The Parrot's Point of View

Away for the Weekend

2012-01-24T16:44:00.003-05:00

My person and I went away last weekend. My person went to Boston and I went to Trouble's house. I don't know what Boston's like but I'm wondering if it's one of those places where you sit in your cage all day in a place that's not your own house and just look out the window and wonder when your person is going to come back and get you. Because that's what it's like at Trouble's house. At least I get grapes when I'm there, so that's something. I wonder if there are grapes in Boston. Hmmm. Maybe next time, I'll go to Boston and my person will go to Trouble's house. That seems fair, doesn't it?

Snow Falling Off Roofs

2012-01-19T07:40:00.002-05:00

We haven't had much snow so far this winter, but the snow that has been here has been very impolite. First, there was that snow that showed up in October uninvited. Then this week's snow spent all day yesterday sliding off the roof. And it's not enough for it just to slide, but it has to land on the ground with a loud "Whump!" It's so unnerving for a little green parrot like me, who always has to keep an eye out for potential predators. I had to spend much of the afternoon hiding in my person's shirt. Sometimes it's so hard being a prey animal!

The Parrot Contemplates Winter

2012-01-13T08:09:00.003-05:00

Wintry snow, sleet, and ice
Are not very nice

But I'm safe and warm
And protected from harm

Whatever the weather's
'Cause I'm covered with feathers.

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T07:56:00.000-05:00

2012 is almost here, and I hope it turns out to be a squawking good year for everyone. May 2012 bring everyone all the walnuts and seed treats they desire, lots of old books and boxes and papers to shred, a warm comfortable cage to sleep in (with full food dishes) and, most of all, at least one kind person to love and pet you.

Snow and Treats

2011-12-23T09:50:00.001-05:00

It looks like more winter has arrived. There’s snow all over the place outside. My person says it’s not much more than a dusting, but the outside sure looks white to me, and that’s a very nerve-wracking situation for a little green parrot such as myself. It’s a good thing I don’t have to go out there. I happy to stay inside and enjoy one of my favorite winter treats—clementines. Yummy. There’s nothing quite so delicious as sucking the sweet juice out of a clementine. The fact that it’s clementine season kind of makes up for the snow and cold outside. Kind of. Also, my person baked gingerbread cookies, and they were delicious, too. Then Trouble was here and I got to eat some of her grapes. All in all, it’s been a good week for treats, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Visitors in White and Gray

2011-12-08T08:15:00.001-05:00

Well, that snow showed up again last night. But it’s December now so I guess it’s all right if the snow wants to start hanging around a bit. There’s not a whole lot of it out there anyhow. I guess it decided to start out small. But you sure won’t see me going outside as long as any of that white stuff’s around. Uh uh. I’m staying safely inside until it’s all nice and green out there again.
Then that gray parrot, Trouble, decided to come for a visit this week. So she’s out there in the living room sitting on top of her cage talking her head off: “Hiya bird! Apple and a grape! Ready for breakfast?” What a show off. Personally, I think a nice simple phrase like “Pretty bird” says it all. That’s all you’ll ever hear ME saying!

Thankful

2011-11-20T07:48:00.000-05:00

It’s that thankful time of year, with Thanksgiving coming up soon. This year I am thankful that I am a bird, and not just any kind of bird, but a beautiful squawky parrot.
I am thankful that am NOT:
• a turkey, which is a very dangerous sort of bird to be in November
• a dumb robin, so that I don’t have to migrate twice a year but can relax in the comfort of my own cage
• a chickadee, which is a very nice sort of bird but has to spend all winter outside in the cold and snow
• a catbird, because who wants to be named after a predator
I AM thankful that I am a beautiful parrot with pretty green feathers and a melodious squawk!

This and That

2011-11-17T21:10:00.000-05:00

It’s been one of those quiet months so far, and there hasn’t been much out of the ordinary to write about. The walnuts are in their place (my food dish), my person’s been acting pretty nice, I get my treat every afternoon, I haven’t spotted any unusual predators. . . .everything seems to be in place. The only thing is, I’ve pretty much given up nesting for the time being because I’ve been so busy helping my person. She’s gotten a lot of work recently, and of course she counts on me to help her with it. So I have to spend most of the day sitting on her shoulder while she works and that leaves me little time for chewing things up to make a nest. But that’s OK. There will be plenty of time for that later on. So that’s the news from the birdcage for this week.

Of Walnuts and People

2011-11-06T07:35:00.001-05:00

OK, so we already know how interesting the opening of the refrigerator door is to me because of the walnuts that are always sitting there on the top shelf winking and smiling at me in such an attractive way as if to say, “Eat us now!” And we know how mean my person can be sometimes, making it difficult for me to get my beak on those tasty little morsels. So the other day she says, “Just because a walnut is there doesn’t mean that you have to eat it.”
Huh?
Doesn’t mean I have to eat it??? Of course it does. That’s what it’s all about. Sheesh. People can be so clueless.

Rude Snow

2011-10-30T07:58:00.002-04:00

My readers are well aware of the fact that I’m no fan of snow. However, I know I have to accept the fact that it spends several months of the year here. OK, so it gets around four months every winter to hang around here and do whatever it wants. You’d think that’d be enough, but that snow has gotten mighty pushy recently and has shown up not once but twice this week. That’s right, twice, and its still only October. The first time it just kind of danced around and teased us a little. That was really rude, but I decided not to pay it any attention. That’s the best way to deal with teasers. But then it decided it had to jump up and down and shout for attention. It made a really noticeable visit last night and now it’s lying all over the ground. I’m sorry, but I just think that’s so rude. I mean, we’re kind enough to let it spend the winter here, so showing up more than a month early seems ungrateful and is just plain bad manners. Well, ha, ha, the joke’s on the snow, because it’s going to get all melted up really quickly. That should teach it to mind its manners!

New Hobby

2011-10-24T18:07:00.002-04:00

I’ve recently taken up sculpture. I realized it would be a good use of my chewing talents. Here you see a photo of my latest work. I guess you could call it an altered book. I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out, but I have the same problem that so many artists have: How do you know when it’s finished? I’ll probably give it at least a few more chews.

Migration

2011-10-17T20:30:00.003-04:00

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it again: I just don’t get all this migration business. My person says migratory birds are looking for a place to spend the winter that’s warm and has food. If that’s all they’re after, then I have to ask this: Why don’t they just stay in their own cages? After all, a cage is warm and has a full food dish. On top of that, it probably also comes with toys and a person who gives you treats. And it’s right here. You don’t have to fly anywhere to have all this. Why would any bird want to go anywhere else? I just don’t get it.

Autumn Tea Party

2011-10-16T08:10:00.001-04:00

I just love tea parties! We had a friend come over last night, and my person served lemon balm tea and pumpkin pie. Mmmm, there’s nothing like a fresh hot cup of tea. I stood on the rim of the tea cup and sipped up little drops of tea. Then I scraped up little pieces of pumpkin pie with my beak. When my crop was full, I settled down on my person’s shoulder and listened to her talk and laugh with her friend. Talking and laughing are such pleasant sounds. I chirped and laughed right along with them. Tea and pie taste so much better when you have guests to share them with, don’t you think?

Refrigerator

2011-10-11T07:04:00.002-04:00

One of my readers, Dijon, posted an interesting comment about my recent post on sounds. Despite his being a dog, Dijon often has interesting things to say. In this case, he mentioned that the refrigerator door opening is one of his favorite sounds. I, too, am very interested in the opening of the refrigerator door, mostly because I know there is a bag of walnuts on its top shelf. So when my person opens the refrigerator, I always pay attention. Unfortunately, the opening of the refrigerator door doesn’t always result in my getting walnuts. Sometimes it does, but other times I have to nip my person’s ear to remind her. But even that doesn’t always work. Often my person says, “Just because I open the refrigerator door doesn’t mean you get walnuts.” But then she goes and takes out a treat for herself! People. You can’t live without them, but you can squawk at them.

Parrot Poetry Returns

2011-10-02T07:49:00.000-04:00

Tired of Rain
by Shadow
The rain comes down, makes everything wet,
But I’m warm and dry inside my nest.
The rain keeps pouring, can’t go out yet,
So I settle down for a nice long rest.
In here I’m cozy as I can get,
But even so, I like sunny days best.

