Wednesday, April 13, 2011

readjusting to home

So Pigwidgeon, our affable yet dimwitted African grey parrot, has been home for a week after her harrowing freakout and flight from our yard, resulting in her traveling a mile in the middle of San Francisco, spending a night and a day outdoors, and being caught by a stranger and staying with him and his roommates for three days.

I can see some side effects from this experience. The most noticeable is that she flies everywhere, all the time now. We actually have her flight feathers clipped from time to time, so she isn't as strong a flier as a wild bird (in general these kinds of larger parrots aren't great fliers; they use their beaks to be gifted climbers. This makes sense because they aren't migratory birds, and in the wild they spend a lot of time climbing up and down in trees). Previously Piggle got around in our house mainly by walking on the floor. Sometimes you would be startled by a little peck on your foot, meaning that Pig had walked up to you and wanted you to pick her up. But now, it's like how in Harry Potter Fred and George would apparate across the room once they got their apparition licenses. No matter how much more sense it would make to walk, she's going to fly. To compensate for the trimmed flight feathers, she beats her wings extra hard, so it's sort of frantic.

The first morning after she came home, she flew into every room in the house, touring the house crazily. Then she settled down on my shoulder and groomed herself extensively. The next day was spent intensely grooming as well on my arm. Those first few days she was incessantly noisy as well. "I can't believe I missed this bird so much," I said over the racket.

Now she has calmed down, but yesterday she flew into the upstairs bathroom and settled down on the shower rail. She had never before gone into the bathroom alone. In the past, she'd ask, by incessant screaming, for me to bring her in there when I was doing my makeup, and she liked hanging out in there with me, but she'd never go in by herself. But in the apartment she stayed at last week, she lived in the bathroom perching on the shower curtain rail, and yesterday she went in and stayed in there by herself. In the bathroom Piggle made every noise she knows how to make at top volume, perching on the shower rail and making a hellish racket. Was she reminiscing about the apartment she stayed at? Or just enjoying the acoustics, like a person singing in the shower?

7 comments:

hughman said...

i imagine her like someone who goes to europe for the first time then returns home and all they can talk about is europe this, europe that. "oh this mcdonald's coffee reminds me of when i sat at a cafe in paris ON THE STREET! can you imagine? ON THE STREET!"

Jen in OR said...

Let's see, she's striking out on her own, testing her new-found freedom *and* your patience, hanging out in the bathroom for hours, being extremely loud and annoying... sounds to me like your young lady has discovered she's a teenager.

Quandarius said...

^^^ Nominating this for Quote of the Week.

bathroom remodeling nyc said...

It's part of adjusting into a new property.

office furniture nyc said...

I also had difficulty adjusting not to a new home but to a new working environment. At first it was difficult. New faces, new attitudes. My only advice is to be friendly to your neighbors. You could invite them over for a BBQ this weekend.

Johannes said...

Perhaps it will take weeks before she's used to the new house.
timber flooring perth

Hunter Douglas said...

I really enjoyed this site. This is such a Great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. It gives in depth information. Thanks for this valuable information.