Tinkerbell -love of a flying CAG in Taiwan

[shanlung]

Jeffnok,

 

Thank you.

 

Perhaps you might enjoy this too. A combination of 2 in one.

Not only you read of Tinkerbell (which is why this is here) , but also of another bird.

Cutting and chopping what I chose to write in my Livejournal just for this forum is too much for me to handle as often I do not even know what I would be writting when I sit in front of each entry.

 

Tinkerbell on motorbike // Jackie, the Greater Indian Hill Mynah and his treats

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/134052.html

[CLB]

Amazing. Your stories and pictures are priceless. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Gwen]

Shanlung:

Somehow you bounce in & out of this forum & I pray I haven't missed you this time. I want you to know how much I've missed your posts & I'm hoping from time to time you will grace our presence with your wisdom.

[aslterp59]

Shanlung, I just went to your livejournal site and saw the amazing pictures you posted. Thank you for posting those and allowing us to share the beauty of Tink's flights as well as some of the beauty of your country! I have read some of the posts in this thread, and I'm seeing that you may be moving to another forum. I saw that you once lost Tink but she was returned. I haven't had a chance to read every post that appears to span four years or more. Do I understand correctly that you no longer have Tink? I want Gemma to be flighted and your pictures were a great encouragement in that! But I am terrified of losing her, obsessively careful though I am.

While looking at your pictures, I had the thought that we think of our Greys as mischievous, cute, amazing, smart, etc. But looking at your pictures, I see that they are also majestic in flight! Thank you again for sharing!

[shanlung]

Gwen,

 

Thank you.

 

aslterp59,

 

What I write in this thread is just but the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

 

A summary of my life with Tinkerbell until I had to leave her is here. And that can be a good guide to you if you want to think about living with the flighted grey, and how to go about that safely.

URL to Summary of Tinkerbell and Guide to the training and harness details here

 

If you like the photos, just go to my signature and click on that webpage. Every time you refresh, different photos will be shown to give an idea of my life with my birdies and beasties.

 

What you have seen in the Livejournal is just a small tiny selection of photos from the Flickr folders normally embedded in that livejournal entry.

 

My writings span about ten years and not four years. So if you have insomnia, you might be in luck.

 

I don't know if I can agree with you that I do not have Tinkerbell even though she is not with me in the same country. For all I know, the time I spend with her yearly might be as much as many people really spend with their parrot even though they lived together. Many people do not barely give their birdies a glance and interactions consisted almost entirely of giving food and cleaning the cage.

 

I was asked in my last visit to Tinkerbell how long had I been with her. I found I could not really answer them. I do not think any meaningful answer can be made. Tink was with me from 2002 to 2004. Since then, you all knew I made visits back ranging from a week to a month. I explained all that to them.

 

From

shanlung: Tinkerbell Summertime2011 -Being with her Part 1 // 30th June - 2 July 2011

 

shanlung: Tinkerbell Summertime2011 -Being with her Part 2 // 3 July -7 July 2011

 

I gave up Tinkerbell in 2004 after 3 glorious years with her from 2002-2004 recorded and archived in

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/indexbegin.html

 

The record of my painful handover of Tink to Yu was

Tinkerbell - The last day of this chapter

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/wtink12lastday.htm

 

Tink remained in my heart and was visited by me in June 2005 in

Tinkerbell Revisited

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/2005/06/

 

In November 2006, I saw her again in Tinkerbell Interlude

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/2006/11/

 

In Dec 2007, another visit to Tinkerbell with my wife where I thought I lost her in BanTienYen

Lost & found - Bantienyen

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/2008/01/

 

Then in April 2008, another visit to Tinkerbell with my wife

Yingshiong & Tinkerbell - A good closure

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/2008/04/

 

The last visit to Tink was made with my wife in Mar 2009

Tinkerbell - Rhapsody in Spring 2009

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/97545.html

Reflections on Tinkerbell //Smelling roses on mountains // Attack on my wife

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/97874.html

 

That was over 2 years ago since I last saw her.

I was now back in Chiayi alone as my wife started on her job a few months ago and not able to take leave as yet.