Sounds

2011-09-26T09:00:00.001-04:00

Do you like sounds? As a professional parrot, I’m quite interested in them. Even though I mention sounds quite frequently in this blog, I thought it would be fun to devote an entire blog post to them since there are always so many interesting ones around. For example, right now I can hear the refrigerator humming and the occasional car whooshing by down on the road. Just a few minutes ago, I was listening to one of my favorite morning sounds—the coffeepot gurgling as it brews fresh coffee. There’s just something so wonderful and watery about that sound that is so attractive to me. Then there are all the different beeps—the microwave oven, the bread machine, the telephone being dialed. I also enjoy the sounds my person makes when she drinks and chews. Of course, I can’t understand why she has to be such a noisy eater and drinker. We parrots eat and drink very quietly. But whatever the reason, the sounds are fun and I make them right along with her. But my favoritest sound of all is the sound of my person getting up in the morning. It is a quiet and gentle sound but portends so much—the cover will come off my cage, my person will be there and, most of all, there will be fresh walnuts in my dish.
(9/26/11)

Poor Furnace

2011-09-21T09:24:00.001-04:00

So the furnace finally came back from vacation, but almost as soon as it got back it started feeling sick. It gave out a few rumbles and whirrs and then lay down and took a nap. My person had to call the furnace doctor. Now, I’m happy to report, the furnace is a feeling a lot better. I wonder how it spent its vacation. It must have been partying hard the whole time, or something, to come back feeling so sick. But it’s not telling. It just hums and whirrs and says it’s too busy heating the house to have time to tell me about it.

Good-bye to Summer

2011-09-17T14:40:00.000-04:00

The weather has been quite chilly these past couple of days, so I guess summer is on it’s way out. It’s quite cold in the house, especially at night, but I haven’t heard even one rumble out of the furnace yet. It must still be away on vacation. It sure takes a long summer vacation. I’ll be happy when it comes back, but in the meantime I’ve got my nice fluffy down jacket to keep me warm. So I don’t mind if the furnace stays away for a while longer. My person, on the other hand, doesn’t have her own down jacket. She has to use sweaters and blankets to stay warm. Huh. I’m sure glad I’m a fluffy downy parrot.

Flood/Treats

2011-09-11T08:03:00.001-04:00

My person and I were very fortunate during hurricane Irene. There was flood water almost all around us, but since we live on a hill, the flood didn’t come anywhere near my cage or my person’s house. I am a little sad, though, because the garden did get flooded and the sunflowers were soaked in mud. My person says it isn’t possible to clean them well enough for me to eat. A whole summer of growing sunflowers wasted! Except for the few my person harvested before the flood, I guess I’ll be eating store-bought treats this winter. On the other hand, I have discovered a new treat from the garden. The other day, my person harvested a lot of hazelnuts, which weren’t hurt by the flood. I sat on her shoulder and watched with interest as she took the nuts out of their shells. The pile of shelled nuts in the bowl grew bigger and bigger. Finally I decided it was time check them out, so I crawled down my person’s arm and waddled over to the bowl and picked up a little white round nut. Right away I realized that it tasted nothing at all like a walnut, so I dropped it and climbed back up to my person’s shoulder. But my person kept paying attention to those nuts, so I thought there must be something in them and that I should give them another try. So I climbed back down to the bowl and picked up another nut and rolled it around and around in my beak. Then I took a bite out of it. It really wasn’t so bad. So I dropped it, picked up another, bit it and dropped it. It tasty rather yummy. So I went on picking up nuts, biting, dropping, until my person got mad at me for taking bites out of all the nuts and put me back in my cage. Well. Just because a parrot doesn’t eat the same way a person a does! We never eat the whole of anything, but just take a bite, drop it, and move on to the next thing. It’s the parrot way. Anyhow, those hazelnuts tasted good and I can’t wait until my person harvests more.

Seedy

2011-08-13T11:25:00.000-04:00

Here’s something I don’t get about people: They talk about the word “seedy” as if it meant something bad. To my way of thinking, there’s nothing better than finding a nice seedy berry in your food dish in the morning. In fact, one thing that makes summer so great is that there are lovely seedy berries in my food dish every day. I’m glad that at least MY person doesn’t have any prejudices against seediness.

Water Bottle

2011-08-10T19:39:00.001-04:00

So the other day I was hanging out in my cage without anything particular to do, and feeling a bit peeved because my person was wandering around the house doing all sorts of fun-sounding things but not paying any attention to ME at all. So I was thinking about what I could do about that when my eye fell on my water bottle. OK, so I know I’m not the first parrot to think of this, but that doesn’t make it any less of a good idea. So I just kind of moseyed over to that side of the cage and gave that bottle a good heft with my beak and, just as I thought, it went clattering to the floor. And on top of that, it broke! What fun! Naturally that brought my person running into the room. She picked up the pieces of the broken bottle, but there the fun ended. She just threw the pieces in the trash and went back about her business. Bo-o-o-r-r-r-ing! But then a little while later she showed up with a new water bottle and started attaching it to my cage. This was a very different water bottle in every way-shape, color, everything was different. As a professional parrot, I can’t let any strange thing get near me without checking it out first for predatory potential. So I spent some time attacking the new water bottle. But then I realized that it was really a rather nice thing after all and that in fact I like it very much. I like it so much that I spend a good part of the day sitting lovingly next to it. Of course, I don’t want to let anybody or anything near it, so naturally I have to attack my person every morning when she tries to fill it with fresh water. “If you keep biting me,” she says, “you won’t get fresh water.” She totally doesn’t get it. It’s not about fresh water, it’s about protecting my territory rights. Sheesh! People can be so dumb sometimes.

House Painting

2011-08-03T12:17:00.000-04:00

Last winter it was remodeling, and now it’s house painting. At least the house painters leave all their scary, predatory-looking equipment outside. But they sure do make noise. Sometimes I’m sitting quietly in my cage just minding my own business (preening, chewing up popsicle sticks, holding my toothbrush, you know, parrot stuff) when I start hearing these strange noises—banging, scraping, swishing, clanging. And then sometimes a face will suddenly appear in the window. You better believe I start squawking when that happens. My person says they’re just painters scraping the old paint off the window frames or applying the new paint, but I don’t know, it sure seems like predatory behavior to me. I don’t know why my person is always letting all these predators hang around the house. It sure keeps me busy trying to protect us.

Question Technology

2011-07-25T07:49:00.002-04:00

I understand that our local Borders, along with all the rest of them, is going out of business because everyone is buying ebooks now to read on their Kindles. OK, that is something I totally don’t get. Although I have never personally seen a Kindle, I’ve been around plenty of computers and other electronic devices and I can tell you that despite their often having a few tasty plastic pieces here and there, they don’t make for nearly as good chewing as a nice old-fashioned book does. There’s nothing like chewing your way through a good book and filling up your person’s desk with piles of fluffy white page scraps. Until someone invents a Kindle that can do that, I’m sticking with books.

How to stay cool on a hot summer day

2011-07-23T13:28:00.003-04:00

Raid the walnut stash in the refrigerator.

Lazy Days of Summer

2011-07-14T06:48:00.000-04:00

You might imagine that the reason I haven’t posted on this blog for so long is that I have been busy with my new summer job. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Despite my many talents, I haven’t been able to find anyone to hire me. However, there’s still plenty to do around the cage. Mostly I’ve been busy nesting. Also I went away for the weekend to Trouble’s house. That was OK, but I’m happy to be home again. I am also happy to be able to report that the garden is growing well, especially the sunflowers. So I look forward to eating sunflower seeds all winter. This morning my person got all excited when she saw a hummingbird sipping nectar from the scarlet runner beans that she planted. That was a little weird. I mean, she doesn’t get all excited when she sees me eating walnuts out of my dish. But there’s just no explaining people.

Summer Job

2011-06-23T13:35:00.001-04:00

I’ve been enjoying the summer so far, chewing up books and popsicle sticks indoors when it’s raining, and going outdoors for walks in my carrier when the weather is nice. But, I’ve been thinking maybe it’s time to stretch a bit, and a summer job might not be a bad idea. After all, my talents are many. Here are some jobs I think I would be good at:

Office Paper Shredder – I can chew through all your discarded office paper and sensitive documents in no time at all, even including documents you hadn’t considered throwing away. And, unlike your shredding machine, I do it all without electricity. I am a “green” shredding machine in more ways than one.

