July 11, 2008

Berkeley playing

Berkeley loves to play with her new toys from Parrotdise Perch. That`s Gogoi in the background chirping away.

Here she is watching herself on video...

Posted by songdawg at 10:25 PM | For the birds

May 23, 2008

blogging with my new htc touch

Took this pic with my new phone and blogged it from my phone. I have to figure out how to reduce the picture resolution so the pics aren't so big. Very cool.

Posted by songdawg at 7:55 PM | Comments (0) | For the birds

December 8, 2007

Berkeley & Marshall

Berkeley is hilarious - she is happiest whenever she is climbing on one of us.

Posted by songdawg at 5:47 PM | For the birds

October 14, 2007

Berkeley on Bass Case

Posted by songdawg at 7:40 PM | For the birds

October 8, 2007

Berkeley

The cutest bird evar...

Posted by songdawg at 4:54 PM | For the birds

April 9, 2007

Hidden Talents

Posted by songdawg at 4:41 PM | For the birds

December 25, 2006

Christmas 2006

Christmas day Sunset

Squeaky

Posted by songdawg at 8:28 PM | For the birds

Holiday Kisses

SLUUURRRRP!

Posted by songdawg at 2:35 PM | For the birds

December 21, 2006

Chatty Birds

Happy Solstice!

The weather has been beautiful in the last week and the birds are chatting up a storm.

Hear Gogoi saying hello

Hear Berkeley saying Hello

Posted by songdawg at 8:55 PM | For the birds

November 15, 2006

Walnuts

Did I mention Berkeley loves eating walnuts? She cracks the shell and picks out the good pieces.

Posted by songdawg at 5:48 PM | For the birds

Baby Berkeley Pictures

Awwwwwww... we got pictures from Berkeley's breeder today. She/He was born on February 14, 2006 and is the second baby to Max and Coco.

Berkeley with younger sibling and two "cousins" on March 11, 2006

Here are some notes from the breeder.

Here is a brief history of Junior's life before moving to Edmonton:

Junior was the first of two children born to Max and Coco in 2006. Unfortunately, I don't remember the probable sex of each of the kids, so I'll refer to Junior as "he".

He grew up with his younger sibling and two "cousins". His human mom (me) stayed home full time for the first three months of his life, feeding him special baby food every few hours as he developed and grew. After 3 months, he was down to four feedings a day, and had a nanny come for lunch to feed and play with him and the other kids.

March 22, 2006

Growing up, he had a great deal of socializing, with everyone from the age of 8 days to 80 years. He traveled with "mom" south to Coaldale (east of Lethbridge) to visit nephews, and north to Innisfail and Sylvan Lake to visit friends. The four young cockatoos were accustomed to the 1 ½ hour drive north, but got impatient when a trip would go over the hour and a half ("Mom, are we there yet?" in bird talk).

Junior grew up around handfed baby cockatiels and the kitchen "locals", a Senegal Parrot and Gold Mantled Rosella. Besides having mom's nephews and neighborhood kids visiting him, his nanny's dog would often come along at lunch. The dog stayed on the back landing, and was a constant source of entertainment for the kids.

April 6, 2006

Junior's dad Max is without doubt the most intelligent bird I have ever met. He is the king of the aviary, dominating and outsmarting everyone else including but not limited to other cockatoos and African Greys. Max has double locks on his cage because he can solve any mechanical latch. He knows how to work a combination lock, and tosses it off the cage every so often for kicks. The day that Coco laid the egg that became Junior 06-30, Max was in heaven. He was singing and laughing his heart out. He told me "jabber jabber Coco… egg… jabber jabber nest." When I responded asking, "Max, do you have and egg in the nest?", he went hysterical. I asked him "Are you in a good mood?" and he replied, "Max is in a GOOD mood". His grasp of the english language and ability to use it in conversation are amazing.

I have Junior's oldest sister as my "daughter". She is 11 and has always gotten along fabulously with everyone. She likes to intimidate other birds (even ones twice her size, which she does successfully). She loves people; all people.

Posted by songdawg at 5:14 PM | For the birds

October 17, 2006

Trust

In the last month, Berkeley has started rolling over - it is so cool. She just flips herself over. Here she is flopped on her back relaxing in the palm of my hand.

Posted by songdawg at 6:37 PM | For the birds

August 23, 2006

The Cockatoo and the Apple Tree

Berkeley is settling in and I think Gogoi is starting to adjust to having a new buddy. The antibiotics have kicked in. Got a couple of "I am jealous and pissed" bites on my finger from Gogoi that got infected (FUN!). She is living up to the Amazon parrot reputation of being jealous.

