My summer is over (long)

["Chris Biro" <chrisbiro@VHImOCdiJKo1p__hihsRNa_Hu74zF0eSJ_rAXR2HBHOViV6MfrsLTfbFksqqSeJsrB3YsG7WfXHgTBkx.yahoo.invalid>]

Hello all,

Susan and I are back from this years summer season of shows. It was an
eventful summer with some really wonderful flying and some very troubling
events too.

We started out by doing several small shows spread out at a couple a month.
At Westport Washington, a lady with a dog on a leash thought it would be
interesting to see what her dog would do with the bird, Patty (Patagonian
conure). Patty died in my hands some minutes later. Needless to say this was
a major tragedy, and one that was completely unnecessary. Patty was down
socializing with the public like he loved to do. There were no bleachers for
him to be sitting on like normal so he was down on the ground near our set
up. Anyway, we lost a very dear friend. Patty was the only adult trained
bird I had flying in the show.

A few days before leaving to go to start this last run of fairs, we were
given a double yellow head Amazon named Sonata. Sonata is a very nice bird
with full wings and indoor flight experience. I chose to take him with us
rather than leave him alone in a new location since I had available cage
space in the motorhome and he is such a pleasant bird to be around. The
first day of shows I went to take him from the motor home to a cage on the
stage but let him fly off my hand while exiting the motor home. He flew off
over the carnival, out of my sight. There was pretty much nothing to do but
wait. The carnival ran until about midnight so there was no way to hear him
during the day or evening. And of course at night he would be silent. So in
the morning I was up searching for Sonata. It was quiet and peaceful. I knew
little about Sonata and he knew little about me. I did know that Sonata says
"Hello Sonata". So that is was I was calling out as I walked the tree line
surrounding the carnival. And sure enough he called back to me. At first I
was not sure I heard him. But I went in that direction anyway and called
again. And he responded from across the road. I had to walk a long distance
to get out of the fenced area and get back to where I heard him but luckily
he called to me again. It did not take long to discover his actual location
in a stand of trees, perched about 25 feet up a small fir tree. There were
no climbable branches on this tree but I managed to climb it like a flag
pole anyway. And amazingly enough he let me pick him up. At first he was not
going to let me but after I started to climb back down to go get some
peanuts - dummy me left them on a branch near the ground - he looked
disturbed about my leaving so I tried to get him to step up again, and he
did. I was very lucky. I did the right things and got him back. But I was
lucky still because you can do the right things and still not get them back.

And just before we were done with this fair, Gleam (Blue Throat macaw) tries
chewing on a transformer and gets knocked off, falls 30 feet and lands on
her back. I did not see this actually happen but several people told me the
same story. She was very stunned and disoriented when she was handed to me
and her feet were not working, clenched tightly. But after a few minutes,
she seemed to be recovering. I left her in the motorhome for the rest of the
day and did not fly her again until later the next day. She seemed to be
quite normal and continues to seem to be normal.

Also at this fair I was reminded that my freeflying at fairs is near its
end. Another entertainer friend approached us to ask us how the animal
welfare act was impacting us. He is a magician and had run into some trouble
at an Oregon fair over his rabbit and goat that he uses in his show. After
he read the regulations he chose to pull these animals out of his show
rather than jump through their hoops. He was quite upset about the level of
intrusion. He also said he was told the new regs that include birds are due
to be finished by the end of the year. I have talked to USDA and have been
told that the regs may be finished by the end of the year but the comment
period may be long for birds so the new regs may not be implemented for yet
another year. In any event it makes it difficult for me to book another
season not knowing when these new regs will take effect. I am pretty certain
that I will not continue doing these shows once these new rules take effect.
The level of intrusion is way beyond what I will put up with, not to mention
the added costs these regs invoke would make this not worth doing any more.
The main cost is the increased level of security needed once the government
makes the location and selection of my birds public information to any nut
case or thief with a computer. And then there is the loss of personal
liberty associated with having to report my location and activities to USDA
any time I leave the property or face potential fines for not being present
during one of their unannounced inspections. I don't do well with
bureaucrats and know I would wind up telling them unpleasant things, typical
pirate fashion with sword in hand. This is not good news though I have known
it was coming for several years. I have thought about this allot and have
realized that it has been these fairs that have caused me to learn as much
about free flying as I have. These fairs have been the driving force behind
getting as many trained flyers in the air and in dealing with all the flock
dynamic issues that have come up. I am now wondering what it will be that
will keep me learning, if anything. If it were not for these fairs, I would
have plateaued long ago since flying a couple birds at home is so much more
simple than flying a varied flock at varied locations with varied crazy
elements present with set expectations due to a scheduled performance. It
may be that flying at different locations such as Moab could serve to
continue this function. I am curious to see what happens now that it looks
like my days of doing fairs is over.