Doorbell – I will sit by your front door and squawk at the top of my voice anytime anyone comes near it.

Housecleaner – If you give me a nice dish to bathe in, I will splash the water all around, even as high as the ceiling. Then all you have to do is take a dry rag and wipe and –voila!- your room is clean. Also, if you drop crumbs on the floor, I will gladly pick them up for you.

Dog/Cat Scarer – If you are having problems keeping your dog or cat off the furniture while you are out, I can sit in your living room and squawk anytime the dog or cat comes near. Believe me, it will stay far away.

If you know of anyone who is looking to hire someone for one of these positions, please have them contact me. Or if you know about any other kind of job I might be good at, let me know. Thanks!

How I've been spending my time

2011-06-21T11:00:00.002-04:00

There's always something to chew!

Bird Food

2011-06-16T07:24:00.000-04:00

Those outside birds have some interesting eating habits. It’s not all robins pulling up worms. There are also those hummingbirds sipping nectar from flowers. Then there’s the catbird that sits in the shrubbery eating berries. And the other day while my person and I were looking out the window, a blue jay swooped down and grabbed a bug right out of the grass in front of us. Hmmm, I don’t think that would taste very good. I think apples and cereal and pellets are much tastier. Later in the summer, the goldfinches will start eating seeds off the evening primrose plants. They’ll also probably start stealing seeds from the sunflowers in the garden, like they always do. That really makes me mad because those sunflowers are mine. My person grows them for me, so I can have seeds to eat in the winter. Well, I guess I don’t mind sharing a few sunflower seeds with those dumb finches, but just a few.

Listening to the Birds

2011-06-11T07:21:00.000-04:00

I like sitting by the window and listening to the outside birds. They make all sorts of interesting sounds. Of course, there are those dumb robins who are up before dawn with their “cheerio cheerio,” and they keep on singing after dark, too. They just don’t know when to be quiet! There are lots of chickadees around with their cute little voices, “Hi, sweetie! Hi, sweetie!” Chickadees are nice because they don’t leave when the weather gets cold like lots of other birds, but stay around singing “Hi, sweetie” all winter, too. Then there is a phoebe living next door that complains all day long, “Fee bee, fee bee,” with its raspy voice. I still haven’t figured out what it’s complaining about. We also have a catbird that likes to sit on the clothesline post and mew. So there are lots of interesting bird noises outside, but none of those outside birds can say “pretty bird” or beep like a microwave oven or squawk as beautifully as a parrot.

Hummingbirds

2011-06-03T08:02:00.001-04:00

My person and I have enjoyed watching the hummingbirds this spring, but we haven’t seen any humming around the feeder for most of this week. At first we were worried, then we started seeing them in the garden sipping nectar from the irises. I guess now that the flowers are blooming, they would rather eat in the garden. Probably nectar tastes better than the sugar water in the feeder, so I guess that makes sense. Personally, I would rather eat out of my feeder. I mean, it’s right there in my cage and it always has food in it, so whenever I feel hungry, I just go over there and start eating. It’s much more convenient than flying around a garden poking your beak in and out of flowers. I guess that’s why I’m a parrot and not a hummingbird.

I Need Some Advice

2011-05-29T19:14:00.000-04:00

I just don’t know what to do about my person. Several times this week she went out and left me alone for most of the day. I know she has to go away for a whole day sometimes, but more than once in one week is a bit too much, don’t you think? And then when she gets home, she expects me to be all cute and cuddly and happy to see her. She acts like she doesn’t understand why I am giving her the cold shoulder. All she has to do is put herself in my position. I’m sure she wouldn’t like it if I went away and left her alone for the whole day. I don’t know what I can do to train her away from this behavior. If anyone has any advice, please let me know.

Rainy Day

2011-05-16T20:11:00.004-04:00

There's nothing like a few good books to help pass the time on a rainy day. Hmmmm, which ones do you think will taste best?

A Visit to an Old Friend

2011-05-10T17:05:00.000-04:00

I was hanging out on the kitchen counter this morning while my person was washing the dishes, so I decided to check in on my old friend, the toaster oven. I was hoping that it might have some toast for me, but when I looked through its window, everything was cold and dark. No matter how much I stared, no toast appeared. After a while I gave up and decided to climb up on top of the oven and chew up the piece of aluminum foil that usually hangs out up there. But, guess what? There wasn’t any foil up there. I walked all around the top of the oven and peeked into all the spaces behind it and next to it, but I couldn’t find the foil anywhere. I wonder where it could have gone. Hmmm. That kitchen is full of mysteries.

Ducklings

2011-05-06T17:48:00.000-04:00

My person’s friend Judy recently acquired some ducklings. Like all baby birds, ducklings are very cute little creatures, but you have to admit they are a bit funny looking. In the first place, they sure aren’t going to be cracking open any seeds or nuts with those funny flat bills of theirs. And what about those webbed feet? I understand they’re useful for swimming, but what’s the point of that? I mean, I’m sure I enjoy water as much as any duck, but there’s certainly no need to go swimming around in it when you can easily have a nice bath just standing in a pan full of water or having someone spritz you. So, sure, those poor silly ducks can swim around a pond, but they’re never going to be able to climb trees or hold their food like a parrot with sensible feet. Judy is a very nice person and I have enjoyed sitting on her shoulder and squawking in her ear any number of times, so I have to wonder: Why did she get ducks when she could have gotten a parrot?

Cold Spring

2011-05-05T07:38:00.001-04:00

We had a couple of warm days this week, and I went outside in my carrier to help my person mow the lawn. We did a great job, if I do say so myself. But now it’s rainy and wet again, so it’s back to inside chores, making nests and helping my person write. Also I have to keep an eye out the window for that fat woodchuck, and when it appears I squawk to scare it away. So, rain or shine, there’s always something to do around here. What about you? What do you do when it’s too cold and wet to go outside?

Spring Tasks

2011-05-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog recently. I’ve just had so many things to do. Unfortunately, going out for walks in my carrier hasn’t been one of them. It’s been too cold and rainy these past couple of weeks. But now the weather is looking better and my person says that very soon she’ll be needing my help outside with the lawn mowing. I can’t wait! Mowing the lawn is my favorite outside chore. My job is to sit in my carrier and keep an eye out for predators while my person cuts the grass. Meanwhile, I’ve had plenty to keep me busy inside, helping my person with her work, and working on a few projects of my own. Nesting season is here and I’ve got a couple of nests going. One is on top of the printer and the other is on a small shelf. With two nesting sites, I’m pretty busy all day long chewing up old books, plastic bottle caps, and popsicle sticks. Unfortunately, my person often gets in one of those mean moods where she takes the vacuum cleaner to my nests and vacuums up all the bits and pieces I’ve worked so hard to chew. So then I’ve got to start all over again. People can get really moody sometimes, but you’ve got to love them anyway.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-04-16T15:11:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I am 14 years old now. Here I am with the presents that my aunt sent me - some cardboard boxes for me to chew! There's nothing I like better than having something to chew, so I sure had a happy birthday.

Happy Day!

2011-04-13T07:25:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the big day. I went outside for the first time this spring. When my person said, “Go for a walk,” I could hardly believe my ears. Did she say “Go for a walk” or “Go for a squawk?” But when I saw my carrier sitting in the kitchen, I knew the big moment had finally arrived. I hopped right into the carrier and waited while my person put on her jacket and zipped the carrier up. Then we went outside. I was so excited, I was shaking. How wonderful it was to feel the fresh outside air on my feathers and the warm sunshine on my beak! There were so many sounds to hear and so many things to see I just didn’t know what to pay attention to. My person and I went for a nice long walk and saw and heard many things. I can’t wait to go outside again. Unfortunately, today is cold and rainy so it looks like I’ll be staying inside for today. But now that spring is finally here, I can look forward to lots of outside activities—walks, mowing the lawn, gardening—I can’t wait!

