Democracy for New Mexico

Sunday Bird Blogging With Georgie

Alright. I confess. We have ANOTHER new bird on the premises:

Bluish-lavender Georgie arrived on the scene last weekend to keep yellow lutino Ginger company. You may recall the War of the Parakeets that resulted in Ginger being banished to her own cage away from Ms. Whitey and Mr. Queenie. Ginger had become very jealous over their love for one another and was getting nastier to Whitey by the hour.

It turned out Ginger was very lonely by herself in a separate cage, so we finally broke down and got her a companion. Enter the mellow and zen-like Georgie named, appropriately enough, for the late George Harrison, who was my favorite Beatle back in the day. You can see, however, that Ginger and Georgie are not yet fully acclimated to one another:

Ginger, who has a tendency towards nervousness and paranoia, still appears to be a bit up at arms over the new arrival. However, don't let her blazing red eyes fool you into thinking she is a complete savage. All yellow lutinos like her, similar to the albino Whitey, have naturally red eyes.

It's heartening that with each passing day the new couple seems to be more comforable with one another, following each other around the cage, from toy to toy, from swing to perch, with attentive looks on their faces. I have a feeling the avian gossip columns may soon be full of references to the new, hot couple in Hoffmantown: Georgie and Ginger.

(Click photos for larger images.)

Sunday Fighting Illini Bird Blogging

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird is so amped up over the Fighting Illini's decisive win over Louisville yesterday in the NCAA basketball tournament that he insisted we bring him his new Illinois shirt, custom made by Andrea Sterling:

He got all excited about the Illiniwek turtleneck, and insists that it will bring continuing good luck to the U of I team:

Bosco, however, refused to try on the shirt at this point. He insisted that a bird-brain wearing orange and blue Illini gear before Monday's tourney final between Illinois and the North Carolina Tarheels might jinx the outcome. Since he's a big Illini fan (like me) he won't don the shirt until the final buzzer of Monday's game, when he can celebrate what he hopes will be the first Illinois victory in the NCAA tournament in 100 years of Champaign-Urbana basketball.

Bosco ended the shirt session by becoming more interested in the camera than anything else, and he ran toward the lens while peeping Oskee Wow Wow at the top of his lungs:

Old Princeton yells her Tiger,
Wisconsin, her Varsity
And they give the same old Rah, Rah, Rah,
At each University,
But the yell that always thrills me,
And fills my heart with joy,
Is the good old Oskee Wow-Wow,
that they yell at Illinois.

Os-kee Wow-Wow Illinois,
Our eyes are all on you.
Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois.
Wave your Orange and your Blue.  (Rah! Rah!)
When the team trots out before you,
Every man stand up and yell.
Back the team to victory,
Os-kee Wow-Wow Illinois.

He finished with renditions of the Illinois Loyalty song and Hail to the Orange:

Illinois Loyalty:
We're loyal to you Illinois,
We're "Orange and Blue," Illinois,
We'll back you to stand
'Gainst the best in the land,
For we know you have sand, Illinois,
Rah! Rah!
So crack out that ball Illinois,
We're backing you all Illinois;
Our team is our fame protector,
On! boys, for we expect a vict'ry from you Illinois!

Che-he! Che-ha! Che-ha-ha-ha!
Go Illini go!
Che-he! Che-ha! Che-ha-ha-ha!
Go Illini go!
Illinois! Illinois! Illinois!

Fling out that dear old flag of Orange and Blue,
Lead on your sons and daughters, fighting for you;
Like men of old, on giants placing reliance, shouting defiance
Oskee wow-wow!
Amid the broad green plains that nourish our land,
For honest Labor and for Learning we stand,
And unto thee we pledge our heart and hand,
Dear Alma Mater Illinois.

Hail to the Orange:
Hail to the Orange.
Hail to the Blue.
Hail Alma Mater,
Ever so true.
We love no other,
So let our motto be
Victory, Illinois, Varsity.