 

I guessed that was about the strangest thing that they have heard. Elder Chan nodded and said nothing back when I asked him how to count how long I have known and been with Tinkerbell.

[shanlung]

Tinkerbell2013

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/142489.html

[murfchck]

Beautiful!

[murfchck]

Beautiful photos yet again. I travel through your words and photos to places i would never get to visit. Thank you!

[SRSeedBurners]

Good luck to you Shanlung. I always love seeing your posts. Can't wait to see updated photos of Tinkerbell.

[murfchck]

What a wonderful time! Please keep us updated with Tinkerbell as well.

[Luvparrots]

Shanlung, why don't you start a thread in the Other Bird Room for Yingshiong the white rumped shama. The Grey Lounge is for African Grey Parrots.

 

If you have information on Tinkerbell, of course, we would love to hear about him in this thread. Many of us were very fond of Tinkerbell.

 

Thank you.

[shanlung]

End of Dubai chapter// Colugo again // Yingshiong Reunion & Tinkerbell // Taijichuan at Koh Phagnan

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/145170.html

 

 

Tinkerbell2014

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/145458.html

[Inara]

The photos of your and Tinkerbell's adventures riding about on the scooter, having lunch, doing recalls were just wonderful to view and I enjoyed them very much. I also enjoyed, vicariously, your travels. I'm sure Tinkerbell is appreciative of the wooden perch you placed in her cage in the factory, as well as the time that she got to spend with you. It was no doubt, too short for you both.

[shanlung]

Merry Christmas to you and all the folks here.

 

This will be the last posting for a long time here.

My retirement had been prematurely terminated. When I left to Nepal, I had a 3 months visa and thought I be there 3 months or so.

While trekking in Annapurna, procrastination save me from being buried in Thorongla pass as Procrastinatia took 3 days from me.

And when in Marpa , an email reached me making me an offer I cannot refused making me changed my plans and rushing down the mountains after just 6 weeks or so to get visas and paper work done.

 

In a couple hours or so, I will be flying off to Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Not likely I have the time and inclination to write for a long time after that.

If I am not thrown out for color of my tie and I settle in and yearn for a birdie, that birdie might well be a falcon or hawk as I do have different ideas with them, the way my ideas had been different from most with birdies and beasties.

 

He/she might well be yet another grey as I will not have the heart to walk away from one that needs me even if I can see the pain at the end of that chapter.

[Timbersmom]

Merry Christmas! Good luck and God bless your latest endeavor

[Mistyparrot]

Good luck Shanlung. I will miss our posts here. I hope things go well for you in Riyadh. Best wishes for the New Year.

 

Steve n Mistyparrot

[shanlung]

It is such a nice surprise to see this forum still very much alive.  And on top of that, this thread not closed off.

Too many years from the time I reported I be in Riyadh to now.  The passing of Ivan made me realised time running out and I left Riyadh.

 

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10157290571053421      

**********************************

This was in Quora, written on 21 Jan 2018 as an answer to

How can I say goodbye to a loved dying cat?

But I like this to be in my Facebook as well.

This was in parts and bits from Facebook and other forums earlier on, and kind of compiled into Quora

Extracted in full below from https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-say-goodbye-to-a-loved...#

And added a few more nuggets of Ivan as well

******************************************

Written before to a similar situation.

Repeated here in full.

This will be a series of letters written by me to one of my forum on the passing away of Ivan. He was with us for 21 years.

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I now have a grey.  I named her Vorna.  The good witch of Rigante world and who saw Riamfada running for the first time to that old sacred tree.

 

She was not fledged and not flying for 13 years.  With a chain to her foot.  She bit and attacked an owner for 5 years until she was sold for a song to my friend Charles.  And then bit and nailed and attacked him for another 5 years until he begged me to take her in Sept 2019.  I refused as I liked travelling and going to see Tinkerbell periodically.  I went to Taiwan 2 times in 2019 

 

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10157820326633421   Nov 2019

 

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10157355673273421    May 2019

 

Then COVID19 hit us.  I knew no travelling about for a long time.  I then accepted Charles offer and when lockdown was temporary over in July 2020, I went to get that CAG that I called Vorna.  She had not name prior to that.