Home Alone

2011-04-10T08:01:00.001-04:00

Of course I really don’t like it when my person goes out a leaves me alone all day, but that doesn’t happen often. Usually she just goes out for a little while, and that gives me some time to hang out in my cage. The first thing I do is head over to my food dish since that’s always the most interesting part of my cage. After nibbling around there for a while, I sit on my perch and play with my toothbrush and key. I hold the toothbrush and bite the key. It’s really fun. After that, I might chew on a bottle cap or two, or a popsicle stick, and maybe I’ll pile up all my toys in my food dish. Then when I’m done playing, I like to just sit and listen. There are always interesting sounds around. In the winter, there’s the rumbling and whooshing of the furnace. In warmer weather, there’s the chirping and tweeting of the outside birds. And always there are cars rushing down the road, though when I big, loud truck comes by, I cower in the corner of my cage. While I’m listening to all these sounds, I always keep one ear alert for the sound of my person’s car in the driveway. Then when I hear the kitchen door open, I greet her with whoops and squawks. And then I’m not alone anymore.
What about you? What do you like to do when your person goes out?

Outside

2011-04-07T15:47:00.001-04:00

These days, I’ve been enjoying sitting on the windowsill and watching what’s going on outside. Besides seeing some dumb robins hopping around in the mud looking for worms, I’ve also been hearing all sorts of other outside birds chirping and singing. It’s very interesting listening to them, and I wish I could go outside and be with them. However, my person hasn’t opened the window yet, so it must still be too cold for me to go out. Anyhow, there isn’t much green outside. It’s mostly brown and there are still patches of snow. So I guess I’d rather stay inside where it’s nice and warm for now. It kind of makes me mad that those dumb robins are out there and I’m not, but on the other hand, at least I don’t have to go digging through cold wet mud to find my dinner.

Working

2011-03-31T07:29:00.002-04:00

It’s been a very busy week. My person has been busy writing and I’ve been busy helping her. I’ve been spending many hours every day sitting on her shoulder while she writes. I’ve also been helping remodel the bathroom. I know, I know, that sounds strange after my previous post about how scary remodeling is, but a parrot can change her mind, can’t she? After I got used to the idea of remodeling, I got a little curious about it. Then one day, the big tall guy asked me to help him out with the drywall. So I sat on his shoulder while he worked on the drywall. It was really fun, so when he asked me if I would help him again the next day, I said “Yes!” Unfortunately, the first thing he did the next morning was carry a scary-looking ladder into the bathroom. Then he thinks I’m going to go in there with that predatory ladder sitting right in the middle of everything? No way! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. So now I’m back to helping my person write. It’s not quite as interesting as drywall, but it is a lot safer.

Remodeling

2011-03-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

Here’s something scary: remodeling. In case you don’t have any experience with remodeling, here’s how it works:
Every morning, a big tall guy comes to your house. He spends the day making all kinds of whirring, buzzing, pounding, and scraping noises. Sometimes the noises are outside, sometimes they’re inside, sometimes they’re in the basement, sometimes they’re in the bathroom. You never know what kind of noise will happen or where it will be. Also, there are all these strange things lying around the house, things like long cables and a monstrous vacuum cleaner, you know, predatory-looking things. Then at the end of the day when the guy leaves, there’s always something different in your house. For example, we had a bathtub, then there was this big space where the bathtub used to be, then suddenly one day the bathtub is back. Only now it’s bigger and shinier. No matter how much I stare at it, I can’t make it look like it used to. So I’m not sure why people are so interested in remodeling. Maybe they like noises and long scary cables and bathtubs changing their appearance, but it is all very unnerving for a little green parrot like me.

Laundry Day

2011-03-15T09:38:00.000-04:00

There’s nothing like laundry to brighten things up. Doing laundry is filled with delights every step of the way. First of all, there’s the washing machine with its fascinating rushing water and spinning sounds, and sometimes it even bumps and clunks. Then my person hangs the wet clothes up to dry. As soon as I see the drying rack standing so invitingly in the middle of the living room, I fly right to it, perch on the top bar, and squawk and whoop with joy. While my person is busy hanging the clothes, I am busy squawking and whooping, walking all over the clean wet clothes, and taking a few nibbles here and there. When the laundry is dry, my person folds it. I just loooooove folded laundry. There’s nothing like climbing up piles of folded laundry (and knocking a few of them down along the way), then settling down on top of one for a good chew. Doing laundry is definitely my favorite household chore.

Robin Sightings

2011-03-12T07:55:00.001-05:00

I’ve heard that there have been a few robin sightings around town recently. Talk about dumb! How do they expect to find any worms to eat around here? The ground is still covered with snow. If I were ever foolish enough to fly thousands of miles south so I could be someplace warm and wormy while it’s cold up here, I would still be smart enough not to return until it really was spring. We could still have another blizzard or two. Believe me, I’m as anxious as any robin for spring to arrive. I’ve been dreaming about walks outside in my carrier all winter. But I’m sure not going to do anything dumb like go outside while it’s still cold and white out there. Uh uh. I’m staying inside, warm and cozy by my food dish.

How to Train Your Person

2011-03-05T15:42:00.001-05:00

Any parrot who lives with a person knows how important it is to keep your person trained. While most people love their parrots and want to keep them happy, sometimes they need a little help in understanding the best way to do this. Here are some tips for keeping your person well-trained:

- If your person is holding tasty-looking drink or snack, giving it your best beady-eyed parrot stare will usually convey the idea that you would like to have some, too. If this doesn’t work, a quick nip to the ear should do the trick. Be careful not too nip too hard, though, because that will just make your person mad and yelling might ensue. Of course, that will give you the opportunity to start squawking, so it’s not all bad.

- Sometimes a bite is called for. If, for example, your person hits a pin feather while petting you (and you know how painful that can be), a hard bite should get her to stop. Bite hard to keep your person away from anything you don’t want her to touch, such as your favorite toy or your mate.

- If your person should happen to sleep late some morning, a few loud squawks will let her know that it’s time to get up and pay attention to you.

- It’s a good idea to preen your person often. People enjoy this as much as parrots do, and it lets your person know that she is important to you. Stand on her head and preen her hair or sit on her shoulder and preen her face and neck. This will probably result in lots of petting and praises for you.

If you have any more tips for training people, let us know in the comments.

Snow (again!)

2011-02-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

I know I’ve squawked about this before, but I’m squawking about it again. Haven’t we had enough snow for one winter? That white stuff just keeps pouring out of the sky, covering up everything on the ground that might be green. Then it slides off the roof in the most predatory way, and it always makes those snow monsters come out with all their pushing and scraping and blowing snow around. Snow is nothing but a big, cold, scary white thing. I can’t wait for it to go away. Isn’t it time for spring yet?

Kitchen Friend

2011-02-19T07:51:00.001-05:00

Do you have a bread machine in your kitchen? We do, and it’s quite a friendly and generous thing. Sometimes it gets in a talkative mood. It makes the most interesting mixing, scraping, and shaking sounds, and then it beeps. It beeps! I always beep along with it. Usually it gets quiet for a long time after that, then it beeps again and then delicious hot bread comes out of it. Isn’t that amazing? Beeps and bread are two of my very favorite things, so I’m sure glad we have a bread machine in our house. It’s a wonderful friend.

Valentine

2011-02-14T08:08:00.003-05:00

Here I am with the present my true love, Quentie, sent for Valentine's Day - a whole bowlful of plastic bottle caps, just for me. What a sweetheart Quentie is! He knows how much I love to chew plastic bottle caps. He really knows the way to this little green parrot's heart. Maybe because he's a little green parrot, too!

Alone Again

2011-02-12T11:33:00.001-05:00

Well, my person did it again. Yesterday she was out ALL DAY and left me at home alone in my cage. I accept that she has to go out sometimes, but to go out and stay out all day is a bit much, don’t you think? It’s like she totally forgets about me at home all alone in my cage without any company. By the time she got home yesterday, it was dark. Then she comes in the house all “Pretty bird” and “Give me a kiss” and wanting to scratch my head, like everything’s fine and normal. I gave her the cold shoulder for a while, but then I couldn’t help myself and ended up snuggling up to her and asking for head scratches. People. They say that parrots always do just what they want and don’t like to obey, but we parrots can say the same thing about people. They never do what we want them to.