(And, yes, I really know all the words to these and sang them many times when I was in college at the Big Ten school, U of I. For a time I even sat in "Block I" where you hold up cards to form patterns and words to cheer on the team. Yikes.)

Sunday Bird Blogging

We're still recovering from the Fighting Illini's come from behind victory over Arizona yesterday in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and so is Bosco. It was a nervewracking affair. Four minutes to go, Illinois down by 15 points. Major turnaround. Illini win in overtime 90-89! I'm an Illinois alumnus, having spent the late 60s in Champaign-Urbana hanging out on the quad, playing old-fashioned pinball machines at local student hangouts and staying up all night typing English lit papers on a manual typewriter. So I was very excited about my team, rated number one in the nation this year, being in the Elite Eight. Now they're in the Final Four! More nail biting to come next weekend.

Bosco is also an Illini fan, as you can see from his orange head and blue tailfeathers:

We're trying to find him a Fighting Illini lovebird-sized t-shirt, but so far, no dice.

Sunday Bird Blogging

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird decided to join me for Sunday blog browsing this afternoon after we returned from a political rendezvous at Flying Star.

Bosco, like me, is a big fan of Daily Kos as you can see from the photo above. I'm pointing at the Kos logo to take Bosco's attention away from the face shot of Bug Man Delay down below. Every time Bosco sees that mug, he starts ranting and raving. Just like me. I guess you could say Bosco and I have alot in common, eh? (Click on photos for larger images.)

Sunday Bird Blogging

Here's Bosco enjoying his very first visit to the great outdoors in our backyard while outside his cage. He's been outside and has gone on rides in the car before while in his traveling cage, but he's never been outside his cage bars in the sunshine before yesterday.

And here's Mary Ellen showing him the beauties of the New Mexico sun. He was quite fascinated with the turquoise sky on this early Spring day, and with the finches who were nibbling at our bird feeders, seemingly oblivious to the peach-faced lovebird in their midst. Of course Bosco's wings are clipped so there was no danger of his flying off to find a new flock.

Note M.E.s t-shirt. You can't read it here, but it says BEAT NY, with the famous Red Sox emblem below -- a souvenir of last year's run-up to World Series victory. Once a Red Sox fan, always a Red Sox fan. We're not sure whether Bosco will be interested in baseball or not, but if he is, he'll probably be a fan of the Orioles, Cardinals or Blue Jays, don't you think?

Sunday Bird (Dog) Blogging

Today, in a switch from our traditional Bird Blogging, we feature a new canine arrival in Atlanta. Our good friend and terrific singer, guitarist and songwriter, Liz Melendez, just received a little chihuahua puppy from friends. Here's a couple photos of the new, as yet unnamed chiledog just a few minutes after arriving in her new home. Arf!

The doggie gift came just in time for the ongoing celebrations of Liz's new CD release, Sweet Southern Soul. Visit LizMelendez.com to hear some audio clips and check out the Liz Melendez Band. In addition to many other important gigs around the country, Liz and her band headlined one of the Madrid Blues Festival's Sunday shows last summer and we're hoping she'll be back this way soon. We can't let our Southern music fans have all the fun! Here's Liz:

War of the Parakeets

We had to evict our female lutino parakeet Ginger (above) from the main cage yesterday. Her former cagemates Whitey (female albino) and Queenie/Fred (green male) have been getting amorous of late (especially in the early morning before the cage cover comes off) and Whitey has been laying eggs. This prompted Ginger to get extremely aggressive towards the couple who shared her home.

Earlier in this melodrama we had to remove a nest box and abandon the idea of raising parakeet chicks because Ginger wouldn't let Whitey into the box to lay her eggs. She stood guard in front of the box and wouldn't budge. This led to us allow Whitey to just lay her eggs on the cage floor, where she has been alternating sitting on them and ignoring them. None of the seven she has layed so far has hatched. Here's Whitey the red-eyed albino:

Yesterday we noticed Ginger grabbing onto Whitey's tail feathers and whomping her. The last straw was when we discovered her swinging Whitey around by the feathers on her head. Yes folks, we have a war-monger, red-eyed lutino parakeet on our hands, at least when breeding time is nigh.

