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When I go and visit my parents I regularly take Alfie with me in his travel cage. My dad is largely indifferent about Alfie (he hasn't forgiven Alfie for biting him on the finger once when he was a baby bird). My mum has been trying really hard for months and months to get on Alfie's good side... and it's been working. Whenever she visits me Alfie gets all excited to see her and will whistle and make lots of noise until she comes over and says hello. When I visit them Alfie normally stays in his travel cage but my mum has been quite brave recently and has said he can come out. She sits on the other end of the sofa from me (and dad stays on the other sofa out of the way) and Alfie typically wanders around the sofa and goes to see her. Recently they have both been super brave and Alfie has allowed my mum to give him head scritches... and mum has been brave enough to do it. Alfie has been enjoying it so much that he makes a beeline straight for my mum and will sit there for the rest of the evening enjoying his head scritches. He even started closing his eyes last time! I'm super happy that they've managed to build on their relationship. Mum was always interested in Alfie and helped me wean him when I first got him. Unfortunately he did bite her a few times so she backed off a bit and got scared (fair enough) and then me and Alfie moved out. She's still wary of being bitten but Alfie has been really good. He will very gently grab her hand/fingers if she dares to stop scratching his head. 😂 I'm still not on this level of head scritches with Alfie. I can give a quick scritch but then he tends to wander off or move his head. He tolerates me, at best! Slight jealousy aside, I'm super happy that him and mum have gotten this far. 😄

Huey gets put on a rope in the kitchen every morning while I make mama's coffee. I usually go off to the office for a few minutes until I hear the coffee is ready. It's not unusual for him to fly to their cage area to investigate as he has been in our room all night long. I heard him fly as he sometimes does but this landing sounded different. I stalled about 5m and then decided I better go check in case he's remodeling the wood work. Poor Huey got hisself in a pickle and needed a Halp from the kitchen staff. That footy....and his expression at the end when he finally gets rescued off the door frame. 😍🥰 Halp.mp4

Beyond thrilled to see you checking back in! Loved following your journeys over the years!

Vorna's flying reminds me of our Huey who also never learned to fly as a young bird. He was a cage bird for the first 20 years of his life and when he came to us, I started by giving him small tosses on our bed to strengthen his wings. It wasn't long before I was taking him to the end of the hallway and letting him fly a nearly straight path to the living room perch. He had some really hard crash landings to start with but those didn't last too long. His flying is very different from our GreycieMae who was allowed to fledge normally and is a master graceful flyer. She will regulate her speed and smoothly corners, can fly through tight spaces without error. Huey has one speed when he flies and that's 'haul ass'. He also corners like he's flying around the edge of a wall, hard left/right, nothing smooth about it. He's getting much better though, loves to fly as he will initiate his own flights from his cage, around the kitchen and back multiple times...just for the fun of it I guess. Good to see your still posting about your Greys.

Dear Shanlung, I am so grateful to see your recent post on Greyforums! I had seen some of your previous posts on a different forum years ago. Now, I know of one concrete "good" thing to have come from the Covid19 pandemic: Vorona found a home with you. My husband and I also have a Grey, Corey, who was never allowed to learn to fly in that magic early time period when they are young. I can't say Corey can fly as well as Vorona BUT she now can land safely most of the time. Thank you SO much for writing about Vorona! Terry