SurfCutter
New member
Lets try this again , I started to post this the other night only to hit a wrong button and loose it all ..GGGGGggggrrr
LOL
Ok Again ..
Some of the bird mom has had over the years have also come from the great wild outdoors , The first was a Quaker Parrot named Petey that we had for many years . Back in the late 60's we would have from time to time flocks of chicken or ducks and geese . It was my chore to see they got feed and watered twice a day or as needed if they tipped a water pan over or splashed it out in a bath .....every day .
Dad would build cages or pens as the need maybe but often it was with as cheap or handy material as possible except this one time. I would guess Mom may have send something but chasing critters that some how got out of pens and cages at least for me got old quick ... so dad was building new cages out of new material ...shocking ! Any way these pens/cages were made from 3" strapping and measured about 8' long 4' wide and about 2' high nailed together and covered in chicken wire , the top had a 4' by 2' opening with a lid as made from strapping and chicken wire .
We feed our critters out in the open so when they were finish but more often than not the wild birds also got a feed meal of feed grain and water ... most were black birds or grackles , and sparrows , but we had noticed a green bird unlike anything we had or sen before on a couple of occasions for about a week or so , it was early spring and the birds had started to come back from there southern holidays . Well for most of the day Dad was cutting the wood strapping to lenght with an old skil-saw that he had used to build the house with back in 1959 , it was old then and still going strong then as it is today.
Well as that saw would wind down from a cut we would hear this bird singing away it the trees around the yard ... if you could call it singing and it did not take long to see it was this strange green/gray bird , what to do ?
The idea came to dad to see if we could catch it , so the afternoons feeding for the critters was not put out right away but placed in the newly completed cage. The opening for the shelter was blocked off and the lid on top was opened with a stick that we tied a string to that we took to the house and waited inside after a time wild birds would land on the pen and then go inside to eat , we waited for the green one to give it a try. we waited to almost supper time before the green bird landed in the cage to eat , the string was pulled and the lid dropped down and we now had our green mystery. My younger brother was given a fishing net and sent in to finish the capture and we had our first parrot. A little research so had our new feathered friend identified as a Quaker parrot , and as we slowing got to know our new pet and to tame Petey as we had named it Mom watched the paper for ad's about a lost parrot.
As time went on and no ad's for a lost parrot Mom worked with Petey and slowly gained it's trust as we all did to some degree , so that Petey soon had run of the house just like Blackie so long ago. ... The thing was Petey had a beak that was much more than for looks it could do damage if Petey so choose to and you were unlucky enough to give that bill a purchase to have it sunk into you .... more about this beak later ..
Just as before Petey would get his own plate at supper and ate almost the same thing we did , the trick was to keep Petey at his plate or eating off your would so get interesting if not possibly painful if you let a finger get to close . Great fun for a kid and a way to get out of eating the veggies if said bird happen to walk through or by and you fussed enough .... LOL
It was a great surprise that one day an egg appeared in Petey's cage ...that kind of gave us a clue that what we thought was a he was really a she .... of the course of the next couple of weeks more eggs were laid , and Petey was a bit broody , but with no mate this did not last long .
It was after a few years that Mom got a call from a next door neighbor , by now it was common knowledge of Mom's soft spot for feathered critters was well know that they had a parrot in a tree in their yard and would Mom like it .
Mom had a few extra cages around and soon had one and walked up to see just what they had . This very large parrot was sitting on a branch about 7' off the ground and squawking a away without a care in the world it did not mind that people were walking up and looking at it . Mom opened the cage door and then took a stick from the ground and placed it under the birds belly , it stepped on to the branch , after getting both feet on the branch mom took it down and stuck it into the cage , the parrot stepped off the branch and on to the roost inside , with drawing the stick , close door , Parrot captured ...very easy ... Mom took home our new pet , by now we had a better idea as to the care of a parrot and so had our new parrot Id'' ed as a Yellow Napped Amazon , a very $$$$ bird at the time . Again mom watched the paper for lost birds and began the task of taming Polly as we can to call this big bird . By now Dad did not really like moms birds , besides the mess this new parrot had a voice ,,,a loud voice not only the noise but the words that this parrot could say , my brother and I had a few new ones that we had not heard that often but knew enough not to try them out at least not around mom and dad . The other skill Polly had was a wolf whistle that if a skirt or a dress was insight it got a whistle .
Right off Petey did not like Polly , i guess having run of the place that this newcomer was going to find out just who ran the place ..... so the first time out of the cage Petey made a bee line for Polly's cage and started to spar with Polly through the bars ... Well Polly got the first good hold and all but ripped off Petey's beak . Mom was heart broken and and quickly rescued Petey from any more harm even thou Petey was still full of fight .... a call to the Angle Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston and a trip in Petey was treated as best they could , to the day of Petey's passing the beak was broken and all her food had to be mashed up for Petey to eat .... Both Parrots lived long lives and there passing was greatly missed by all of us when their time came .
We found out a few things as years passed that , Polly was a pet of a man that had passed away and his wife did not like the bird so the first thing she did was to release it outside to get rid if it , now Petey was a different story , I can not prove this , but a couple years after we got Petey , I read of a colony of these Quaker Parrots living just outside of Chicago IL. and they would winter down south and return to large colony nest in power poles and such and had become a problem and their was talk of regulating their ownership , I am sure if at the time it was known we had caught this bird outside the Mass. wildlife Department would have had a few questions at the very least but I figure Petey may have got blown of course from retuning to the wild colony in IL . if I was to guess but I could be wrong ...
