Thin ice? Where?

Well,we finally did it: the Three Stooges are officially free. Mr P was remarkably calm throughout the whole episode - even when his platform was invaded (yep, all that expense to install new launchpads and they make a beeline for the old one). Still, they had a good feed, executed a couple of victory laps above the house, and settled into the serious work of destroying next year's orange crop. Oh yes, I do believe the farmers when they assure me parrots can do that. Yep, if around 10,000 of them put in a 10 hour day for about a fortnight, I think that the yield from one particular farm may be affected by parrot damage. A financial loss equal to employing 3 men with shotguns and ammunition enough to shoot them all perhaps? God forbid we try and share this planet with anything. Actually, while we are exploring that rocky road to hate mail, it may interest someone, somewhere, to know that we have a mandarin-type citrus tree which is particularly attractive to parrots. Here we were thinking that our green-feathered visitors were just dropping by because we're nice to them, when it turns out that they've been demolishing these mandarins. (They're welcome to them, by the way, they're sour and horrible). But, wouldn't it be an interesting idea to make it compulsory to plant one of these for every 100 oranges - give the birds something to snack out on that didn't matter, leaving the real crop alone? Maybe even implement a decoy program where more attractive non-citrus fruits are cultivated alongside the oranges? ... Or maybe it's just more fun to shoot them.

Man v Parrot (match in progress)

I know I've been quiet of late. The truth is I'm a little embarrassed that my plans have been thwarted by one stroppy red lored parrot. January was supposed to be the big release of The Three Stooges (Bonnie, Kalie and Kleintjie) with all the media attention it deserved (well, 5 lines on our website at least). Unfortunately, every time I climb the ladder to open the door to freedom, I am dive-bombed by Mr P who regards the release door as the entrance to his personal fortress, and all those who dwell beyond it as potential intruders. I have to confess, I did not see that one coming.
However, not to be outdone by a mere bird, at this very moment our Chief Aviary Constructor is busy welding up two more doors complete with feeding platforms and ladder. Let's see Mr P guard that little lot. Ha, see, still the smart one. For now...

Black & White Owl Rescue.

On Saturday a family in the Cayo District called us to collect a black & owl owl which had been caught on their barbed wire fence all night. Unfortunately, during its time hung up he had chewed at its own wing to get free and removed all soft tissue down to the bone around the mid-section of the wing. We were forced to have the wing amputated - a really sad event for us, as a one-winged raptor is not an awful lot of use to itself. However, he is turning out to be a resilient little chappie. He's alert, he's eating everything we offer and as of today he can hop onto a low perch and feed himself from a tray. We are not sure what we are going to do with a flightless owl, his quality of life as it stands is not great. The family who found him are keen to have him live on their veranda, and with time he may lose his wildness and get some psychological satisfaction from the deal: we are certainly impressed with his tolerance for humans so far.
We are resisting the urge to call him 'Ollie' or 'Stumpy'. I am leaning toward 'Minstrel', although it seems you have to be British and over 40 to get that one.

Reptile-Birds: the missing avian link?

It is the general consensus of the household that we have a pair of Veloceraptors in our midst, masquerading as parakeets. Actually they are more like those little things that swarmed all over the girl on the beach, but no-one knows what they are called. Anyhow, I'll admit it, we created the monsters ourselves by allowing them prime position in the living room - master and commander of their 2-cage condo; one for sleep, play and launching at the sofa, the other for fine dining and ambushing the unwary. Like all parakeets they are noisy, scrappy and believe themselves to be 10-feet tall and bullet proof. With flick-knives. And Kalashnikovs.
Pinky & Perky (aka Kray Twins, Little BarStewards...) were donated by a local family some 6 months ago. They arrived pathetic and nervous in a shoe-box minus one complete set of wing feathers each, but were soon reveling in the joys of the BBR theme-park style open prison. They rapidly worked out that somersaults off the sofa didn't hurt and once on the floor, they could go absolutely anywhere!!!
Sitting quietly with my TV dinner on my lap and the omnipresent Chili snoring quietly under my chin, I realised there were 2 small green creatures tucking into my baked potato. Astounded at their impudence, I (and Chili) watched fascinated as they moved rapidly onto my ankle. Several chunks of flesh and much shaking of feet later, they divided forces; one moved onto that tasty bit of skin of the inner arm, whilst the other headed for the sofa and Jerry's eyeballs. Hmmm...
Ungrateful little barstewards.
They can't go into the aviary as they will bust through the wire in milliseconds (no, not on a motorbike, thank you) and a small-cage lock-down is not an option here (even though they more than deserve it). So it appears we are destined to be subjected to the nightly gnawing of the little green monsters until they can be permanently released. Of course, before that happens, they will have to learn to fly... Gulp.

