The birds and the birds and the bees

This is what I see: Simon is on the floor of his house. He’s holding a baby toy in one foot and chewing on it. Oboe is on his rope perch, preening his feathers. Kazoo is sleeping in her house, a hanging baby toy draped over her back. Duncan is sleeping on the back of the couch, right behind my head. Rosie is sleeping in her crate, with her arm around a stuffed reindeer. GC is doing something on his computer. Everybody is quiet. Life is good.

It’s not always this peaceful. We’ve had a whole whack of celebrations over here lately. First there was Christmas, and then Rosie’s 3rd birthday on December 27, Simon’s 2nd birthday on January 3rd, and Duncan’s 12th birthday on January 4th. (If we don’t know their exact birthday, which is usually the case, we celebrate their birthday on the day we adopted them.)

Duncan and Rosie got new dog beds for their birthdays. Big comfy ones. Simon got a hanging toy with a million dangly bits that he can chew on and destroy. The thing about parrot toys is they exist for the sole purpose of being destroyed. Simon needs a steady diet of destructible toys, and a constant rotation of new things through his cage to keep him busy and happy.

Kazoo’s older, and she isn’t all that interested in toys unless she can see that there are peanuts in them. She’ll spend hours at her foraging wheel, trying to free a peanut.

One good thing about living with birds is that even in the dead of winter, there are signs that spring is right around the corner. As soon as the days started getting longer Kazoo started preparing for mating season, just in case some handsome Double Yellow Headed Amazon comes along and sweeps her off her feet. She intends to build her nest in the bookcase, but first she has to chew a big hole in it. She only gets one or two bites in before we climb up there and bring her down, but, as you can see, it adds up over time.

If you show Kazoo an egg, she’ll tilt her head to the side and stare at it with one beady amber eye, while her pupils repeatedly shrink and dilate. She is fascinated by eggs, especially during mating season.

Speaking of eggs, Billie the lovebird laid two of them last week in her seed bowl. Billie and Lester live at GC’s house, and GC has been thwarting their reproductive efforts over the past few weeks. They spend their days shredding newspaper into thin strips, carrying it up to the food bowl, and fashioning it into a nest. Every morning GC returns, cleans their house and gets rid of their nest. Nevertheless, they still managed to lay two eggs, which he promptly removed. Billie and Lester remain undeterred.

Speaking of undeterred, Oboe is head-over-heels in love with GC, who, if you recall, had mixed feelings about Oboe. I’m pleased to report that Oboe’s single-minded determination and persistence paid off: he has successfully won GC’s heart. GC now kisses him, tickles him, tucks him into bed at night, and tells everybody how cute he is.