I have been on a waiting list for about 3 years for a pair of Eclectus parrots. Yesterday I took delivery of a two month old male he is so cute!! His partner will hopefully be born in the next month o

I got a call about 10pm last night from a farmer about 10kms away. He had seen Archie hanging around his place for a few days over the weekend and they were whistling to each other. On Monday he said Archie was in a tree quite close to his house so he just held out his hand and whistled and to his surpise Archie flew right down to him!! He then saw my ad in the local paper and gave me a ring.

Well guys, I took Friday off work to continue the hunt for Archie. He was back around home on Friday afternoon playing in the trees behind the aviaries. I could not get over how much his flight skills have improved. It was trully awesome watching him flying around, ducking and diving at great speed. I must admit I felt quite proud raising such a happy confidnet flyer. Unfortunately thats where the good news ends as that was the last time I saw Archie........

.......Unfortunately unintentially! I just got a call at work from my wife that Archie is out in the trees behind the aviaries(the ones pictured with Bazil in my gallery)

He is having a great time chewing on branches and just being a bird, showing no signs of wanting to come down.

Well, reading Nates progress with Phoebe's flying retrieve got me all motivated to do some more training again. The build up to Christmas was so hectic things kinda slipped by the way side! I had not worked on the retrieve for a while(a good month or two)so yesterday I dug out Bazil's block and placed it on a perch in his aviary, sure enough he climbed up to where I put the block, picked it up and flew about 10feet to give it to me! When they get it they don't seem to forget in a hurry. I did this a few times and then played the "perch tapping" game. I had him flying a circuit in his aviary from swing to perch to another swing another perch and then to me. I C/T for every landing where I tapped. I will have to work on him completeing the circuit now to get the treat. He is doing great with my wife if I am not around but if she is view when I am around all Bazil wants to do is attack her. I have really not made much progress on this front. He is fine with other people when I take him into the office with me. He won't go to anyone but he will take a treat from a few but at least he does not attck them. He turned 5 on New Years eve so hopfully he will get better as grows out of being a stroppy adolecent:)

Well Archie is progressing well, he is doing very good controlled flights around the living room now. Last night just before his evening feed he was in his cage in the kitchen watching me mix up his formula while sitting at the table.

I Have been wandering for some time now whether "the bird" we are trying to train makes any difference? I know that all living species follow the same beahaviour rules but as with humans we are all better at some things than others.

Well Archie took his first desperation flight on Sunday! He thought he was so clever. He was with the family in the living room, just playing with some toys in a low cut card board box, doing lots of flapping.

I mentioned earlier that I had not been posting as much because I was busy doing the LLP course, which is now completed. Completion of the course is one way to get on the advanced companion parrot course being run by Steve Martin and Dr Susan Friedman in May 2005 at the Natural Encounters Ranch in Florida. I am pleased to say my registration has been accepted - Yeehaa!!

Did some more recall and fly to perch this morning and also worked on retrieving a block to my hand. Bazil has been doing this for a while now but I got my first flying retrieve this morning!!! It was only about a couple of feet but Bazil had to walk over to where I placed the block on his perch, pick it up and then fly to me with it in his beak, land on my arm and drop it in my other hand. Needless to say, I was quite tickled by this!Thanks Nate for the motivation after hearing about Darwin & Phoebe bringing back rolled up paper.