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Hi Folks, I haven't been around in at least a year but I was thinking of you all today as we sang to Hawkins for his birthday. He sure loved that song, most likely because it had his name in it. We are all doing great. I have some health issues that are chronic that came up finally last year and having a parrot is the perfect pet for this. On bad days he and I can talk and cuddle. On good days we do so much more. Got to run but I hope to be around more this year. Crossfit/Beth

I was given an awesome day cage when I got Hawkins so I bought a pretty cheap sleep cage for our bedroom. I wanted him to stay on the same sleep/wake schedule as I am on if possible and I knew that if he stayed in the single cage the folks in my house up early would wake him. So, I got the other for mostly selfish reasons but it has worked well for us as he still is on my personal wake/sleep schedule. I am hoping that as he matures it will also cut down on some territoriality but I really have no clue how that will play out. He is only a year and a half. I got my sleep cage on ebay. I would never use it for anything but this as the cage would never stand up to his day to day use. It has only one toy in it for those rare days he wakes before me. But usually I find him on his favorite perch every morning. I don't know if I can even recommend doing this as some parrots might shred this cage really quick even if only used for sleep. I just lucked out with my parrot and his temperment and my cages.

He has a sleep cage in my bedroom which gets covered. When we get up he comes up with me to his day cage in the living room. The sleep cage is much smaller. It would be too small for him for his main cage but it is bigger than his travel backpack. I may also have lucked out because when he was an egg, I told the breeder my day/night schedule and she said that is close to what she has for checking on her birds - 10 am for checking on them and 10 or so to bed. So he was always on that schedule from hatching, as were his parents.

Hawkins cost me $1000 in California. He was discounted for a blemish on one foot that is cosmetic only. So I ended up paying $900. But honestly, he is priceless. Well worth the cost.

I will try and come by more. I had some major computer set backs last fall and am heading toward surgery. I have both carpel tunnel and major disk issues in my neck so that my nerves down my arms are being pinched at both ends. It kept me off the computer for a long time. I have voice activated software now which is helping. Hawkins and I just were sitting outside in the sun. I have his cage out there part of the day in summer. We live in the forest and he has started picking up the sounds of all the local birds now. It is funny when he is inside at night and I hear "day birds" singing coming from his cage. Our kittens have grown and are outside in the yard all day now as well so Hawkins is having more out of cage time again. We had a few months of locking up kittens in the dog crate to let Hawkins out and then reverse it for kitten time. While I worry more about Hawkins getting hurt by a kitten, the kittens are terrified of his beak so, while supervised, they are all doing fine now. They still never are out in the same room at the same time though. Never. My daughter was married this weekend and I hosted some friends at my home. Hawkins was practically glowing when we all sat out on the deck in chairs where his cage was. He clearly enjoyed feeling part of the group. Summer is so much easier to be a parrot where I live and he is having a great time. He won't let me put the harness on him still but I noticed his wing feathers molting out so I think he is sore. This is borne out by him letting me pet his head and put the harness there but if I go near his wings, no way. Just two weeks ago, I could hold each wing out to a count of three with no trouble as part of retraining him to the harness. I guess I will just wait a week or two for these feathers to finish growing and then get back to it. Patience is so important with these guys. I am loving his personality. Hawkins is cautious but not overly so. I would assume he is a typical Grey, studying things before jumping in but not being excessively nervous. I can give him a toy immediately if he sees me building it first. if I bought it, I need to either play with it myself or hang it outside nearby for a while. Unless it looks very much like another well loved toy and he simply wants it right away. He has a great sense of humor. I had no idea that parrots have a sense of humor. He loves to hear us laugh and really is learning just when the right timing is to say something really absurd - usually a mix up of two or three of his favorite sentences.

I think I am the luckiest Parrot owner in the world. My bedroom is completely dark. Hawkins wakes at ten when I wake up only making the softest of noises if I am not up by 11. He does stay up late with me until eleven at night though.

Here you go!