Winter

2011-02-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it’s still winter? I thought it would be over by now, but the ground is still covered with all that white stuff and it’s too cold to go outside and my carrier is hanging sad and lonely in the basement wondering when it will be able to take me for a ride again. Of course, I am happy that I have a nice warm inside place to spend the winter and don’t have to eat out there in the cold with all the outside birds (although my person keeps THEIR feeder filled with sunflower seeds while I only get sunflower seeds sometimes for a treat – what’s that about?) and I don’t have to fly thousand of miles south to eat worms like the robins, but still, you’d think winter could be a little shorter. Then I hear that the groundhog didn’t see its shadow so winter will be short, or something like that, but why do people pay attention to a groundhog? A groundhog is nothing more than a fat old dumb woodchuck. We’ve got plenty of them around here and all they do is waddle around and eat up the garden. What do they know? Why listen to a woodchuck when you can listen to a parrot? I’ll give you some real information: It’s still winter!

Visitors, Tea, Scrabble

2011-02-06T08:01:00.000-05:00

Don’t you just love it when visitors come to the house? I do because then I get lots of attention, and they feed me walnuts. Also, my person makes tea and I get to drink it right out of the tea cup. Yesterday my person and her visitor played Scrabble. It looked like an interesting game, particularly the tiles. I bet they would be really fun to chew. However, I was busy sipping tea and didn’t get a chance to try them out. Next time.

Cookies or Predators? You Decide.

2011-01-28T18:28:00.004-05:00

This is what was on the kitchen counter this afternoon. This is where my person expected me to stand and pose for the camera. Is she kidding? As soon as I saw that scary plate of I-don't-know-what, I let out a loud squawk and flew right to the top of my person's head - the closest high point. I like to munch on cookies as much as the next parrot, but a wise parrot knows that first you have to make sure that they actually are cookies. So I'm not taking any chances. My person can call them what she wants, but a whole group of them bunched together like that looks suspiciously predatory to me.

Snow Monsters

2011-01-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

One of the scary things about winter is that after every snowstorm, all these monsters come out. There’s this one monster that comes scrape-scrape-scraping up our driveway with its big yellow mouth pushing all the snow around. That sound always makes my feathers stand on end. My person bravely goes outside and gives the monster some money, and that usually makes it go away.

Then there’s the orange monster that lives in the garage across the street. As soon as I hear that rat-tat-tatting noise, I fly to the windowsill and, sure enough, I see that orange thing out there sucking up snow with its mouth and blowing it out its nose. What a disgusting thing to do! I puff up my feathers and give it my hardest beady-eyed parrot stare, just in case it ever thinks of coming and sucking things up over here, it’ll know that this house is protected by a fierce parrot. So far, I’ve managed to keep it away from us.

Laundry

2011-01-18T11:29:00.002-05:00

It's always a good day when there's laundry.

Always Vigilant

2011-01-10T08:33:00.000-05:00

My person still doesn’t get it about predators. Recently she’s been hanging out with a big bottle of glue. She picks it up, holds it for a while, puts it back down, picks it up again. . . . She keeps doing this. She doesn’t get how dangerous it is to be so close to predators, no matter how much I try to warn her. I nip her ear and bite the bottle, but that just makes her mad. Believe me, with her buddy-buddy attitude towards predators, she wouldn’t survive one minute in the jungle. It’s hard enough for me to keep her safe in the house.

Outside/Inside

2011-01-08T07:34:00.002-05:00

My person and I have been watching the outside birds at the feeder that my person put up for them. I'm sure glad MY feeder is inside. I wouldn't want to be eating out there where it's so cold. Plus, with all this snow we've been getting, it's all white out there. My beautiful green feathers would be really noticeable to predators. Those outside feeder birds don't seem to be afraid of predators. Of course, most of them - chickadees, titmice, nuthatches - have a lot of white feathers so they blend in with the landscape. Me, I'm a tropical bird. I prefer to spend my winters inside nibbling on walnuts and chewing up popsicle sticks. I'll go outside in my carrier when the weather gets warmer.

tea time

2011-01-05T15:33:00.002-05:00

Here I am enjoying afternoon tea with my person's new tea set that she got for Christmas. Yum!

Denestifying

2010-12-27T08:08:00.002-05:00

Sometimes my person can be so mean. Yesterday she was walking around with that nasty little vacuum cleaner, letting it run its snout all around my cage and play area. That was bad enough, but then she looked behind the printer and discovered a nest I had been making. I had done quite a lot of work on it and filled up that cozy little dark corner with popsicle stick splinters and chewed-up bits of cardboard, including all the pieces from the raisin box my aunt sent me for Christmas. I had done a pretty good job on that nest, if I do say so myself. But instead of praising me for a job well done and instead of respecting my space, what do you think my person did? She let that nasty little vacuum cleaner get in there and suck everything up. I stood on top of my cage and squawked my protests the whole time, but no one paid any attention to poor little me. It’s kind of confusing because usually my person is very nice. She cuddles me and gives me head scratches and feeds me treats and keeps my water bottle and food dish full, but then she goes and pulls something like this. What a meanie.

Jammin’

2010-12-19T14:59:00.000-05:00

I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before how much I love berry jam. It’s so seedy! I especially like the jam my person makes from the wild berries that grow around here. It makes even the coldest, snowiest winter day feel a little bit like summer. My person and I frequently share a midmorning snack of wild berry jam on toast, which I enjoy very much. The only thing is that usually I end up with my beak all covered with sticky jam and toast crumbs. That wouldn’t be so bad except that my person thinks it makes me look funny and she laughs at me. She thinks she’s so smart, until I wipe my beak clean on whatever happens to be handy, which is usually the sleeve of her shirt. We parrots always like to get the last laugh.

Same Old, Same Old

2010-12-16T07:46:00.000-05:00

I know I’ve been behind with my blogging this month, but there just hasn’t been much new to report. The days just go peacefully by in the same old way: I eat my morning walnuts, share a bowl of cereal with my person, sit on her shoulder, nip her ear when I want attention, chew on a bag or bottle cap, look out the window and squawk, take a nap on my perch, eat, chew, nip, squawk, nap, eat, chew, nip, squawk, nap. It’s a great life!

December

2010-12-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

Here it is almost half way through December and I’ve hardly blogged at all this month. It must be because it’s that hibernating time of year when we snuggle cozily in our cages and listen to the cold winds howling outside. Of course, those dumb robins think they have to fly thousands of miles south to find a warm place where they can eat worms all winter. I’ve never heard of anything dumber in my life. Why travel so far just to eat worms when you can stay in the comfort of your own cage nibbling on shredded wheat and walnuts? Nope, you’ll never catch me migrating. I just don’t see the point.

In the Bag

2010-12-09T07:58:00.001-05:00

As a female parrot, I’m very nest oriented, so I’m always looking for dark enclosed places to hang out in and chew. That’s why I just love bags. The other day, my person hung one of those reusable shopping bags on the chair where we usually sit, so I figured I’d help her reuse it. She used it for shopping and now I’m reusing it for playing. Some times I hang on the outside of the bag and chew my way in. Other times I stick my head inside and chew my way out. Either way it’s really fun and I’m amassing quite a good pile of little green bag bits on the floor below. Of course, when my person sees that, she threatens to bring out the vacuum cleaner, and we know how I feel about that monster. Sigh. I guess everything has its little drawbacks.

Nudge

2010-11-29T14:22:00.001-05:00

Sometimes even the best of people need a little reminder. While I’m the first to acknowledge that my person is very kind and attentive, even she needs a little nudge every once in a while. The other day it was about my seed treat, which my person gives me every afternoon. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes later, but it always tastes good whenever it arrives. The other day, my person had happened to leave the seed treat container out on top of the cabinet instead of inside it, so I had a good view of it from my cage. All afternoon I was eyeing that treat container, wondering when my person would finally open it up and give me my treat. Every time she went near it, I thought, “Now! Now! I’m finally going to get my treat!” But it didn’t happen. The day dragged on, the sky started to grow dark, and still my treat hadn’t appeared. I realized I would have to take matters into my own beak, so to speak. So I left the comfort of my cage and flew over to the treat container and started poking around it, trying to find the way in. Finally my person realized what I was doing and, full of apologies, she opened the container and gave me my treat. At least she didn’t make me chew all the way through the lid myself. Not that I couldn’t, but can you imagine! It would’ve taken a good while. The treat tasted delicious and I forgave my person for her forgetfulness right away. After all, nobody’s perfect, right?

