Today is April 25th, 2 days since I released Tweet to freedom. For the past 2 days, I could still hear him calling for food. His adopted parents are being kept busy. From his calls I could tell that he is learning to fly more, even though it's only one or two trees away. Practise makes perfect, eh. It's rewarding for me though, because I know that Tweet is alive!! That means a lot to me.
Meanwhile I still have "newcomer no. 2" to deal with. I mean the baby black kauwow that dropped in on the 14th, the second day of Songkran. He's a much bigger bird than the spotted females I have. He has quite a nice wingspam which he shows whenever I approach to feed him. He just spreads himself out, as if trying to make himself as big as possible so that I don't miss him. That not enough, his call is still that of a minor bird!!
He still doesn't know that he's a kauwow!!!
Time will fix that. From experience with 3 kauwows, I find that these birds mature very slowly. It took Cha, my female almost 2 years to remember who I am. Now she won't shut up. She sees me from far and calls. If the black baby is hungry or she gets impatient for any reason, she will give out the shrill kauwow call which can be very painful on the ears. Cha was not able to attain her freedom because she has a problem with her balance. Her feet would slip off the branch in her cage when she was resting. It didn't make any difference whether the branch was big or small. I've tried both and got the same reaction twice. Though I feel sorry for her, there's really nothing that I can do about it, save take care of her for the rest of her life. Someone once told me that kauwows can live up to 10 years. If that's true, than it will be a very long friendship indeed!
Meanwhile Dum, the black male has a very good chance of winning his freedom. His fall from the tall tree in front of my house left him none the worse off. Next week I will start weaning him off handfeeds and start teaching him to take dry food. This can be tricky because if his fluid intake is insufficient, he could end up in trouble. I need to monitor this process very carefully, by observing his droppings. That will give me the information I need. Strange how animal and bird droppings can tell stories about health conditions.
When I was working with racehorses, there were three things that I had to take in very quickly every morning when I went to check the stables....the droppings, how much water was left and whether the eyes on the horses were clear or not. I was stable supervisor and had to look after 60 horses. More on that in a different blog.....
I named the male kauwow Dum, which is the thai word for black....not very imaginative.
The other thing I need to do is bring him into my room and see how ready he is to fly.
Once he's ready to fly and eat on his own, he will be ready to embrace freedom. Part 4 of this story will be forthcoming soon.
The last male kauwow that I released some 2 years ago did some very strange things. Firstly, when he was first released he didn't know that he was a kauwow and therefore ended up spending 4 days with the pigeons!! I didn't know whether to say smart or stupid??
Smart in that he would have friends that show him how to find food? Well, anyway he finally decided that the food of pigeons was not for him. He then spent some time with the minor birds!! He faired better because I noticed that he was putting on weight. You might wonder how I recognised him. He had vertually no tail when he was released, which means that he had to use his wings more rigorously. Untill a new tail grows out, he was easy to recognise. The last time I saw him was some 3 months after I had released him. His tail was halfway grown out and he'd become the confident flyer. Probably by then he'd figured out that he was indeed a kauwow??!
Meanwhile I still have "newcomer no. 2" to deal with. I mean the baby black kauwow that dropped in on the 14th, the second day of Songkran. He's a much bigger bird than the spotted females I have. He has quite a nice wingspam which he shows whenever I approach to feed him. He just spreads himself out, as if trying to make himself as big as possible so that I don't miss him. That not enough, his call is still that of a minor bird!!
He still doesn't know that he's a kauwow!!!
Time will fix that. From experience with 3 kauwows, I find that these birds mature very slowly. It took Cha, my female almost 2 years to remember who I am. Now she won't shut up. She sees me from far and calls. If the black baby is hungry or she gets impatient for any reason, she will give out the shrill kauwow call which can be very painful on the ears. Cha was not able to attain her freedom because she has a problem with her balance. Her feet would slip off the branch in her cage when she was resting. It didn't make any difference whether the branch was big or small. I've tried both and got the same reaction twice. Though I feel sorry for her, there's really nothing that I can do about it, save take care of her for the rest of her life. Someone once told me that kauwows can live up to 10 years. If that's true, than it will be a very long friendship indeed!
Meanwhile Dum, the black male has a very good chance of winning his freedom. His fall from the tall tree in front of my house left him none the worse off. Next week I will start weaning him off handfeeds and start teaching him to take dry food. This can be tricky because if his fluid intake is insufficient, he could end up in trouble. I need to monitor this process very carefully, by observing his droppings. That will give me the information I need. Strange how animal and bird droppings can tell stories about health conditions.
When I was working with racehorses, there were three things that I had to take in very quickly every morning when I went to check the stables....the droppings, how much water was left and whether the eyes on the horses were clear or not. I was stable supervisor and had to look after 60 horses. More on that in a different blog.....
I named the male kauwow Dum, which is the thai word for black....not very imaginative.
The other thing I need to do is bring him into my room and see how ready he is to fly.
Once he's ready to fly and eat on his own, he will be ready to embrace freedom. Part 4 of this story will be forthcoming soon.
The last male kauwow that I released some 2 years ago did some very strange things. Firstly, when he was first released he didn't know that he was a kauwow and therefore ended up spending 4 days with the pigeons!! I didn't know whether to say smart or stupid??
Smart in that he would have friends that show him how to find food? Well, anyway he finally decided that the food of pigeons was not for him. He then spent some time with the minor birds!! He faired better because I noticed that he was putting on weight. You might wonder how I recognised him. He had vertually no tail when he was released, which means that he had to use his wings more rigorously. Untill a new tail grows out, he was easy to recognise. The last time I saw him was some 3 months after I had released him. His tail was halfway grown out and he'd become the confident flyer. Probably by then he'd figured out that he was indeed a kauwow??!
Somehow i think birds know where to fall. They fall down to you to keep themself safe. Margo,the zoo keeper, rock!!
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