Hawkins checking in at one year and 6 months old plus a lost parrot in San Jose

[crossfit]

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.

[Luvparrots]

Very nice update on Hawkins!!! Of course, some pictures would be great also!!!!!

[crossfit]

Here you go!

 

 

[danmcq]

What a wonderful update and it's really good to hear from you again.

 

Please update more often, I love hearing of Hawkins advances. Very impressive!

[judygram]

It sounds like Hawkins is a well adjusted fella and doing fine, its great that you could stop by and update us on him and we look forward to hearing a lot more about him if you would indulge us more often.

[crossfit]

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.

[katana600]

Thanks for the update on Hawkins, I loved it. It is always great to hear from others out there who are enjoying the daily joys and challenges of living with such amazing creatures. I am glad you found a place in your life for him and that he is better than you could have hoped he would be when you were creating a place for him in your heart and home.