Giving Thanks

2010-11-24T15:36:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This year I’m giving thanks for all the friends who surround me:
- the furnace, who keeps us warm all winter
- the toaster oven, who ticks and dings and makes delicious toast for me to eat
- the coffeepot, who entertains me with its gurgling noises
- the refrigerator, who keeps my walnuts fresh and tasty
- the paper shredder and the pencil sharpener, who are always ready for an interesting conversation
- Trouble the gray parrot, who always brings grapes when she comes to visit
- my person, who takes good care of me and one day might buy me my very own grapes

Talking on the Telephone

2010-11-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Do you like telephone conversations? I really enjoy them. When my person is talking on the telephone, I snuggle right up next to her throat so as not to miss a word. Usually I just sit there and listen, but sometimes I chatter and chirp right along with her. I like telephone dialing, too. Love those beeps! Sometimes I listen and sometimes I beep, too. Another good thing about the phone is the buttons on the dial. When my person isn’t looking, I can sometimes sneak in a few good chews on those buttons before she notices. When you think about, it’s easy to see what a useful thing a telephone is. What about you? Do you like telephones?

Treats For Breakfast

2010-11-16T07:47:00.001-05:00

How I love tea! My person usually drinks coffee, so it’s a special day when a steaming mug of tea appears on the table. This morning the tea showed up at breakfast time, right when I was enjoying my morning walnuts. Walnuts and tea! Walnuts and tea! It was so exciting to have two such delicious treats at once that I didn’t know what to do. Finally I snuggled up next to the tea mug to nibble on my walnut, but I touched the mug with my beak every so often just to make sure it was still there. Then I climbed up to the rim of the mug, dropped a few walnut crumbs inside, and took several long delicious sips of tea. What a lucky parrot I am!

Yet Another Kind of Predator

2010-11-11T07:34:00.001-05:00

My person keeps a drawer full of predators. She says they’re bottles of paint that she uses to decorate things, but I know they’re really predators. Not that any of them have ever actually tried to attack me, but I know a predator when I see one. Apparently, my person doesn’t, so it’s up to me to protect us. Whenever one of those paint bottles comes out of the drawer, I have to fluff up my feathers and puff out my wings and put on my mean vulture look. Then I lunge. If the paint bottle happens to be in my person’s hand when I attack, then a finger might get bitten in the process. That always makes her mad. I keep trying to tell her that it’s dangerous to hold a predator in your hand, but she just doesn’t get it.

Yum!

2010-11-05T10:37:00.000-04:00

Do you like cookies? I loooove cookies. Fortunately, my person likes to bake them almost as much as I like to eat them. This week we’ve been eating Halloween cookies. My person cut them into weird shapes, like skulls and bats. I don’t care so much about the shapes, though. I just like the eating part. I have a real sweet beak. I like ice cream, too. I pretty much like to eat anything sweet. What about you? Do you have a sweet beak? What kinds of treats do you like to eat?

Mad

2010-11-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

Don’t you just hate it when your person goes out and stays out ALL DAY, leaving you all by yourself in your cage? That’s what happened yesterday and I was just soooo mad! What does she expect me to do all day all by myself in my cage? After I ate my pellets and tossed some apple pieces around the cage and played with my toothbrush, well, then what was I supposed to do? I talked with the furnace for a while and had a brief conversation with the refrigerator, but I have to say, conversation with those two gets boring pretty quickly as they never seem to have anything new to say. By the time my person finally got home I was pretty mad, but then I was so happy to see her, I just squawked with joy and sat on her shoulder and snuggled up to her neck. People. You just can’t stay mad with them long, no matter what they do.

Parrot Summer

2010-10-27T17:45:00.000-04:00

Don’t you just love parrot summer? You know, when you get a few days in the middle of the chilly autumn season that are warm enough for a parrot to go outside. We’ve been having a few days of parrot summer this week and I’ve been enjoying outside walks in my carrier. It is kind of a strange time to be outside. There’s hardly any green anymore. It’s all orange and yellow and brown, which would be quite scary for a green parrot like me if I didn’t have the protection of my carrier. I haven’t seen any predators during my walks this week, but if they were around, they didn’t see me either! My carrier keeps me well hidden.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-10-19T11:54:00.001-04:00

I’ve got plenty to keep me busy these days. As you can see in the photo, my person has given me quite a stack of books to work on. It’ll a take me a little while to get to the bottom of that one. A parrot’s work is never done!

Parrot Poetry Returns

2010-10-09T18:08:00.000-04:00

Ode to the Furnace
by Shadow

The furnace keeps me nice and warm
In chilly autumn weather,
And though it isn’t quite as soft,
It’s warm as any feather.

The furnace lives beneath the house,
Where it rumbles, shakes, and blows
To keep me toasty as can be
From my beak down to my toes

Though autumn days are warmed by sun,
They’re chilly by afternoon’s end,
And that is why I’m very glad
That the furnace is my friend!

Under the Weather

2010-10-05T20:41:00.000-04:00

No one likes being sick. However, we parrots know better than to let anyone know when we aren’t feeling well. I mean, just think what would happen if I were hanging out in the jungle acting all sick, and a predator saw me. It would know I was weak and unable to defend myself. So when we parrots feel sick, we always hide it. People, on the other hand, are a completely different story. My person, for example, has not been feeling well today and believe me, I know it. She spent the whole afternoon lounging on the sofa. The worst part of it was, she left me in my cage in the other room. I had to squawk quite a few times to remind her that I was all alone. Finally, she got up and paid some attention to me. Sheesh! Feeling a little sick is one thing, but it’s no reason to neglect your pet parrot.

A Parrot's Work

2010-09-30T13:12:00.003-04:00

Some people think the life of a pet parrot is all about lounging around the cage and eating seed treats. Not true. I have a lot of responsibilities as a pet parrot, and my daily tasks are constantly changing. For example, recently my person has been giving me popsicle sticks—lots of them. My job is to chew them all up into splinters. Everyday she gives me more, and I spend a good part of each day chewing them up. The photo shows my current work in progress. As you can see, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy. It may be the life of Riley for Riley, but the life of a pet parrot is something completely different.

Finches

2010-09-27T14:01:00.002-04:00

My person and I were watching some goldfinches this morning. They’re very interesting little birds. They were perched all over the stalks of evening primrose plants feasting on the seeds. I can understand why they like to eat that kind of seed. The evening primrose plants are mostly dry and brown by now, with just a few little yellow blooms left on their very tips, and the brown and yellow finches blended right in with them, so they weren’t that easy to see. So I know they felt very safe from predators while they were eating their breakfast. It’s just like when I'm outside, I only like to be where everything is green like my feathers, or else inside my carrier, so predators can’t find me. So I totally understand why those finches chose to eat their breakfast where they did. I’m not sure about those evening primrose seeds though. I wonder how they taste. I bet they’re not anywhere near as delicious as sunflower seeds are.

Huh?

2010-09-25T08:44:00.000-04:00

I got an e-mail the other day about my recent post on cereal, in which the writer mentioned that his favorite cereal is Grape Nuts. Grape Nuts is a kind of cereal? What? I know what grapes are and I know what nuts are. They are two very delicious kinds of food, but they are certainly nothing at all like cereal. Hmmm. Since I like grapes and nuts so much, maybe I would like Grape Nuts, too. I’ll have to ask my person to buy me some. As soon as I find out what Grape Nuts are really like, I’ll be sure to let you know.

More on Predators

2010-09-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

Here’s something else I can’t stand—cameras. Talk about predators! When that thing sticks its big fat eye out at me and flashes its bright light, you’d better believe I go into attack mode. I’m not going to just sit around and let that black monster go after me with its flashing and buzzing and zooming. No way! I fluff up my feathers and puff out my wings and scrape my sharp beak along the ground and put on my meanest vulture look. That’s the only way to scare those predatory cameras away. And believe me, it works. I always manage to get that thing to pull its ugly eye back into its face and go hide in its case. My person says that one reason she got the camera was that I am so cute and photogenic and she wanted to take pictures of me. What was she thinking? Flattery will get you no where, at least where there’s predators involved.

The End of Hummer Season

2010-09-10T07:29:00.001-04:00

It’s been at least a week since we’ve seen any hummingbirds at the feeder. I guess they’ve left for their winter home already. I sure will miss having them around. My person and I enjoyed watching them all summer, fighting over the feeder and flying around the flower garden. They’re really nice birds to have around, even if they do migrate like dumb robins. My person says she’ll miss them, too, but that she won’t miss having to keep their feeder clean and filled. Wow. I sure hope she doesn’t feel that way about MY feeder. What a thing for her to say!