Last week, the apple tree in our back yard was trimmed and I gave Berkeley a couple of branches. After 10 seconds of being really freaked, she started playing and chewing her way to happiness.

Gogoi unimpressed and not into chewing trees. Almonds GOOD - branches BAD. New bird in the house - Blech!

Posted by songdawg at 8:26 PM | For the birds

July 8, 2006

Introducing... Berkeley!

We have a new buddy living with us and (her?) name is Berkeley. She's a Goffin Cockatoo and was born on Febrary 14th, 2006 so she is still a baby.

We brought her home today and so far she has learned how to "Step up" onto our hands, learned how to "Step Up" to get out of the cage and what was most surprising is to open her cage by herself. We have since added a padlock so she can't go roaming on her own in the middle of the night.

She is such a sweetie - even Gogoi is tolerating her (and that is saying a lot). She is so affectionate and loves to be handles - we are both in love.

Posted by songdawg at 9:44 PM | For the birds

April 9, 2006

She's a GIRL!!!!

We got the DNA sexing results back for our Amazon parrot.

Gogoi is a girl!!!!!! Gogoi of course means Big Brother in Cantonese so Marshall has now started calling her GoGirl.

Posted by songdawg at 1:43 PM | For the birds

March 29, 2006

Gogoi's Check Up

We brought Gogoi to the vet today for his check up. Dr. Pam Gordy (THE bird doctor here in Edmonton) gave him the thumbs up - he's healthy and doing great. We decided to finally get him sexed. It is impossible to tell what gender a Red Lored Amazon parrot is just by how they look. So we signed up for a DNA sexing test which is a blood test. We should know if Gogoi is a boy or girl in a couple of weeks.

Posted by songdawg at 7:32 PM | For the birds

July 4, 2004

E-books

I brought the birds to the vet yesterday. Moimoi had her splint removed and is healing fine. She probably won't have full use of all her toes on the foot that was broken but then again at least she has a foot - it was a bad bad break. But she is a very fiesty creature and will pull through. Gogoi lost some weight which is great since he is a little chubby. Must be all of the walking around the house he does now following us around. Looks like he has a bit of asthma or allergies - I need to pick up some children's Benadryl drops and try them out and see if it helps. Don't know if he'll like bubble gum flavour or not but then again he won't have much choice since he'll be restrained in a towel - something I am not looking forward to. He's a strong smart bird so I am sure it will be a team effort with M and I to make it happen :) In the afternoon I volunteered for the Edmonton Folk Music Fest and then puttered around the house. Nice quiet afternoon. I bought my first e-book from Amazon.com and downloaded it to my Pocket PC. Very cool - now I won't have to scrounge around for a space in the bookshelf to store my new books. Just download and go. I actually like reading with the PDA - it has a pretty high resolution so I can see a whole page of info at once and just need to press the toggle button to move to the next page. And it comes with its own light source cause the screen is lit. The books are less expensive too. So from now on I will be curling up in bed with my Pocket PC instead of paperbacks. This afternoon I am off to jam with the Wildwood Flowers in Alberta Beach. My voice is back and I am in the mood to jam!

Posted by songdawg at 12:22 PM | Comments (2) | For the birds

June 15, 2004

The Fiercest Little Bird

Here she is - the fiercest little bird in the house. Willing to take on the big boys. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. When I got home and checked on her she had half of her splint soaking in her water dish. I know the instructions say to keep her splint dry. Must be hard the sit all day on one leg with the other outstretch behind you. Not fun. Here she is with her tape splint. There dried blood on it from when the vet put it in her leg. She actually ate today which I think is a great sign. M and I work together every evening to give her drops to prevent infection (yes it takes two of us). M uses his skill in catching and holding small birds (from his grad school research days) and I try to put the drop in her beak. The second night I think I even got most of it in her instead of on her. Like I said she is fierce. Gogoi better watch his back cause I have a feeling she has been spending her days plotting revenge.

Posted by songdawg at 5:16 PM | For the birds

June 12, 2004

MoiMoi Update

Brought MoiMoi to the vet this morning - she has a really bad break. It is now in a splint - she looks very unhappy. I have to give her drops once a day which will be interesting since she isn't tame. Hopefully she will heal OK. We might have to change her name to Ms. Gimpy or MoiMoi the Gimp.

Posted by songdawg at 6:42 PM | Comments (2) | For the birds

June 11, 2004

Enough for one day!

