Springtime with Kai

I've been away for a while due to being so busy, but I'm still here, if not as active!

We are now well into spring and I'm happy to report that Kai's aggression issues are very mild. He seems to be more clingy and needy than usual, because he is generally more aloof and content to be independent while doing his own thing. He hasn't begun to molt yet, but I expect he'll be more tetchy and mouthy when that time comes. The only thing that he's taken to doing, which isn't favourable, is emitting an ear piercing chirp if I stow him away in his house and he isn't pleased, or when we come home and don't go in to see him immediately. I haven't been reinforcing him and wait until he's quiet again for a few minutes to go in and see him. If we're separated and he's just making his normal, "Where are you?" call, I gladly respond back to him. It reminds me of how my mom, sister, and I call to each other in stores so we can find one another with soft clicks. I'm hoping that the ear piercing calls will expire with the passing of spring. He has been more vocal and grumbly in general.

Kai's aggression towards my husband has lessened. Despite it being mating season, he's been more tetchy and mouthy, but relatively mild (compared to other stories I've read!). At the beginning, he would lunge at my husband and try to take souveniers home, but his aggression towards him has dissolved. I think it may have to do with the fact that I now have my husband open his house when it's dinner time. If the stove is on, Kai is kept safely in his house, so he's only allowed to prep food (and sample bits of what's to come!) with me before I stow him away. When everything is done and we're ready to eat, I have my husband open his door and tell him, "Go perch, time to eat dindin!" So I'm happy to say that Kai no longer wants to torment my husband as much since I figured out this nice, new way to get them to interact positively and indirectly without physical contact.

Another odd thing I've noticed is that he now enjoys strawberries. He didn't like strawberries last year, but this year, he's decided that he likes them quite a bit! I wonder if he'll take to other red berries now? He generally doesn't like red things, unless it's bell peppers. This year, I'm growing many of his favourite things to eat, so we'll have lots of delicious, organic fruits and vegetables to feast upon over the summer and into fall. I'm anxious for the black raspberries and red raspberries to be ready to eat, they were so delicious last year!

His harness training has been progressing, but he still dislikes wearing it for the first couple minutes until he gets distracted by different surroundings. I only keep the harness on him for five to ten minutes at a time before removing it so he doesn't become too uncomfortable. I find that handling his wings during baths has helped him to become more accustomed to getting the harness on and off. He won't mouth or bite me if I handle him during baths, which has been very good! Eventually, I'll teach him that he can still fly with his harness in while indoors. I'm still leery of taking him out in a harness in stores, so he just rides around in his carrier if we go out. It would be all too tragic if he was startled by a dog, flew to the end of the leash, then got killed by the dog in pursuit. I have nightmares about that sort of thing! I would really love to take him with me to art shows, but one of our crafting friends has a phobia of birds, so I wouldn't want to subject her to terror like that.

I won't be taking Kai outside into the grass this year, because it looks like it's going to be a particularly bad year for ticks. I've already found one crawling on me after walking under a pine tree. *shudder*... The mites have been bad on raptors that we've banded this year, also. Last year, the chiggers were awful and I kept myself slathered with olive oil in an attempt to keep them at bay. I hope it's not as bad this year, I hate chiggers...! Other than that, I've been trying to teach Kai the names of various birds that come to our feeders. We've had a tizzy of newcomers, including Yellow Warblers, Yellow Rumped Warblers, and a enormous Fox Sparrow. Kai enjoys trying to talk to them through the window. He doesn't appear to like the Grackles, however, or the Crows, but that's understandable, they do look rather menacing. I plan on buying a bird song CD so we can both learn various bird calls.

In other news, during our stay in Britain, I'll be (dragging my husband along) going to Cornwall to visit the home of the World Parrot Trust, Paradise Park. Don't worry, I'll take tons of photographs!

More posting later, I need to get back outside and get my echinecea planted!