Cereal

2010-09-07T17:19:00.000-04:00

I just love eating cereal, but there’s more to cereal than just the eating. The great thing about cereal is that it usually comes in a cardboard box, so when you’re done eating the cereal, you get to play in the box. It’s really fun to hide in the box, and it’s even more fun to chew it up. This week I’m chewing my way through a shredded wheat box, but even though shredded wheat is my favorite kind of cereal, I’m sure a cornflakes box or any other kind of cereal box would taste just as good. What about you? Do you like cereal? Do you like cereal boxes?

Vacation

2010-09-05T07:34:00.000-04:00

My person and I went on vacation last week. My person went to the beach and I went to Trouble’s house. I don’t get what the big deal about vacation is. All it meant was sitting in my own cage at someone else’s house and my person wasn’t there. What’s so fun about that? The one good thing is that Trouble’s person gave me grapes. I hardly ever get to eat grapes at my house, and I just love them. They’re so juicy and seedy. So I guess going on vacation means taking your cage to another place and eating a different kind of food. Big deal.

Anticipation

2010-08-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

If you know me at all, you know how much I loooooove walnuts, and that getting walnuts in my dish every morning is the high point of my day. So I really can’t explain how it happened that the other morning I somehow missed the chance to eat my walnuts before I went outside with my person to mow the lawn. It wasn’t until I was zipped inside my carrier and on the way out the door on my person’s back that I remembered. I knew those little walnut bits were in my food dish just waiting to be eaten and I hadn’t yet tasted even one and here we were going outside and getting ready to mow the lawn. Normally I enjoy helping my person mow the lawn. While she pushes the mower back and forth, back and forth, I ride in my carrier and survey the land. I watch out for dumb robins and squawk at the neighbor when she walks to the end of her driveway to get the newspaper and squawk at any joggers or cyclists who happen to pass by and just generally keep an eye on things, but that morning it was really hard to pay attention to all those things because all I could think about was those lonely little walnuts back inside in my food dish just waiting for me to eat them. As my person pushed the mower towards the road, I pictured those walnuts in my mind. As she pushed the mower back towards the woods, I thought about how they would taste. I was thinking so hard about those walnuts that I almost forgot to squawk at the neighbor when she came outside. When we finished mowing the lawn, my person put the mower back into the shed and we came inside the house and she let me out of my carrier. I scrambled as fast as my little parrot feet could carry me up my person’s arm, into my cage, and over to my perch, which is right next to my food dish. I stuck my beak right in the dish and picked up a piece of walnut. Mmmmmmmm. That walnut sure tasted good. Anticipation makes the best condiment.

On an’ on an’ on

2010-08-14T18:19:00.000-04:00

That gray parrot Trouble is here for a visit again, and chatting up a storm, as always. “Hiya, bird!” “Ain’t it cool!” “Apple and a grape.” And on and on and on all day long. What a show off! Well, I can beep like a microwave oven just as well as she can! This visit, she’s added something new to her repertoire: she squawks just like me. I have to admit she does it quite well. Her squawks sound almost the same as mine. However, I’m not sure what she means by it. Is she making me fun of me? Or is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? It sure is confusing being a parrot who is being parroted by another parrot.

Spider

2010-08-12T12:44:00.001-04:00

The other day while we were gardening, my person and I discovered a huge, I mean HUGE, spider in among the vegetables. It had interesting bright yellow and black markings. It had made a web that stretched from the mini pumpkin plants to the bean plants and was sitting right in the middle of it. My person said it was waiting for insects to come by and get caught in the web so it could eat them. That made me wonder. Why go through all that work spinning a web and then waiting for an insect to come by just to have a snack, when looking in your food dish for a bite to eat is so much easier? That’s what I do when I’m hungry. I guess there’s just no explaining spiders.

Hummers

2010-08-02T19:46:00.000-04:00

My person and I enjoy watching the hummingbirds at the feeder. We frequently see them there, feeding or swooping around. At first we thought a lot of different hummingbirds were feeding at the feeder, then one day we figured out what was really happening. A lot of different hummingbirds do come to the feeder, but there’s one of them, a male, who acts like the feeder is his. Whenever another bird tries to feed there, he swoops in and chases it away. Then he perches on the feeder and eats to his heart’s content. Then he flies away and perches in the birch tree nearby where he can keep his beady little eye on the feeder and make sure no other bird gets to eat there. Now that we know what is going on, we see it happen frequently. That bossy little guy is often hanging out nearby, in the birch tree or sometimes the hydrangea bush, protecting “his” feeder. My person is a little bit upset about this. She says she intended the feeder to be for all the hummingbirds, not just one greedy one. But I think I can understand why he’s acting that way. I mean, if another parrot tried to stick his beak into my food dish, you can be sure I would squawk at the top of my voice and chase him away. I mean, after all, your food dish is your food dish, right? What could be more important than that?

Career Plans

2010-07-31T07:41:00.001-04:00

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? I’m thinking shepherd might be a fun job. The other day, my person and I were watching a movie and every once in a while a whole bunch of sheep would show up on the screen, all baaing and bleating. Naturally, I squawked like crazy when I saw them because that’s what I always do when I see strange animals, but also because I really enjoyed their baaing and bleating sounds. I can appreciate any animal that makes interesting sounds. So I was thinking, if I were a shepherd I could baa and bleat with the sheep all day and then I would squawk and they would go where I told them to go. I think it would be a great job. What about you? Would you like to be a shepherd? What kind of job would you like to have?
(7/31/10)

Gardening

2010-07-24T16:40:00.001-04:00

I’ve been helping my person with the gardening recently. It’s a pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon. I sit in my carrier in the grass while my person weeds the vegetables and checks to see if any beans are ready to be picked yet. There are so many things to watch in a garden. First of all, there are lots of little creatures like lady bugs and spiders crawling around on the leaves. I can see bees collecting pollen from the squash blossoms and dumb robins hopping around on the grass. I can hear lots of birds singing in the woods. I can keep an eye on the sunflowers (and I’m happy to report they are still growing strong and several are ready to bloom) and watch the pea pods grow. I can’t wait till the peas are ripe. I just love eating peas right from the pod. I love eating green beans, too, because they have delicious seeds inside them. The garden is full of so many wonderful things (as long as the deer and woodchucks stay away).

Hold On!

2010-07-22T14:50:00.001-04:00

I just love holding things. That’s because I’m a parrot and we parrots have special feet that are made for climbing and holding. I use my feet to hold my food while I eat, but I also like to hold things for fun and relaxation. My absolute favorite toy in the whole wide world is my toothbrush, which hangs from the top of my cage. I stand on my perch on one foot and hold my toothbrush with the other foot while I squawk and chirp and chatter for hours. It’s so much fun! I also like to hold plastic milk bottle caps. Sometimes I chew them, but other times I just like to sit on my perch holding a plastic cap in my foot. Holding things is really fun, don’t you think?

Sunflowers

2010-07-18T07:44:00.000-04:00

I’ve been watching the sunflowers in our garden with great interest. After the seeds form, my person picks the flower heads and saves them for me to eat in the winter. I get to eat the seeds right out of the flower. If you’ve never tried that, you should. It’s definitely the best way to eat seeds. We had a bit of a scare in the spring when some bad deer came and ate the tops off all the young sunflower plants. You can imagine how upset we were when we discovered almost the whole row of plants with their tops bitten off. What a mean thing to do. I would never go eat the deer’s favorite plants that they had been saving to eat in the winter. Those deer are very rude creatures. I told my person to put a sign in the garden that says “No Deer Allowed,” but she’s not so sure that the deer will be able to read it. Dummies. Fortunately, at the time of the sunflower tragedy it was still early in the season and my person was able to plant more sunflowers and now they are growing very well. I look forward to lots of seed eating this winter.

A Place to Perch

2010-06-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

Sometimes all you need is a good place to perch. Some days it’s all rainy and cold and I can’t go outside in my carrier or sit by the open window and talk to the outside birds. Or I might get to thinking about my true love Quentie, who I had to leave behind in the city when my person and I came here to live. Or maybe my person forgets to give me my afternoon treat. Yep, some days can look pretty dreary, even to a bright green parrot like me. But then I notice the laundry rack right there in the middle of the living room just waiting to be perched on, so I fly to it and sit on the very top bar and stretch and preen and let out a few loud squawks, and the day starts looking pretty good. The right place to perch can really make a difference, don’t you think?