And then the worst part of the summer trip was the loss of Red Claw (Mitred
conure). Red Claw was my very first baby bird hatched 5 June 1998. I cannot
remember a time when Red Claw was not doing fairs with me. He was my
greatest mentor bird. He many times went out and brought birds back that
seemed to be getting themselves into trouble by going too far off before
they were ready. He was the best of my Mitreds in many ways. He was the most
cuddly, the best talker, and the most friendly. We were doing a fair that we
had done twice before and were set up at the same location as before. We had
a couple fir trees directly across from our stage. The birds were playing in
these trees, as they had done many times before. A lady came and told me one
of my birds was on the ground twitching. It was Red Claw and he had been
electrocuted by the power pole that was tucked in behind the trees. I did
not even know it was there. I could not see the pole or the wires from where
we were set up. I don't know that I would have done anything different had I
known it was there but I might have. It is interesting to me that 16 years
of doing fairs without electrical issues and then twice within a one week
period. All I can say is that this is just so sad. Things just are not right
without Red Claw. He traveled this journey with me. He was with me when the
flying really started to develop, he was so much a part of why it started to
develop. His loss is the worst felt loss I have suffered to date. It is
temping to think of this as the lowest point in my life.

But then there are bright things happening also. The other birds are so
wonderful and did such wonderful flying. We have baby birds to train. We
have new birds to care for. These are filling our lives with joy and
excitement. Arial (Scarlet) and Gleam were delightful all summer. They did
such wonderful flying and were so little trouble. It seems with each new
bird I get to train, I get to have more and more wonderful birds. It is sad
when we lose one, no matter the cause, but the other birds always seem to
fill that gap and then the new birds seem surpass the previous in some way.
An odd thing going on now is a flighted Sulfur Crested cockatoo that has
been a total spaz for several years has decided that I am actually ok now.
It seems that he missed me this trip and seems to be quite happy that I am
back. Never before has he been responsive to me picking him up. He would
sometimes let me do so but was always seriously afraid. Over the past couple
days that we have been back, he has actively come to me wanting to be pickup
and is clearly enjoying being cuddled and pet. I have been enjoying this as
much as I can, both for my own benefit and for his - the more positive
history I can create with him the better. He is a good flyer and it is
possible that we could get him flying outdoors soon if this change in his
attitude remains.

We have four baby calico macaws, two that came to us prior to the fair
season kicking off and then two that came while at a fair. The later two are
five months old with clipped wings. We had the vet pull a few flight
feathers on one and have not pulled any on the other. This shall make an
interesting study to see what kind of difference we see between these five
siblings, two flight trained as fledglings, two clipped and regrown with one
having had some flight pulled to accelerate the process and then one two
year old not clipped but trained as an adult. The two older can fly a little
but I am seeing their attempts reduce. I will be target training them to see
if I can use this to keep them leaping across to me so that they do not lose
this before their feathers regrow. The three month old's started flying just
a week before we came home so the training is starting right now. I already
have them flying to my arm from across the room for cuddling and a sunflower
seed. This is a great start. I am expecting to have them flying outdoors
within a week or two. We shall see. Of course I will be posting about this
on the list.

It is good to be back and I look forward to being involved on the list
again.

Parrots: More Than Pets, Friends For Life
Chris Biro
Nature's Choice Essentials Website: http://www.organicbirdfood.com
ESENCE Website: http://www.thepiratesparrot.com
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Tel (206) 618-2610