New Photos from this past year:

Hi Folks, I haven't checked in for a while. I saw that there is a Grey lost in the San Jose area and wanted to let you all know to keep an eye out for him. His name is lucky. Here is the link to his info on parrotalert: http://www.parrotalert.com/L1021 So while I am here, I thought I would give you all an update on my baby. Hawkins is awesome! He is funny and silly and cute and very sweet. The first week he was here, he started attacking his toys with this horrible noise and the breeder told me, "ah you have met the pterodactyl". At that time we thought it would be funny if Hawkins could say that. Well, it took some practice but one of his many sentences is "Are you a pterodactyl?" It happened last week. He was saying, "teradul" for quite some time but finally got the "dact" in there. He has a wonderful sense of humor, chiming in just when he knows it will make everyone laugh. He has figured out, however, that if he starts yakking away loudly when we are having our family tv time, I will give him a handful of almonds to keep him busy. I know he does it on purpose but we don't watch tv more than twice a week so it seems like an okay indulgence. Some of you may remember that I was conducting a personal mini-experiment with him and language. I chose to not try to teach him things by repetition but rather the same way human children learn, through social context. According to the research I read on parrots, that is how baby Grey's learn in the wild and I was curious. Sure enough, except for some whistles he learned because my husband whistles them all the time, Hawkins has really been learning sentence fragments and then putting them together in unique ways. "Are you a ___?" is a big one. He has been known to ask me: Are you a boerboel? (my largest dog is a breed called a Boerboel) Are you a pomeranian? Are you a kiss? Are you a gentle? Are you a bird? He also repeats whole conversations, completely in the appropriate voices. The one I hear most often is? My voice: Hey Sam? Sam's voice: yeah (Sam is a 15 year old boy) He uses that "hey" a lot. Hey Sam Hey love Hey dog and it also interchanges with Hello He knows the names of all the animals in the house except my son's python who he has never ever seen. He also barks like the Pomeranian. The amazing this is that he has two of her barks. One is her bark in the living room where Hawkins hangs out the most. The other is her bark out on the property (we live on two acres of forest) so it sounds like it is at a distance. When someone comes to the house, Hawkins will bark with the rest of the dogs. He also meows. He meows like two separate of our cats. He says, "hello Soc" and "Hello Py" (short for socrates and pythagorus - our two siamese cats). He tends to just watch the other two cats because they don't come in very often and sleep when they do. I still appreciate the post in the baby section of the forums that talks about mental and emotional stages in the parrots as they grow. I reference it somewhat regularly. It has been a useful guide. Thanks again for posting it. Hawkins loves to cuddle, but only at night. In the day he is a feisty and likes to explore and will nip if we don't let him. But I do see that he is learning the difference between too hard. He loves to give kisses and so he has had to learn to be gentle. He also knows a number of words that have meanings in action. "hug" means that I am going to put one hand over his back and pet him lightly. Normally he hates it but he knows that means only for a second and he tolerates my primate instinct to cuddle for about three seconds. He is also relearning that "wing" means I will touch his wing to put his harness on him. He is relearning about the harness as winter here is harsh for going out for a parrot so we didn't use it much. For kicks I have been teaching him "foot" and showing him his foot and my foot when I say it. He has always loved toes and I think when he was teeny he didn't really understand they were part of our bodies. He seems to be understanding and this week I started pointing out the dogs feet as well. Who knows where this will go. I also started teaching "give me a___" and have started using Modeling of the action to hopefully teach him the verb. We will see. Hugs to you all. I absolutely adore my little, feathered man in a grey suit. One of the best things that ever happened to me.

Remember, parrots are social learners. So you can start out by playing with the toys yourself. He can be watching from the cage or while he is out on the playstand. That doesn't matter. He will show interest in things he sees you show interest in. You can also play with the toys together and make it a special bonding time for you two after work. I know you ultimately want him to be able to play with toys alone when your gone but to start, connect play with social time. Later on, when he knows how to play, you can bet he will play with those toys and think of you when he is gone. As for foraging, this is again a learned behaviour. In the wild, they would learn by seeing their parents and older birds foraging and this would show them where to look and what to do. What has worked with my little guy is to make sure he sees me putting the treats in the foraging toy and then placing it in the cage. As for change, I notice mine tends to have more trouble with change if I haven't made many changes recently. Then I have to change things slowly so he gets used to it. Once he is used to things being changed gradually, I can go back to dramatic change. To use your play stand as an example, instead of turning it all the way around, you could just put a new toy on it in the regular position (make sure he sees you do it). Or you could turn it just part way. I also notice Hawkins does better with new things and change if I make sure he sees me changing things. I used to set up his foraging toys the night before when he was in his sleep cage but now I find its better to set them up in the morning when he is in the cage and sees what I am doing. I don't know if this will work for you but it is what I have learned works for my bird. Also, remember your guy is still pretty little. My Hawkins is just under a year and just starting to reliably know how to forage. Around six months I remember myself also wondering if he would learn to play with toys without my help or to learn to forage instead of just getting the food out of the food bowl. Now he does both. There is a thread in the nursery section of the forums on developmental stages of our birds. I found it really helpful and checked it out a lot this past year. Good luck. It sounds like the two of you are off to a great start.