LOL
Ok Again ..
Some of the bird mom has had over the years have also come from the great wild outdoors , The first was a Quaker Parrot named Petey that we had for many years . Back in the late 60's we would have from time to time flocks of chicken or ducks and geese . It was my chore to see they got feed and watered twice a day or as needed if they tipped a water pan over or splashed it out in a bath .....every day .
Dad would build cages or pens as the need maybe but often it was with as cheap or handy material as possible except this one time. I would guess Mom may have send something but chasing critters that some how got out of pens and cages at least for me got old quick ... so dad was building new cages out of new material ...shocking ! Any way these pens/cages were made from 3" strapping and measured about 8' long 4' wide and about 2' high nailed together and covered in chicken wire , the top had a 4' by 2' opening with a lid as made from strapping and chicken wire .
We feed our critters out in the open so when they were finish but more often than not the wild birds also got a feed meal of feed grain and water ... most were black birds or grackles , and sparrows , but we had noticed a green bird unlike anything we had or sen before on a couple of occasions for about a week or so , it was early spring and the birds had started to come back from there southern holidays . Well for most of the day Dad was cutting the wood strapping to lenght with an old skil-saw that he had used to build the house with back in 1959 , it was old then and still going strong then as it is today.
Well as that saw would wind down from a cut we would hear this bird singing away it the trees around the yard ... if you could call it singing and it did not take long to see it was this strange green/gray bird , what to do ?
The idea came to dad to see if we could catch it , so the afternoons feeding for the critters was not put out right away but placed in the newly completed cage. The opening for the shelter was blocked off and the lid on top was opened with a stick that we tied a string to that we took to the house and waited inside after a time wild birds would land on the pen and then go inside to eat , we waited for the green one to give it a try. we waited to almost supper time before the green bird landed in the cage to eat , the string was pulled and the lid dropped down and we now had our green mystery. My younger brother was given a fishing net and sent in to finish the capture and we had our first parrot. A little research so had our new feathered friend identified as a Quaker parrot , and as we slowing got to know our new pet and to tame Petey as we had named it Mom watched the paper for ad's about a lost parrot.
As time went on and no ad's for a lost parrot Mom worked with Petey and slowly gained it's trust as we all did to some degree , so that Petey soon had run of the house just like Blackie so long ago. ... The thing was Petey had a beak that was much more than for looks it could do damage if Petey so choose to and you were unlucky enough to give that bill a purchase to have it sunk into you .... more about this beak later ..
Just as before Petey would get his own plate at supper and ate almost the same thing we did , the trick was to keep Petey at his plate or eating off your would so get interesting if not possibly painful if you let a finger get to close . Great fun for a kid and a way to get out of eating the veggies if said bird happen to walk through or by and you fussed enough .... LOL
It was a great surprise that one day an egg appeared in Petey's cage ...that kind of gave us a clue that what we thought was a he was really a she .... of the course of the next couple of weeks more eggs were laid , and Petey was a bit broody , but with no mate this did not last long .
It was after a few years that Mom got a call from a next door neighbor , by now it was common knowledge of Mom's soft spot for feathered critters was well know that they had a parrot in a tree in their yard and would Mom like it .
Mom had a few extra cages around and soon had one and walked up to see just what they had . This very large parrot was sitting on a branch about 7' off the ground and squawking a away without a care in the world it did not mind that people were walking up and looking at it . Mom opened the cage door and then took a stick from the ground and placed it under the birds belly , it stepped on to the branch , after getting both feet on the branch mom took it down and stuck it into the cage , the parrot stepped off the branch and on to the roost inside , with drawing the stick , close door , Parrot captured ...very easy ... Mom took home our new pet , by now we had a better idea as to the care of a parrot and so had our new parrot Id'' ed as a Yellow Napped Amazon , a very $$$$ bird at the time . Again mom watched the paper for lost birds and began the task of taming Polly as we can to call this big bird . By now Dad did not really like moms birds , besides the mess this new parrot had a voice ,,,a loud voice not only the noise but the words that this parrot could say , my brother and I had a few new ones that we had not heard that often but knew enough not to try them out at least not around mom and dad . The other skill Polly had was a wolf whistle that if a skirt or a dress was insight it got a whistle .
Right off Petey did not like Polly , i guess having run of the place that this newcomer was going to find out just who ran the place ..... so the first time out of the cage Petey made a bee line for Polly's cage and started to spar with Polly through the bars ... Well Polly got the first good hold and all but ripped off Petey's beak . Mom was heart broken and and quickly rescued Petey from any more harm even thou Petey was still full of fight .... a call to the Angle Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston and a trip in Petey was treated as best they could , to the day of Petey's passing the beak was broken and all her food had to be mashed up for Petey to eat .... Both Parrots lived long lives and there passing was greatly missed by all of us when their time came .
We found out a few things as years passed that , Polly was a pet of a man that had passed away and his wife did not like the bird so the first thing she did was to release it outside to get rid if it , now Petey was a different story , I can not prove this , but a couple years after we got Petey , I read of a colony of these Quaker Parrots living just outside of Chicago IL. and they would winter down south and return to large colony nest in power poles and such and had become a problem and their was talk of regulating their ownership , I am sure if at the time it was known we had caught this bird outside the Mass. wildlife Department would have had a few questions at the very least but I figure Petey may have got blown of course from retuning to the wild colony in IL . if I was to guess but I could be wrong ...