What happened to summer?

2010-06-10T16:34:00.000-04:00

One day it’s all warm and sunny and I’m hanging out on the windowsill talking to the outside birds and going outside for walks in my carrier, and the next day it’s chilly and rainy and the window is shut tight and my carrier is nowhere to be seen. I don’t like being shut up inside on a gray, wet day like this. I sure hope the sun comes back tomorrow. Well, anyhow, at least I still have strawberries in my dish, so that’s something. And speaking of outside birds, those phoebes that built their nest right outside our kitchen window are gone. They just disappeared. Mrs. Phoebe sat on that nest for like a month and then one day we didn’t see her anymore. We still hear the phoebe pair calling “Phoebe! Phoebe!” out in our woods, but they’ve never come back to the nest. We started wondering what was inside it. Did the eggs just not hatch? Did the babies die? Finally, the other day my person took the nest down and we looked inside, and guess what we saw? Nothing. That’s right. Absolutely nothing. Poor Mrs. Phoebe hadn’t laid even one egg. Maybe she’ll try again next year.

The Joys of Summer

2010-06-04T07:35:00.000-04:00

Imagine my delight when I peeked into my food dish this morning and found strawberries! Mmmmm, seedy! Now I know summer is really here.
Now that I have recovered from my fright of last week, I have ventured back onto the windowsill a few times to check out the outside birds, though it is a bit nerve wracking since there are always cars and trucks speeding by. But despite that I’ve had some good communication with the outside birds. They chirp and twitter and sing, and I chime in with squawks and beeps, and sometimes I throw in a “Pretty bird!” or two for good measure. We’ve had some interesting conversations.

Spoilsport

2010-05-25T06:54:00.001-04:00

So I’m sitting on the windowsill this morning, enjoying the beautiful spring day and listening to the outside birds. There were phoebes, mourning doves, chickadees, dumb robins, a whole lot of different birds. It was quite a melodious bird conversation that was going on and I was trying to figure out what everyone was talking about, and contributing my two cents worth, too, when all of a sudden the house started to shake and there was a deep rumble in the distance that kept getting closer and closer and closer…then this giant truck comes roaring by. Well, that scary predatory thing sure had me squawking and flapping, and I flew right to the safety of my cage as fast as I could. Now I don’t know when I’ll feel safe enough to sit on the windowsill again. Sheesh. All it takes is one monster truck to spoil a good time.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-05-18T20:45:00.000-04:00

Don’t you just love some things, while there other things that you can’t stand? Here are some things I really like:
walnuts
sunflower seeds
anything with seeds
head scratches
preening
dark corners
things that beep
baths
remote controls (love chewing those buttons)
laundry
watch straps
the cabinet where my food is kept
pencils
music

Then there are those things I can’t stand, mostly because they look predatory and need to be attacked:
dogs
cats
earphones
CDs and DVDs
the vacuum cleaner
the kitchen clock
hats
chairs when they move

What about you? What are your favorite things? What are some things you can’t stand?

Catbird

2010-05-15T08:58:00.001-04:00

A catbird has been hanging out around the yard recently. He has a really nice voice. I enjoy listening to his calls, and sometimes I call back. I’m partial to catbirds because they’re good imitators, like parrots. They imitate other birds, frogs, machines, lots of different kinds of sounds. Me, I tend towards beeping sounds, like microwave ovens and telephones make. I don’t imitate other birds. But I like listening to the catbird do that. There’s one thing about catbirds I really can’t understand, though. They get their name from the mewing sound they often make. Why would any self-respecting bird make a sound like a cat?

Places to Hang Out

2010-05-12T10:51:00.000-04:00

Do you have any favorite comfortable corners in your house where you like to hang out? My current favorite place is the shower curtain rod. It’s a great place to be because it’s so high up. We parrots tend to prefer high places because we always have to be watching out for predators. So the shower curtain rod is really good for that. The other thing I like about it is there’s some good stuff up there to chew – rings and the top edge of the curtain. Of course, as soon as my person sees me chewing on the curtain, she takes me down from there. She really cramps my style sometimes. Oh well. You gotta love her anyhow. What about you? Where do you like to hang out?

Good Morning!

2010-05-09T20:21:00.000-04:00

Getting up in the morning is the very best part of the day, don’t you think? I usually wake up before my person, so I sit in my cage and wait for to come take the cover off and let me out. Sometimes she sleeps a little too long, then I have to squawk to let her know that morning is here and it’s time to greet the new day. It’s always very exciting when I hear her coming into the room, then she pulls the cover off my cage, and I am so excited I squawk and whoop for joy. Then my person puts fresh food in my dish, including a few walnut pieces, which is very exciting too. I usually eat the walnuts right away. Then I go to the kitchen to help my person make her breakfast (which she shares with me). Morning is so exciting. It’s definitely my favorite time of day. What about you? What time of day you like best?

More on Books

2010-05-01T07:24:00.001-04:00

My person went to a used book sale a few days ago and came back with a box full of books. Right on top of the pile was one called “Guide to Training Your Parrot.” The good thing about that book is that it is full of pretty pictures of pretty birds, including the prettiest birds of all – nanday conures. But next time my person goes to a book sale, I wish that she would bring back a book for me – “Guide to Training Your Person” – because I sure could use a few tips (and that’s a book I would read before chewing). My person is always doing stuff like taking away pens and books right when I’m in the middle of chewing them and locking me up in my cage when she’s cooking dinner, which is, of course, the exact time when I want to be out of my cage and in the kitchen. She’s full of annoying habits like that which I’d like to train her out of. At least I have her trained to come when I squawk, so that’s something.

Forbidden Books

2010-04-29T07:17:00.000-04:00

I’ve blogged in the past about how much I’ve enjoyed chewing my way through “Gone With the Wind.” It’s not a bad book, but sometimes a parrot wants a change. So, the other day I was hanging out on top of the reference books that my person keeps near her computer – and near my play area, too, I might add. So, anyhow, since I was there, I started nibbling on a dictionary. The first few nibbles tasted pretty good so I just kept right on going, having a grand old chew, until my person had to come along and spoil it all. As soon as she realized what I was doing, she got all mad and put me back in my play area. “Chew your own book!” she told me. Obviously she doesn’t get it that forbidden books taste so much better. Sigh.

Nests

2010-04-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

There are lots of different kinds of outside birds. Not all of them are dumb robins. For example, there’s a pair of phoebes building a nest right above our kitchen door. My person and I watch them while we’re washing the dishes. OK, it’s my person who does the actual dish washing; I just sit on her shoulder and cheer her along. But still, we both watch the phoebes build their nest. They bring bits of moss and dirt and are building quite a sturdy-looking nest on a very narrow ledge. I have to admit that they’re very skilled. Still, I wonder at the method they choose. I mean, why bother spending all that time carrying around bits of moss and dirt when all you have to do is find a nice cozy hole in a tree and do a bit of chewing to get the shape and size just right. That’s how a parrot would do it. Since I’m an inside parrot, I make my nests by chewing up cardboard boxes or wooden boxes. We parrots know that chewing is a great nest-building method. No moss and dirt for us!

New Friend

2010-04-18T20:36:00.000-04:00

My person brought home a big box today. That’s always exciting, though a little scary too, because you never know if there’s a predator inside or not. I always watch with a great deal of interest when my person opens a box or a bag. Today she pulled out a big, shiny thing. I wasn’t sure at first if I should be happy or scared, but as soon as she plugged it in, it let out several very friendly beeps. It was a new microwave oven! My old friend, the previous microwave oven, was apparently getting a bit tired out, so it’s gone off for a rest. I am so glad that the new one is just as friendly as the old one. I always enjoy beeping conversations with a microwave oven, and this one seems to be quite talkative. I’m also glad to have a new friend to entertain me because it’s been too cold these past few days to go outside in my carrier. The other day there was even snow on the ground! I thought it was winter again. Fortunately, the snow went away quickly, but it’s still cold out there. But at least I have my new microwave oven friend to talk to while I wait for the outside to warm up.