THE AVIARY IS DONE!

The aviary is DONE!

Well, done enough for us to let the birds out, and overall it was a success!

Phoenix and I had thought that we could release the birds Saturday, but there was far too much work to do. First we had to get our new population of gouldians from Anne (we sold the old ones, as being far to screwed up to raise their own children. Never again are we going to buy any bird at a bird show), then we went on the quest to find foliage. We ended up buying about 10 pots of small grasses (at $2) 6 pots of large ornamental grasses ($6) and two palm trees ($12 and $20) and soil and pots… Repotted the plants, hung up some perches, and then got all the cages from the canary room and brought them to the aviary. We banded all of our non banded breeders, trimmed their nails and gave them all a dose of SCAT. After the trauma of all that, we set them free. The gouldians were fine, but the poor canaries had quite a time of it. They freaked out. Most of them adjusted to their freedom very quickly, and in fact the one pair that was feeding babies went back to feeding them within an hour or two. Some of the others did not fare so well. One of the white canaries that has been kind of sickly to begin with is now a ground bird. It tries to fly up a bit, but seems to prefer the floor. We put some food down there just in case. One of the yellows broke its brain. Poor thing started having conniptions and started jerking its head over and over again. We put it back in a small cage and covered him with blankets, and this morning, he seemed ok. Tomorrow we will open his cage to see if he will go out on his own.

The rest of the day, we spent watching the birds on and off. Great entertainment! Who needs the SCA when you can watch the politics of canaries and gouldians, not only trying to establish dominance over the other species for territory, but also with each other, while trying to court for a mate. Singing, hopping, posturing, showing off, chasing each other, bonded pairs flying together. All I would have to do is make some of them feel more important then the others and I would be set. *grin*

But seriously, it is a wonder to see….