On an’ on an’ on

That gray parrot Trouble is here for a visit again, and chatting up a storm, as always. “Hiya, bird!” “Ain’t it cool!” “Apple and a grape.” And on and on and on all day long. What a show off! Well, I can beep like a microwave oven just as well as she can! This visit, she’s added something new to her repertoire: she squawks just like me. I have to admit she does it quite well. Her squawks sound almost the same as mine. However, I’m not sure what she means by it. Is she making me fun of me? Or is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? It sure is confusing being a parrot who is being parroted by another parrot.

Spider

The other day while we were gardening, my person and I discovered a huge, I mean HUGE, spider in among the vegetables. It had interesting bright yellow and black markings. It had made a web that stretched from the mini pumpkin plants to the bean plants and was sitting right in the middle of it. My person said it was waiting for insects to come by and get caught in the web so it could eat them. That made me wonder. Why go through all that work spinning a web and then waiting for an insect to come by just to have a snack, when looking in your food dish for a bite to eat is so much easier? That’s what I do when I’m hungry. I guess there’s just no explaining spiders.

Hummers

My person and I enjoy watching the hummingbirds at the feeder. We frequently see them there, feeding or swooping around. At first we thought a lot of different hummingbirds were feeding at the feeder, then one day we figured out what was really happening. A lot of different hummingbirds do come to the feeder, but there’s one of them, a male, who acts like the feeder is his. Whenever another bird tries to feed there, he swoops in and chases it away. Then he perches on the feeder and eats to his heart’s content. Then he flies away and perches in the birch tree nearby where he can keep his beady little eye on the feeder and make sure no other bird gets to eat there. Now that we know what is going on, we see it happen frequently. That bossy little guy is often hanging out nearby, in the birch tree or sometimes the hydrangea bush, protecting “his” feeder. My person is a little bit upset about this. She says she intended the feeder to be for all the hummingbirds, not just one greedy one. But I think I can understand why he’s acting that way. I mean, if another parrot tried to stick his beak into my food dish, you can be sure I would squawk at the top of my voice and chase him away. I mean, after all, your food dish is your food dish, right? What could be more important than that?

Career Plans

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? I’m thinking shepherd might be a fun job. The other day, my person and I were watching a movie and every once in a while a whole bunch of sheep would show up on the screen, all baaing and bleating. Naturally, I squawked like crazy when I saw them because that’s what I always do when I see strange animals, but also because I really enjoyed their baaing and bleating sounds. I can appreciate any animal that makes interesting sounds. So I was thinking, if I were a shepherd I could baa and bleat with the sheep all day and then I would squawk and they would go where I told them to go. I think it would be a great job. What about you? Would you like to be a shepherd? What kind of job would you like to have?
(7/31/10)

Gardening

I’ve been helping my person with the gardening recently. It’s a pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon. I sit in my carrier in the grass while my person weeds the vegetables and checks to see if any beans are ready to be picked yet. There are so many things to watch in a garden. First of all, there are lots of little creatures like lady bugs and spiders crawling around on the leaves. I can see bees collecting pollen from the squash blossoms and dumb robins hopping around on the grass. I can hear lots of birds singing in the woods. I can keep an eye on the sunflowers (and I’m happy to report they are still growing strong and several are ready to bloom) and watch the pea pods grow. I can’t wait till the peas are ripe. I just love eating peas right from the pod. I love eating green beans, too, because they have delicious seeds inside them. The garden is full of so many wonderful things (as long as the deer and woodchucks stay away).

Hold On!

I just love holding things. That’s because I’m a parrot and we parrots have special feet that are made for climbing and holding. I use my feet to hold my food while I eat, but I also like to hold things for fun and relaxation. My absolute favorite toy in the whole wide world is my toothbrush, which hangs from the top of my cage. I stand on my perch on one foot and hold my toothbrush with the other foot while I squawk and chirp and chatter for hours. It’s so much fun! I also like to hold plastic milk bottle caps. Sometimes I chew them, but other times I just like to sit on my perch holding a plastic cap in my foot. Holding things is really fun, don’t you think?

Sunflowers

I’ve been watching the sunflowers in our garden with great interest. After the seeds form, my person picks the flower heads and saves them for me to eat in the winter. I get to eat the seeds right out of the flower. If you’ve never tried that, you should. It’s definitely the best way to eat seeds. We had a bit of a scare in the spring when some bad deer came and ate the tops off all the young sunflower plants. You can imagine how upset we were when we discovered almost the whole row of plants with their tops bitten off. What a mean thing to do. I would never go eat the deer’s favorite plants that they had been saving to eat in the winter. Those deer are very rude creatures. I told my person to put a sign in the garden that says “No Deer Allowed,” but she’s not so sure that the deer will be able to read it. Dummies. Fortunately, at the time of the sunflower tragedy it was still early in the season and my person was able to plant more sunflowers and now they are growing very well. I look forward to lots of seed eating this winter.