by Graybeard » Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:47 pm
Our first tiel was found in a neighbor's yard in early 2007 and given to us. It wasn't too long before he found an open window. He flew to the edge of the gumtree grove nearby, and was knocked to the ground by a small hawk or peregrine. We retrieved him unhurt from the bushes.
The next time wasn't so lucky. The family followed him for hours, to half a mile away, where the crows got him.
Mr. Kratchit the cockatiel got away at least four times in five years. Once was upon our arrival in Rockford, Ill, at midnight, where he flew into a nearby tree. I was able to retrieve him at dawn before he climbed high in the tree.
The next time my wife forgot Mr. Kratchit was on her shoulder, and she stepped onto the porch. We retrieved him off a house roof a half mile way. A third time was similar, but he didn't get as far before retrieval.
Then, just two weeks ago, I took him outside in a travel cage for some air and shine. The cage fell, the door popped open, and he was gone in a flash around the side of our house. Before I could even go into action, he came back around the house with a peregrine hot on his tail. He got away from the peregrine, and a few hours later we could hear him forty feet up in a Gum tree, until a crow chased him out of the grove. That's the last we saw him.
Sassy the cockatiel loved to help me on the laptop. As I was carrying a large box outside at a house in Ill, struggling between the door and storm door, Sassy flew 40 feet from across the room, onto my shoulder, then up into a tree, never to be seen again.
OTOH, a neighbor spotted a young male golden mantled rosella in her yard last summer, and called us. We were able to capture him in another neighbor's garage. We had his flight feathers clipped and blood test, but he never got over a fear of us. He just wasn't going to be an out of the cage companion bird, so we gave him to the local Montessori school, where he is doing fine.
- Attachments
-
- LP 007w.jpg
- (27.43 KiB) Downloaded 344 times
-
- Mar08 001W.jpg
- (71 KiB) Downloaded 344 times
-
- HPIM1996W.jpg
- (68.02 KiB) Downloaded 344 times
-
- HPIM1816cw.jpg
- (71.32 KiB) Downloaded 344 times
-
- HPIM1783W.jpg
- (84.75 KiB) Downloaded 344 times