 

I fought the battle for her heart and her mind while she attacked and nailed and whacked me for a couple of months.

Then I won her over.

 

And slowly as she molted, I returned to her her heritage of flight.

 

This and the links inside will explain how Vorna and I got along

 

https://shanlung.livejournal.com/168696.html

 

 

 

[terryspear]

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

[SRSeedBurners]

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.

[Greytness]

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

[neoow]

Welcome back! Really glad to see you here again.

[Acappella]

Welcome back.  I just came back after a while away too.

[shanlung]

I post everyday on my 2 steps forward and 3 steps back with Vorna. 

Was doing that on Facebook until Facebook think I a noti boy for talking of events in regime controlled Sinkapore and banned me for a month.    Second time by the way as they rather I just write of birdies and beasties and cleavage .  

So I doing my daily updates in Livejournal.

You heard of folks having to walk the dog.

Now you hearing of an idiot walking to fly the bird.  

Being doing that about 500 meters (measured via MAPMYWALK)  everyday of flying circuits of 10, when we both not lazy. 

My wife accusing me of doing that exercise to give Vorna a cleavage so I can leer into for vicarious pleasure.  I try not to be lazy about the flying exercises as that forced me to walk quickly 500 meters.

Hard to believe?

So see the sordid details of how I trying my best to deepen the cleavage of Vorna into a sexy and bewitching witch   😍😍😍

https://shanlung.livejournal.com/

 

[shanlung]

Vorna flying will never ever be the levels of Tinkerbell and Riamfada.

 

Tink scared me silly when after she fledged and flew and flew, she played games that frightened the sh*t out of me and back into me.

 

Until I grit my teeth (or dentures ) and ignored her.  Such as playing game of Pong with her body.  Flying at high speed to a wall and bouncing off wall to another wall and on and on.  Times were when I wanted to wring her scrawny neck.

As for Riamfada, see the part where she flew through curtains with a tiny gap.  And especially the photos on how she angled her body and contracted her wings to get through the tiny gap.

 

In flying exercises with Vorna, I can hear from time to time her wings brushing the edge of the door despite the wide space as you can see in videos as I walked her in her flying exercises

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Vorna 2021. 01 Sept Wednesday - Post Vorna Volitional flight , Vorna flew to my shoulder

01 Sept Wednesday

My Huawei P30 Pro camera kind of acting up last couple of days must be from $^^**^^$@#$% update done on it. Then the phone refused to recognised camera all together. Huawei service center had to do a factory reset and I got back the camera but focus still wonky .

Camera and video still cannot focus properly

Factory reset got me back the camera but focus other than wide angle U^%$#$^^^& wonky

then realised I forgotten the password for the backup done just before the reset.

And the other backup I got and restored from was July of last year and not this year.

But over the last week, I got a lot lot less concern of Vorna doing volitional flights. That be clear should you find the time to go through the daily reports. Might be easier to do that via https://shanlung.livejournal.com except no videos or photos in there.

For benefit of those who might not known, here is a short recap of August.

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The packaging of TinkerbellVorna mash - done 19/08/2021 https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159531229148421

The cooking of TinkerbellVorna mash - done 18/08/2021 https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159529479738421

The initial weighing and preparation of TinkerbellVorna mash - done 17/08/2021 https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159527754338421

After 2 months of trying to get her to understand and do volitional flights, I am a lot lot lot less nervous if she going to do that. I do believe that she gotten the hang of doing volitional flights. And very likely I be making trouble for myself in the future when Vorna going to fly blissfully all over and making more of a nuisance of herself.

Especially with what my dear wife told me yesterday what Vorna did with her.

I really think my agonised efforts over last 6 weeks that must have made painful reading to you folks starting to pay off.

You know the other day that Vorna delighted me. After I accepted that fate entwinned Vorna with me and that I will do my best with her and hope I get her out from her big handicap of not allowed to fledged and not allowed to fly with assymetrically clipped wings until she came to me. I allowed her feathers to grow back taking 9 months. And took her through flying exercises to grow her flight muscles and develope a sexy cleavage. Getting her to do volitional flight at will be the next hurdle I hope to get her through.

