Hi Tom,

Yes, little Charlie is hanging out in the aviary with 2 adult sun
conures that are not outside flyers at this time. We do recall and
he's a good and willing little bird. I don't see the confidence in
him yet that I want to see. But the summer has just started and I'm
sure he'll get there.

We look forward to a visit from you, keep us posted on dates.

love,
Susan


On Jul 5, 2009, at 2:46 AM, Tom Beard wrote:

> Hi Susan,
>
> Thanks for the update on Cookie. Sound like you are making good
> progress
> with him and the other small birds.
> It's good to hear that he is flying with Mudge now. We hope that they
> become good flying buddies along with
> the other smaller birds. We are looking forward to making a trip
> down your
> way sometime this year if possible.
> How is Charlie coming along? Is he spending time with the other
> Sun's in
> the aviary? Thanks again,
>
> Tom & Lourdes
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "susanhilliard" <susanhilliard@...>
> Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 9:36 PM
> To: <Freeflight@yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: "Tom Beard" <tomasbeard@...>
> Subject: [Freeflight] Cookie update
>
>> This is just a quick update to let everyone know that Cookie
>> (senegal), 2 juvenile sun conures, and Grimmy (mitred conure) have
>> spent the past 3 afternoons outside and are doing very well. All are
>> brand new outside flyers. Well Cookie isn't brand new to outside
>> flying but is new to us. The approach I took was to lock up all but
>> one or two adult sun conures and release all the newer and or gentler
>> small birds. So, there have been 2 senegals (Mudge and Cookie), 4
>> sun
>> conures, 2 mitred conures, and Fizzy, the Illigers macaw loose
>> together. Plus all the large flighted macaws. The days have been
>> calm
>> and warm, and today there was some breeze but all birds appeared
>> relaxed and comfortable with it. Their recall held up fairly well and
>> is improving as I expected. Today I saw them flocking with the large
>> macaws on a startle flight, and that is very good.
>>
>> All the newbies are staying pretty close to the aviary they've been
>> spending days in but are playing in the trees, flying from place to
>> place and making startle flights with flock. Gaining lots of skills
>> and strength. It has been a little boring babysitting them, but
>> boring is good in this case.
>>
>> For those people coming into the story late, all these parrots have
>> been in recall training inside until their recall was fast, strong
>> and
>> reliable and have been spending a lot of time in cages outdoors in
>> the
>> area where they are now flying.
>>
>> I decided to confine the majority of the adult suns because some of
>> them act aggressively toward new parrots and I didn't want the
>> newbies
>> to have trouble complying with recall attempts beyond the trouble
>> that
>> the increased space and air movement would already provide.
>>
>> If you read Chris' account of Zeke's training routine, you can see
>> the
>> different tracks they're on. The small birds only fly at home and we
>> are ok with them having a strong flock bond. The macaws we take to
>> various locations and while we want them to fly as a flock, we also
>> want them to have a tighter individual bond to us and respond to us
>> as individuals when we need it. So, Zeke is under a more
>> controlled
>> plan and will probably go through our level 3 terrain before he gets
>> to be loose at the house. He'll have his flying and fixed perch
>> landing skills pretty well established before he starts to learn
>> about
>> coordination of landing on tipsy tree branches.
>> Susan
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> To access the database of previous freeflight email discussions go to
>> http://www.freeflightlist.com
>> A comprehensive documentation is still under construction, go to
>> http://www.flightedbirds.org/fbwikiYahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> To access the database of previous freeflight email discussions go
> to http://www.freeflightlist.com
> A comprehensive documentation is still under construction, go to
http://www.flightedbirds.org/fbwikiYahoo
> ! Groups Links
>
>
>