Busy weekend

A veritable din of bird calls ring out around me as I latch back the swinging doors to the birdroom and walk inside. Two cages of baby budgies and an aviary of adults start their familiar chatter. Over them sound louder, sharper notes as the peachface lovebirds join in. Pleasant cockatiel whistles are mingled with the piping note of the rosella pair two aviaries down from them. Bailey the blue quaker's shrill squawks for me to come let him out for his morning play are echoed by Mango the sun conure. Wally, a ringneck housed in the large parrot cage in the center of the room, greets me with the purring sound of an Alexandrine, which he learned from one of the Alexes to come through the store. Cam the cockatoo in his aviary watches me enter and calls out hello, currently the only bird of the birdroom to speak human language. That doesn't matter, since I have been listened to bird greeting calls - and in fact every other type of bird call you could imagine - five days a week for the last three years. I know what they're saying. I start my week a day earlier than most people. Sunday is my busiest day in the birdroom. The morning routine is as usual: status check of the birdroom residents; a once-over the floor with a broom to clear away the previous evening's dinner; a skim through of notes left for me by my weekend staff,;change and disinfect all water bowls; check and top up all seed bowls; and cut up and distribute fruit and veg. By the time I'm midway through waters the store is getting busier and there's usually several people broswing in the birdroom. The hand-raised birds are scattered over the center playgym and stands, and it's they who are the stars of the room. While I never mind people saying hello to and handling the hand-raised birds who are comfortable, I have to keep a close eye on them. Some people just don't seem to understand that a bird racing away from your hand at top speed might indicate the bird isn't really comfortable with a total stranger picking it up. Others feel the need to scoop the birds up like icecream, or worse, grab them suddenly around the body and lifting them, handling techniques that even a good-natured handraised bird will often reward with a nip. It also amazes me how many people wiggle their fingers in front of a bird's face, some all but poking at them. How they imagine a bird will be step up onto a waving hand is beyond me. Consequently with Bailey, Mango, Cam, Wally and my hand-raised cockatiels out and about I keep a sharp eye on them and any admirers they attract.

Cam however, is one bird who thrives on the weekend attention. He's a very outgoing, well-socialized cockatoo and never minds being approached by people he doesn't know yet. Some people are intimidated by his size - and he is a big cockatoo, one of the largest I've come across, considering he's only one year old. But he will willingly lower his head for someone to scratch his crest, or lift a wing to be tickled. Sometimes when someone walks in he will tell them hello. Thankfully, thus far he seems to keep his other favourite phrase to himself. Someone evidently taught him to say 'shut up' at some point, which I found out when I told him to stop chewing on the partition between his and the rosella aviary. Turning his head over his shoulder, he cheerful informed me to 'Shuttup!' before continuing to eat the partition. He can crunch through a pen in about a minute (I take the ink tube out of them before he gets one) pop off buttons before you can blink, and has a fondness for computer equipment. One day at the registers, I had him with me, sitting on the spare counter. I was talking to a customer when I became aware of a clicking sound. Turning, I found Cam perched on the keyboard to register 3, happily popping off buttons in his big beak and tossing them onto the floor. One of the first things he managed to figure out was how to slide the bolt back on his aviary door, letting himself out of his cage. I acquired a heavy clip to fasten the bolt in the lock position, which he couldn't reach form inside. This kept him in the aviary for a total of two days. On the evening of the second day, Cam decided he'd simply unbolt the door from the frame. John arrived in the morning to find the door hanging from its bottom hinge, Cam sitting triumphantly on top of the bank of aviaries. Never let anyone tell you a cockatoo can't solve problems.

It's Thursday morning now and I've finished my proof-reading of this entry. I have a late start today due to our late-night loyalty members' night, we're having 20% off store wide. Should be a busy evening. I'm also getting new birds arriving today, so I'm very excited! Will leave you with a video of Cam enjoying a spray-bath.