Text 2304, 81 rader
Skriven 2007-06-01 23:24:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
   Kommentar till text 2288 av mark lewis (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: New lodger
==================
Hello mark!

On Thursday May 31 2007 23:14, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>> http://www.vlist.eu/index_en.htm

 MvdV>> Rosa still feels a bit uneasy about it...

 ml> it takes time to become adjusted to a new house member...

Yes, but this is not a permanent guest and if all goes to plan, she will not
get the time to get to know him (or her, I can't tell) all that well.

 ml> we've just gotten a lovebird to take care of for a friend until he
 ml> returns... it is a young one and we don't know how long he is going to
 ml> be gone... one fear is that it will fix on me and won't want to return
 ml> to him when he gets back... but it still needs a loving home and care
 ml> so... we do what we can...

Of course.

But this is no pet. I have had pet birds, parakeets mostly, but this is a
totally different situation.

 MvdV> BTW, it is not going to stay a small bird and I do not plan on
 MvdV> keeping it very long. As soon as it can find its own food and
 MvdV> fly, I will set it free.

what is it? a raven? they are seen as good luck in some circles... guardians,
even...

Close, but no cigar. It is not a raven, but it is family so to speak. It is
what we here call a "kauw", a subspecies of the crow. I found him in my carport
when I returned home Monday evening. he attemted to fly away when I backed into
the driveway, but merely got himself caught in a corner. So heaving dealt wuth
the situation before (not with this particular species though) I picked him up
and gave him shelter. His/her brother or sister was less lucky. Found it dead
in teh garden next morning.

First two days I had to force feed it. But know it has accepetd me a sthe
parent and cries out wehn it is hungry and opens its beak wide, so I can just
shove the goodies in... ;-)

here is a picture I took yesterday:

 MvdV> BTW, it is not going to stay a small bird and I do not plan on
 MvdV> keeping it very long. As soon as it can find its own food and
 MvdV> fly, I will set it free.

http://www.vlist.eu/fotos/v-en-jodokus.jpg

Rosa unfortunately did not manage to handle the camera with only her left hand.
so I had to revert to the trick with the mirror.

It is very tame right now, but I know it will not stay hat way. It is a wild
animal and this particular species does not take well to being held in
captivity. When they get older they get mean and have been known to attack
their captors after prolonged caging. Other than that, wild animals belong in
the wild, so I am not going to keep him/her, I will just give him the push that
he needs to find his own way.

I am training his wing muscles by triggering the wing reflex. When a bird
thinks it is going to fall, it will spread its wings an flap them. So when you
put him on the hand or the arm and suddenly lower the arm a few centimeters
that will trigger the reflex. Thereby exercising the wing muscles. He can
already fly a short distance, one or two meters, but his landings are terrible.
We are working on that. ;-)

This morning I managed to weigh him: 150 gram. Not very much, but he already
has the quit impressive wing span of half a metre.

I expect it won't be too long before he is ready for an outdoor flight. Maybe
next week. I do not expect him to take off right away, he will probably be
coming back for food for some time, and if he does I will slowly wean him off.
But if he takes off right away and does not come back, well.. so be it.


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20060315
 * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)