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Daddy's away for the weekend, and I'm keetsitting. Woo-hoo - I've been
looking forward to this all week! Food, water, play - no problem, right?
When I arrived, the keets were up to their usual tricks - chirping
pleasantly, and sticking their necks up as far as they could go, and even
standing on their tip-toes to see who was visiting. I'm still amazed at how
long their necks are when they want them to be. Having read the last blog
entry, I was assured that the keets know their "safe zone". Indeed, I had
seen it with my own eyes, so I removed the cover on the brooder, and sat
down for a little relaxing. There was the usual fuss over getting to the
perch, each keet cleverly calculating the maximum possible disruption to the
others while trying to find the best place to sit.
So far, so good, huh? Well, Y.T. showed a certain amount of autonomy.
He/she started poking his/her head over the side of the box - eying what was
on the other side, and even did a few high-speed runs along the ledge that
Daddy had the foresight to install on the top of their box (complete with
duct tape for traction!). Then it happened... In a moment of sheer abandon,
Y.T. took off flying! 'That's ok', I thought, and went to retrieve the
wayward bird, but in the meantime, three others followed the cue! I chased
them around a bit - they didn't run away in terror, but scooted just out of
my reach, as if playing some sort of game. Then two more came to join in
the fun, one landing on my head, and one on my shoulder. At least they are
not afraid of people! I have to add that their chirping was of the happy
kind.
What was I to do? I now had six out of eight birds roaming the house, and
the remaining two were still unconstrained. Luckily it was not as hard as I
thought. I was able to catch two birds at a time and put them back in their
box (although lots of screeching ensued). Once all were inside, I replaced
the cover. Phew! The rest of the weekend has been uneventful - the keets
sit on their perch without flying away, and it's cute to see them napping
with their heads hanging down. Somehow I think that's not too comfortable,
but they seem to like it.
Oh - I almost forgot - the weekly wing picture... This is Y.T. (the
benchmark) - it's the best I could do holding the bird with one hand and the
camera with the other. It's getting hard to capture the whole wing in one
picture!
Another thing I've noticed is that Y.T.'s markings are different than the
others (BTW, I sponsor Y.T. - that's my bird!). Y.T. has spots while the
others have distinctive stripes. This is a picture of Kittywhee for
comparison.
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