO CLUE what she is trying to say. NONE. I mean, maybe she is just being random? Just, like, flying at me randomly?

I mean. She's aggressive toward the other budgies. I think it's because, now that she has had one clutch of babies, the ONLY thing she really wants in life, is to have more. I kinda think she might be a little... well... not fully stable? I have separated her before and might need to do so again. I do have a large enough cage with close bars now, she could just have her own cage alone, and this is probably what I might do.

So recently I started working to be more a part of the budgie-flock. Jefferson loves this, he is SO VERY PLEASED. I will stand by the cages, resting my head & hands on the edge, pretending to be one of them, and they will all come and convocate with me. I have actually had Jefferson once or twice land on me when I was doing this with Sunny on my shoulder. Jefferson!!!! Landed on ME!!!!! OMG OMG!!!!!!!!

And well over the past week now, Calliope has started flying at me. AT me. I can't figure this out. Jefferson will fly around me, in a very "flock shepherd" sort of way, which he does with the others too. Out of all the budgies, Calliope is the least-good flyer. Even with the younger ones clipped! They can't go as far nor as quickly -- but they still fly better. Calliope is kinda all-over-the-road when she flies.

So Calliope is aggressive, and flies poorly. She used to chew the windowsills, definitely got a lot of the paint, before I lined them with aluminum foil and provided nest logs to chew instead. And she is not to the point of out-n-out poisoning BUT i wonder if she has neuro deficits now from eating some of the old paint? She is definitely instigating violence toward the other budgies, and is probably gonna get a permanent assignment, soon, to own separation cage. But she does still seem to be flying AT me at time, like she wants to communicate, but i can NOT figure out what she wants to tell me.

When Jefferson looks like he Might come to me, I use a special soft voice and say something like, "ooh, Jefferson, would you like to join us?", etc (us being me and Sunny-on-my-shirt). And on a few special, rare occasions, he has done so. Which, thrills me, and which Sunny Actively Ignores. (She is so cute. When budgies approach her, she does her very best to act as if they simply do Not exist.)

Well yesterday I was crocheting with Sunny and CALLIOPE flew near us. Circled near us, a little like she might want to land. SO I offered her the same invitation....

....and Sunny stopped playing and BIT my nose!....

...and I put my hand between Sunny and my face and issued my invitation again to CAlliope....

...and, unable to get to my nose, Sunny bit my hand. !!

So now I looked at her. She has NEVER bit me for inviting Jefferson to land on me, nor Tiny nor the other budgies.

She HAS in the past bit me to DEMONSTRATE what the budgies have done to each other. (I was out, I came home, and realized that Calliope had attacked Jefferson.... he had an injury on his face and on his leg... and in greeting me that day, Sunny QUITE DELIBERATELY chattered at me and then bit my arm and my ear, both to draw blood.)

So yesterday. Sunny was clearly ready to attack me Again IF i continued inviting Calliope to join us. And I said, "OHHHH you are telling me about Calliope being mean, aren't you? Did Calliope bite Tiny?" (I know the answer is yes) -- and Sunny IMMEDIATELY dropped her aggressive posture, and went back to playing with my shirt. !!!!

Communication. That's what this is. There is no doubt.

 

[HeatherG]

So for some time, my Sunny had been acting jealous whenever I would practice fiddle. To the point it was discouraging me from practicing. Previously she always liked my fiddle playing, as do the budgies, but for some time she had decided to be jealous of the large creature that took up HER shoulder space and sings to me...

However more recently she decided she likes my playing after all. Apparently she has re-realized it is part of me, singing To Her. (Well, she will No longer remain on my other should when I play, like she used to, way-back-when.) When I get out my fiddle, she immediately flies to her cage and takes up her spot on rope perch in the back. If I take too long to get myself set-up, she yells angrily. But once I get started, she will dance around excitedly, occasionally ringing her bell or, rarely, contributing a yell.

I am again, as previously, required to do any practicing in full-view of all my birdies. The budgies arrange themselves as an audience -- although, with the babies full-grown, it is less obvious, as they spread out across the room.

Whenever I look up while playing, the budgies will be sitting attentively across the room, watching or singing along.

So about a month ago, one Sunday I had not practiced the hymns. I thought they were familiar & comfortable tunes, I was just gonna quick-review before church on Sunday.

Well. Two of them were fine. But one of them... I know I've played it before. But maybe from a different book? Or, maybe at a time when I had been diligently practicing.

Anyway, one of the hymns was in the key of Too Many Flats. For anyone reading this who doesn't play fiddle - that means, All the Notes are in the Wrong Places.

So i figured - good thing I at least allowed a little review time before church. This many flats will be tricky, but I'm sure I know this hymn.

And, I tried. My fiddle has five strings, sometimes flats work better an octave down; tried that also.

Tried for a while. I could tell it wasn't working. But i Persisted! Concentrating on the notes, trying (and failing) to find the right ones. Until, all the sudden.... I realized... the budgies were No Longer sitting attentively across the room.

In fact, they were zooming back & forth past my head!

Not only that - and what had finally gotten my attention - one of them had managed to give me a good THWACK! in the head on their flyby.

And yes, that THWACK! was deliberate. These are my baby budgies. (Full-grown babies now, of course.) They've been flying all their lives. They know how to fly and have never Ever "crashed" into me. Not even when I'm moving around, much less sitting there concentrating.

So a THWACK! in the head while i was practicing. Yep. That was Definitely deliberate! Definitely expressing an opinion.

I could easily translate from birdie-language. "OMG STOP that horrible NOISE, stop it NOW!!!!!"

Hahaha. If they would've had tomatoes I guess they would've been throwing them.

Well I took their advice. I stopped practicing and headed off to church.

I did not attempt to play that hymn at church, nor in anyone else's hearing that morning!!

Didn’t know anyone else’s birds cared about their music.

My Lucy Quaker used to sing along (badly) with me practicing my choral and opera chorus work. She was absorbed in my (not so bad) guitar playing.

As long as I didn’t start laughing, it was nice to be admired and listened to with such appreciation.

I don’t know how Willow or Jasper feel about vocal music but my previous birds have enjoyed this or my prep for my past classical radio program. I bought a theremin and setup and am wondering how that will go.

 

[fiddlejen]

Didn’t know anyone else’s birds cared about their music.

My Lucy Quaker used to sing along (badly) with me practicing my choral and opera chorus work. She was absorbed in my (not so bad) guitar playing.

As long as I didn’t start laughing, it was nice to be admired and listened to with such appreciation.

I don’t know how Willow or Jasper feel about vocal music but my previous birds have enjoyed this or my prep for my past classical radio program. I bought a theremin and setup and am wondering how that will go.

I think all birds love music. It is so close to their natural communication style. They love when we sing to them, too, even if our voices are not-good.

Regarding a theremin...... ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh! IF IF you have not done so already, i suggest you start playing some recordings of theremin music for them, so it will not seem entirely strange to them. And if you do that, i betcha they will quickly grow to love You playing it for them also!