But I decided my approach to getting her to do volitonal flights will be very very laid back. And no more of the past trying to compell her via stringent restrictions on her food hoping that hunger will compell her to fly.

You all seen from my daily reports I tried and tried so hard to get Vorna to do volitional flights.

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159506793843421. Contain livejournal link to month earlier when I tried to induce Vorna to do volitional flight to cage to eat and drink.

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159518969378421. My report of August 12 and my failure.

Thoughts of not having Vorna and getting another parrot or bird crossed my mind. Then I thought will Vorna next keeper love and keep Vorna the way she needed to be kept and look after?

In the past I was ready to keep any parrot with special needs and to provide environment for the bird to thrive as best as possible. I had advised this lady with a grey without feet. And another lady with a grey that was blind. I decided Vorna is a grey with very special needs. And Vorna can be so sweet especially to my wife. My wife put her foot down very firmly that she would keep Vorna with her. Vorna was the only bird (other for Libai the Greater Greenleaf Songbird) that is so nice to my wife, nicer to my wife than to me.

My current attempts to induce Vorna to do volitional flight is clear indication of damage done to a CAG not allowed to fledge, and not allowed to fly for 13 years until she came to me. I fought 3 to 4 months for her heart and mind until she stopped attacking and biting me.

She was kept by this guy and she attacked and bite him for 5 years until she was sold for a song to my friend Charles. And then for another 5 years, she attacked and chomp and nailed Charles until he begged me to take her. She was unnamed until I took her in July 2000 and she became Vorna, the good witch of Rigante world, and saw Riamfada running to that Sacred Tree.

Her feathers grew after being asymmetrically clipped. And I got her to fly, with flying exercises. Then I noticed she never fly of her own accord. She flew only when I got her going .

My records of attempts to get her to do volitional flights. Will make painful reading.

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159506793843421. Contain livejournal link to month earlier when I tried to induce Vorna to do volitional flight to cage to eat and drink.

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/10159518969378421. My report of August 12 and my failure.

By not allowing Vorna to fledge or to fly for the last 13 years of her life, Vorna mind might have been stunted. Even though she can definately fly she was so inhibited from flying about. Totally different from Tinkerbell who fledged under me and Riamfada a wild caught so exuberant in their flights and so confident every where they went and flew about in arabesque flowery aerial displays.

This volitional flight is not just flight. I am trying to reach into her mind to open up her mind. That she is what she think she is And that she can go where ever she wants to go.

Take a look at my other birds. How I arranged for foraging places to broaden their horizon and to amuse them by hidden treats at different places and how they went about to look for treats as if they in forest and in the wild to go foraging for food.

It was the same for Tinkerbell but she was less photoed as her time was during mailing list time and digital photos then not so many.

There were many foraging points on different perches by name. To bring fun into their lives.

Shanlung foraging for birdies // Jackie and clicker training // climate change 6th Dec 2011

https://shanlung.livejournal.com/134514.html

Vorna did not seem to have the fine control of flight as seen in Tinkerbell and Riamfada. See how Riamfada could adjust her wings in mid flight to get through very tight space.

Riamfada at home//Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabout 3

https://shanlung.livejournal.com/119381.html

“In the last blog, you seen the blue bath curtains outside flapping in the wind. I decided to hang those curtains across a doorway in the house instead of outside. The curtains do not flap in the house as obviously there was no wind with all the doors closed and the aircond on in the heat of the summer

I could adjust the curtains to have a small gap for Riamfada to fly through. I wrote earlier that Riamfada could fly through a tiny gap in the door to sneak into the kitchen. I could not and would not want to risk any injury to Riamfada , but the light curtains would be perfect to show that she could fly through a tiny gap.

“

Vorna flying through open door in flight exercises can be heard occasionally as her feathers brushed the side of wide open door. See how Riam could bring in her wings so she did not even touch the curtains.

I am very sad and afraid for Vorna that while she can fly, and you seen she did about 500 meters during the 10 circuits of flying, she did not do that volitional flights of even one meter I so yearned for her to do.

Unless she felt like it. I was hoping she felt like it more often instead of when she felt like it.

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