Warning: dumping ahead. Crazy day! So the plan was that we would be making our way to Slave Lake for Helen's Memorial Jam for the weekend but that didn't pan out. I feel so sad that I am not there. So I was working tonight (which went really well thank goodness) when I got a phone call from my sweetie. I guess I forgot to close MoiMoi the budgie's cage this morning after feeding her. M was screaming in the phone about giving him the vet's number cause there was blood all over. MoiMoi flew out of her cage and as she loves to do flew to GoiGoi our amazon parrot who is about 25 times bigger than MoiMoi. She probably landed on his cage and he bit her leg. We couldn't get her to a vet tonight but have an appointment at 9:45 AM. Her leg look terrible and I just got finished cleaning up - I am surprised she survived. She is in the bedroom which is quiet and away from the noise. I hope she lives through the night. Goigoi is all wired and weirded out too. On my home from work I stopped at a walkin clinic to get the pain in my side checked out - turns out it's probably either a kidney infection or kidney stones. I am hoping for the infection. I just took another couple of ibuprofin and after this blog am crashing. I am feeling burnt out and feeling very bad about MoiMoi. So big day tomorrow - vet then medical lab. And here I thought I would be jamming all weekend.

Posted by songdawg at 11:00 PM | For the birds

May 3, 2004

Gogoi Singing

That bird cracks me up. Here he is singing his heart out. Want to hear what he sounds like? Here's an old blog entry.

Posted by songdawg at 7:33 AM | For the birds

March 29, 2004

Gogoi's Manor

Finally finished setting up Gogoi's jungle gym. Looks like he likes it.

Posted by songdawg at 8:52 PM | For the birds

February 20, 2004

No Baba

So we have decided to not take Baba the yellow naped amazon parrot. She/he is an amazing bird with lots of energy and personality and we think it would be too much for us and our current bird. Too bad, the thought of getting another bird was very exciting. Tonight we are going to see Down to the Wood at the Full Moon Folk Club. Should be a good show. I have been very busy with volunteering as a web coordinator for the Blueberry Bluegrass Festival - the new redesign and some content should be up by next week.

Posted by songdawg at 7:43 AM | Comments (2) | For the birds

February 15, 2004

New addition to the family

Nope, not kids - we are still dedicated to our childfree lifestyle. What I mean is we are getting a new Yellow Nape Amazon parrot named Baba. Unfortunately, a friend needs to sell his parrots and we've agreed to give his bird Baba a new home. We're going to meet on Tuesday and by next weekend might have someone new living with us. We'll give Gogoi and Baba a month to see if they can live harmoniously together. I am hoping they will be great friends. Gogoi (Red Lored Amazon) chilling out while I blog

Posted by songdawg at 7:46 PM | For the birds

January 30, 2004

Gogoi is coming out of his shell

Gogoi is starting to come out of his shell and explore. Here he is walking around the kitchen. I never thought I would see the day where he would be brave enough to leave his cage. Almonds are the perfect lure.

Posted by songdawg at 9:49 PM | For the birds

July 1, 2003

Gogoi gets a shower

Here are some photos of Gogoi doing his crazy shower dance. He's trying to catch the spray coming from the bottle. Cracks me up everytime.

Posted by songdawg at 12:33 PM | For the birds

May 28, 2003

Gogoi

Gogoi missing his wrestling buddy

Posted by songdawg at 11:11 PM | For the birds

April 14, 2003

Fait Dodo

Every night I sing a lullaby to my parrot and last night on a whim I recorded him singing/croaking along - I was croaking too but just ignore that. I think he sounds hilarious. He sounds so freaky but when he's singing he looks so proud. Cracks me up everytime I hear it.

Gogoi the singing (croaking) parrot: Download mp3 file (143 KB)

Posted by songdawg at 9:36 PM | For the birds

April 10, 2003

Pretty Bird

Went to see the film "Bend It Like Beckham" it was a great movie. I highly recommend it. It's a good story, light, funny and a bit of a tear-jerker as well. Lifted my spirits. Did I mention that it is spring and the birds have spring fever... they are so noisy it is driving us both a little crazy. The squeaks and squawks have been pretty much constant.

Gogoi

Posted by songdawg at 10:12 PM | For the birds | Movies

March 26, 2003

Squeak

My little Squeaky - she is such a cutie. It has been so cold this winter that I haven't taken her to get her wings clipped which means that she can fly around the house. She usually doesn't unless startled. Here she is hanging out while Marshall and I cuddled on the couch and watch "The War".

Posted by songdawg at 6:17 PM | For the birds