I wrote this today in my journal and thought you all might want to share some of what you have learned also. Birds have a sense of humor. Birds can be jealous and when they are they will get mad at the one they love rather then the thing/person that they are jealous of. Flying is awesome and fun. Always keep an eye on where the predators are but don't let them get in the way of a good fly (joy). Thinking things through is fun. Life is a puzzle to be solved with joy and there are treats! Hanging upside down is awesome. So is hanging from your beak. In fact, hanging around is just dandy and a fun thing to do when you don't have the space to fly. Cuddle every morning and night. It makes for a more pleasant mood all day and night. Music is awesome. Talking is great for communication but it is also just fun to sometimes sit and let whatever words want to come out, come out in a joyful stream of randomness.

Another one I love, but isn't so much about various species as about various behavior and such is Manual of Parrot Behavior. It is a series of articles, mostly by avian vets, related to current research into parrots. I was pleased when I saw that one of the authors turns out to be the avian vet I chose for my lil guy. Its a highly scientific book and you probably can get the same information here from people in more easily to understand ways but if your science minded like I tend to be, its an awesome book. http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Parrot-Behavior-Andrew-Luescher/dp/0813827493/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290712383&sr=8-1

Oh, thought of some more of his words: "I love you" and "NO" as well as a kissing sound that sounds like when I make kissing noises at him. He is a really clever boy. I think African Greys are just amazing. From what I have read, the corvid family (crows) are also this smart just not in terms of language. I wouldn't want to own a crow though! These guys have really made me rethink the concept that humans are the smartest simply because we have the largest brains. There is clearly other things involved in thinking than just the size of the brain or even the size of the frontal cortex. Sometimes it makes me wish I had time and money to go back to school and study this more deeply. On the other hand, learning directly from Hawkins and from the rest of the birds I know (both in person and online) really is plenty to ponder for the rest of my life. (those of you who remember me, know I love to ponder and think - it even got me in trouble here before! lol)

Hi Friends, I haven't been around much and thought I would pop in to say hello and give you an update on my baby Hawkins. He is now ten months old, almost 11 months (will be a year on Jan 7). He is quite the talker and has a really great sense of humor. I don't think he has come into his own voice just yet as he still sounds gravelly most of the time he talks but as he is a CAG, he is talking a bit early anyway. Some of the things he has said: "Dork, Dork, Are you a Dork" (dork is used much the same as the word "silly" in my family - its affectionate, not insulting) Sabre, Sabre, Come, Come (Sabre is the mastiff) Sabrina (Sabrina is the pomeranian - he doesn't seem to want her to come, just says her name) Hi Hello Hello Little Buddy Hi Little Buddy Hello Hawkins Bird Bird's the word I'm a good bird Are you a bird? (currently we are trying to teach him to say "no, I am a pterodactyl" in response to "Are you a bird" but he only asks us the question back.) Sam (Sam is my human son) Parrot good parrot I'm a parrot Dead Parrot (he actually said that to someone who was saying "pretty bird, say pretty bird". Bless you (plus the sound of sneezing - learned these when I had a cold) He also whistles the close encounters theme song, the addams family theme song, repeats all the various drawer and door squeaks in the house, also the microwave beep, my laugh, Sabrina's bark with variants,... There is more but I can't remember them all right now. In addition, he is quite the gymnast. He loves to hang upside down from anything and especially if he can get the thing he is hanging from swinging. He is lately trying to figure out how to bring large dropped foot toys up from the bottom of the cage to the perch he prefers to play with them on. He has decided he no longer likes his harness so we have begun to reintroduce it slowly. I may end up buying a second one in a different color and see if that helps. This seems to have started after a day at the park when a Hawk flew over while he was on the harness. He still loves to go to the park with me when safely in his backpack and he talks to all the children. We go once a week to a homeschooling park day and everyone knows him. He has lots of conversations with people of all ages there. He is currently molting a lot but I expected that around now. He has all his lovely adult tail feathers in now. I can't think of much else at the moment. I am also doing well. Hawkins has been a wonderful addition to my family and I love to talk with him and play with him. Have a great thanksgiving those of you on the same side of the pond as I am and great holidays to everyone.

HI, I have been gone a while. I saw this today and cried when I read the post that you got him back. Hugs to you. What an ordeal.