So we removed Ginger to her own cage and that's that. She is now a solo parakeet and will stay that way until and if we decide to get her a pal. She can still see her ex-cagemates but she can't swing them around by their feathers anymore. Below there's a photo of Queenie (Fred), the focus of the females' fighting. You have to admit he IS a handsome bloke! It is sad to have to split up the dancing pair of Ginger and Fred(Queenie), but establishing parakeet peace has to be our number one priority. As of now, Ginger's only company is the fake parakeet in the photo above. Can't hold a candle to Queenie though!

(Click on photos for larger images.)

Sunday Boid Blogging

Here's Bosco the Peach-faced Lovebird preening on his new window setup in our living room. Early on we bought him a little "gym" where he was supposed to hang out while out of his cage. He never stayed on the equipment longer than two seconds. Until now. We moved the gym next to our front window, added a fallen branch from the neighbor's apricot tree and, voila!, he loves it.

He often gets off the branch and ventures along the towel-cushioned window sill, the better to eyeball and peep at all the big black crows and mourning doves and the occasional red-tailed hawks that fly around the big trees in our corner of the neighborhood. And as you can tell, he loves stuffed animals. He particularly likes to pull on their noses and eyes and bite their paws whenever he's irritated with his human companions. Even lovebirds have to vent sometimes.

(Click on images for larger versions.)

Sunday Sunny Bird Blogging

(Click photo for larger image.)

Because we haven't seen much of the sun for days and days here in Albuquerque, I'm offering a photo of Bosco the lovebird with Old Sol spotlighting him in his cage. The sun finally emerged here this morning, which seems appropriate for a SUNday, doesn't it?

Examining this photo, I have to admit that love birds have rather unappealing feet. I guess it's a reminder that avians were originally dinosaurs back in the day. Scaly remnants! But I think Bosco's cute face and lively personality more than make up for his homely toes. Except when he is being what is referred to in the bird books as a "willful parrot," and he refuses to get back into his cage after a visit outside the bars.

Speaking of out-of-bar experiences, our green male parakeet Queenie escaped from the cage he shares with females Whitey and Ginger while it was being cleaned this morning. Our parakeets have outgrown their clipped wings, so he was flapping and swooping around the den with abandon, knocking into windows and walls all aflutter. Not very smart. Luckily we captured him before he hurt himself as he paused to rest in our jungle of plants. He's back in his cage with no lingering effects, eating a lemongrass treat with enthusiasm like nothing happened. Phew.

Both Bosco and Queenie have the same message for you today: if you haven't yet contributed a few bucks to the DFNM bat supporting the continuing success of Democracy for America and celebrating Howard Dean's victory, click here! Come on, help us meet our goal and swing that bat!

Sunday Bird Blogging Time

This week we're back to real bird blogging, but it sure was fun to feature a furry bird-doggin' tree climber last week.

Here we have little Bosco our peach-faced lovebird after one of his regular Saturday afternoon baths. He positively loves bath time in the top of a tupperware container. He carefully wades into the warm water to check things out and then proceeds to belly slide back and forth across the "pool," splashing and flapping until he's nice and soaked. Doesn't he look pretty with his feathers all wet? Well...

Here's a close-up shot. His head feathers are already dried out but you can see how much more peachy his face and forehead are getting, in the tradition of maturing peach-faces everywhere. Peep peep.

(Click photos for larger images.)

You, too, can have your pet(s) included in a future segment of bird blogging. Email me a picture and a paragraph about your bird, dog, cat, iguana or whatever pet shares your political life and we'll give them their 10 minutes of fame!