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Re: [Freeflight] Sad last day of the year
Hello Trish,
> I am so sorry for your terrible loss. I too hope you have NO losses
> in 2007
> or ever again. I have heard from many about the clever and
> beautiful Suns
> and I know the joy they brought to you and many others. However, I
> don=92t see
> how this horrible event relates to your statement below. Fully
> flighted
> outdoor birds who escape due to a lack of a double door entry (you
> mentioned
> Gleam had escaped this way before) and using tethers or training older
> birds? I don=92t see the connection. Please help me. I know you are
> distressed
> but I just want to follow your thinking.
The connection is simply that these birds escaped because the person
who was last in the aviary did not pay close attention to these birds
as they left the aviary. All it takes to enter and leave the aviary
is to just keep an eye on these sun conures as you close the door. It
is an attention to detail issue. The same is true for using a tether
or for training adult birds to fly. WIth the tether all it takes is a
moment of not paying attention and there is a bird loose with a
tether dangling from it. And with training adult birds to fly,
because the process is so much more slow than it is with training a
fledgling, there are lots more opportunities to miss some little
detail that turns out to result in a critical error. I do not trust
people to be able to pay close attention to so many details,
especially as new trainers. I try very hard to pay attention to
details; the army was really big on this especially when I was a
drill sergeant. But I still miss things occasionally and sometimes
even when I am actually watching for them.
I don't like tethers because I have personally observed experienced
bird people put a tether on a bird and then leave it untended as it
sat on a perch with the tether dangling. I have also had birds slip
right out of my hand as I tried to hold their feet so I know this
kind of thing can happen to someone with a tether also. Once the bird
lands in a tree with a tether on, it could be impossible to get the
bird back down again if it lands in the wrong tree - and I have seen
trees like that.
If training adult birds were the only option available, I might learn
to accept it as an acceptable risk, but it is not. And since the
difference in ease and safety of training a fledgling is so
dramatically different, I cannot justify condoning the training of
adults for outdoor flight as a regular option. It is not my task on
this list to encourage the most risky approaches. It is my task to
encourage the best methods that I am familiar with. Methods that rely
on the new trainer to be highly alert to a large assortment of
details that any one of could turn deadly are not to my liking,
especially when I know there is a less risky approach to having a
flighted bird out doors. I am not saying that flight training an
adult bird to fly out doors is not possible, only that I think it is
highly unwise in leu of other available better options.
Chris Biro
chrisbiro@J5nJc_WLjT827Ns2Tny_wI8icV8sUtigq_NY39C7o2S8syM2QLpKERAwOL6YSGaP1At4ba0ycO1Vv-ZgVgjDfA.yahoo.invalid
(206) 618-2610