A morning at the beach

The telephone

Back by request - Blue Plays Ball!

Looking Out Blues Window

NUTS - Blue Going Nuts

This is a video of Blues average first few hours. He eats and then attends his nuts as the birds outside battle at the feeder. I am not feeling great as I have been ill, so my guitar playing in the background is me freestyle playing.

Notice how Blue hides and re-hides nuts, and even checks and throws some out. Blue even arranges the nuts in his feeding dish. The birds at the feeding dish is Blues view. Today one of our finches got loose, flew right to Blue who protected her...

NUTS

Blue is back!

Hi Folks,

It’s been a long time since I have posted. Illness and other things have prevented me from spending the time to post that I normally do. Also its fall and the rescue e-mails have ended. We, by sharing information saved 80 birds last year, with only 2 deaths. Taking in a rescue that cannot be released is a big decision. These animals take allot of attention. There is information here is you find a Scrub Jay, and animal rescue wont help. The emergency diets are meant for baby birds.

Blue is doing great. His flight feathers have fully returned and he flies from room to room with ease again, despite being blind in one eye. I have been very ill and at home a great deal. He sticks to me like glue. Sometimes he gets so excited when I bring him a treat or something and he starts this song and dance that he normally does to hand signals. Here is the latest. I am working on a video of his nut hiding capabilities. You might notice Blue's beak is a little too long. I normally wait to trim it to see if he will take care of it himself. In his youth he would. I trimmed it today and he still sang 5 minutes later. He also got a good nail trim. He is used to this and even invites the attention. Blue is now ten + years old and I have had him since he was one or two days old.

Blue knows when I am sad or ill; he knows when I need to be left alone. He knows when I am in pain. His displays of empathy are amazing. This is from today when I went to give him half a grape. He broke into dance. I also used my hand signals. He is finally getting used to the camera, which he did not like before. Enjoy this short clip; the end is him doing his sun trance bath. There is extensive video in older posts of this fascinating scene. Blue loves the fan which stays off, but he falls asleep on it and has learned to make it spin, also in video to come.

The Dance is a show of affection, a mixture of what they do in the wild and he is also imitating sounds I make to him. Sometimes I can make him dance by making a clicking sound with my mouth.

Attack of the Copper Hawk

Attack of the Copper Hawk

Yesterday I was on the phone while Blue was resting quietly in his cage. As fall approaches, new birds have appeared at the feeder. This morning we finally started to get Scrub Jays again. Since we moved only a block away, we have had none all summer despite using every known trick to attract them. We have been blessed with many other types of birds we have never seen before.

As I was talking to my sister, I heard a loud “bang!” and Blue started shrieking his call of distress and fear. I looked up and it took a moment to focus on the mammoth bird now attached to my screen, wings spread, a giant Cooper Hawk. He saw the other birds, spotted Blue, and went in for the kill. Of course, the thick glass window stopped him. However, he clung for a moment. I am sure the knock surprised him too. Blue was shrieking and I dropped the phone. My instinct was to go or the camera, but Blue was very upset. He could have injured himself if I did not get him out of his cage. The Copper Hawk took a full minute to rest on the porch, perched proudly on the side rail of our balcony. Then he flew off to better hunting grounds.

Blue was frightened to death. He clung to me all day. I had to block his view of the outside to be able to allow him back in his cage. This worked and he began to play and act normal. The return of the Scrub Jays this morning also brightened his spirits. He loves to hide peanuts while they hide theirs.

Blue is flying again. He now flies all over the house and we set up places he can easily roost and hide peanuts. They always like to be higher then everyone else. We only let him fly when we are home and fans and stoves are off.

Hawks do not frequent this area, but I have to admit. I have been too nervous to take him out for his sunbath. I can just imagine a hawk seeing him in such a venerable state and plucking him from me as I watched helplessly. I will wait a few days to make sure this hawk does not return. They are known to be very ballsy and sometimes stubborn.

My sister has an aviary outside. It’s huge and contains Cockatiels. Made of wood and heavy metal screening, the hawk could not get inside. However, he tried for weeks until my sister covered the aviary until the Hawk gave up. It did injure one bird that recovered.

This was in an area that is prime hunting ground for hawks. Yet this Hawk opted to stay for a week and spend nearly all day studying the aviary.