Christmas in Paradise - is basically bl**dy nice!

Christmas came and went with copious quantities of food and drink for us, and extra rations of goodies for the birds: sugarcane, green beans, precious yellow corn on the cob, papaya... And were they grateful? Not a bit of it.
Chili has enjoyed the attention of visitors: so many extra fingers around to bite. Chili is our current resident cling-on. Every so often we get a bird that fixates on one of us and refuses to be separated. Rather like a encouraging a child to say its first words, then spending the next 18 years telling it to be quiet, we will encourage a clingy bird to fly by standing just out of reach until it makes that first flight to our shoulder. We then spend then next couple of months tiptoeing past the cage or tree, or running into the house for five minutes peace before he spots us. Chili is now at the stage where he will fly the 500 yards to the river to get to me, so there is very little escape time in the day. Typing this post he 'helps' by dismantling my pen collection and decorating my shirt with chewed corn, and worse... He insists on cuddles all evening and flies onto the bed the minute the bedroom door is opened in the morning. This may seem contradictory to the aims of our programme, but in fact this behavior doesn't seem to effect their release - to the contrary in fact. Mr P was our last cling-on, and Basil before him. Both are now wild and free. It's almost like the affectionate child - loves mum & dad but still ends up leaving home as a well-adjusted little creature.

A rainy day in paradise

And with the rain comes the noise. Anyone who has been to a zoo or bird park on such a day will know what I mean. A day of screaming and squawking for all concerned; 12 parrots, 8 guinea fowl, 6 geese, 17 turkeys and around 120 assorted ducks and chickens. Yes, we are quite mad.

Yesterday I noticed great improvement in Spike - he spread his wings for a shower and almost all of the tattered shafts have disappeared - replaced by glorious new pristine growth. A dumbed-down version of Spikes' liberation can be found on http://www.belizebirdrescue.com/CH2008.html. This picture is of Spike a couple of days after we got him. The condition of his feathers are the result of neglect and ignorance. For 2 years he was forced to sit on the floor of a tiny cage. Above him, on the only perch, sat two other parrots. Naturally Spike took the brunt of what came from above and was unable to keep himself clean (or sane). Now, 5 months later, apart from his sporadic bursts of 'excerpts from Nickelodeon' you would almost think he was a normal red lored. We witnessed a flight attempt a week or two ago - there is still a definite downward curve, but little by little he improves. It's the simple things that keep us going. We are planning to release two of the white-fronted this week. It's the perfect time of year and they seem to be keen to be off. We shall see...

Somewhere in the Middle

I wish we had started this blog at the very beginning... but we had no idea that our lives would take this turn. Instead, the story will start 5 years on and we will probably regurgitate lumps of the past whenever events of the present day are too dull to recite.
To bring you up to date: we moved to Belize in 2004, started with 2 parrots (red loreds, for those of you that care) and realised that we loved parrots, that parrots love us (or our food, probably) and that, given sufficient time and care a captive, miserable wretch of an abused dying parrot can be returned to the wild as a healthy, happy, procreating specimen of its species. 5 years later we have cared for and/or released 34 parrots, 8 owls and several other wild birds and we are now just getting serious.
What can I say? Watch this space... and in the meantime check out the website: www.belizebirdrescue.com