Mr. Hormone

I thought we'd be passed this by this time of the year, but Beeps continues to be one giant hormone. As soon as he sees me, he starts regurgitating. As soon as he sees Thomas, he tries to attack. When not hormonal, he is equally tame to us; if anything, he has a slight preference for Thomas.

As a result, he's not getting out as much as he used to; however, he is content in his cage, and I make sure he gets out several times a day, even if only for a few minutes each time. When allowed out, he needs to be heavily supervised as he really wants to be on Basil's cage. Basil does not want him there and this causes major problems. (Mostly Basil freaking out and making the loudest, most unpleasant noise imaginable. I don't want to see this escalate to violence, however, so Beeps is always swiftly removed from his cage. Basil continues to protest for a few minutes even after Beeps is gone.)

I got home from work last night and Thomas informed me that Beeps had tried to attack him 5 times in the past 2 minutes. Good thing Thomas has strong reflexes and was able to move out of the way of the fly-by attack.

This picture isn't the best, but since the camera triggers attacks, I only had one shot at him. Especially since he was on my arm!
Poor guy! Hopefully he'll start feeling himself again soon. We miss the fun, playful Beeps who has other things on his mind than feeding me and driving away the competition (i.e. my husband.)

Grey censors

Every night, I bring home The Wall Street Journal home from work. Last night, I was reading it while making dinner. However, during a period when I was sufficiently absorbed in my cooking the greys decided to band together to make it difficult for me to get the news:As usual, Max started this and Stella flew over to join the fun. Think of how their lives could be improved if they were friends instead of rivals! Perhaps it's a good thing they haven't realized this, as they create enough havoc as it is, without working in tandem!

The bag man & gawkers

Rocky was wandering around the kitchen last night, looking for ways to occupy his time. He loves to hang out in boxes and Thomas's pants. I keep my grocery bags near the back door, so that I remember the next morning to put them in my car. Rocky seized this opportunity to make a pseudo-nest:Much of the evening was spent crawling into the bag, standing on the bag, and doing other weird macaw-things to the bag. Personally, I don't get the attraction...

He was making such a fuss laughing, talking, and making other excited noises, that the nosy greys had to fly over and see what was going on:
I love the way they tilt their heads when they really want a good look at what's going on on the floor.

Also, have there ever been nosier parrots? These two must always be in everyone else's business. I do tell them to get hobbies of their own, but of course they don't listen to me. It must be too much fun this way.

More Rocky

Rocky only seems to do this when I'm the only human at home with the parrots; perhaps he's searching for Thomas. He looks out our patio door; the only parrot-height window. As soon as he sees me, he puts on a good front; dancing and singing, but when he doesn't know I'm looking, he just stares out the window. I don't know why he'd search for Thomas here, though he has, on occasion, seen him mowing the lawn from this vantage point. However, Thomas never enters/exits through the patio door, as there is no second barrier to make sure the parrots can't escape.Rocky loves towels. I cover Brian's cage at night with a towel that I keep on the bottom of his stand during the day. This was just too enticing for Rocky, who had to play with the towel.
I always use a stick to transport Rocky; this keeps me safe and allows my blood to remain inside my body. One thing I find curious is how Rocky could, if he wanted to, run down the stick to attack, but he never does so.
I should be grateful for that and not question it, but of course I like to try to figure out what makes him tick. He's got me stumped!

The lurker

Unfortunately, Thomas had to work tonight. It's been months since he's had to work at night, and we've really gotten used to having him around. I'd like to think that I miss him the most, though that distinction might actually go to Rocky or Stella. The only one who's happy about this is Calypso. Calypso does not like Thomas, so he was very happy tonight! Usually he puts himself to bed right after supper, around 6 pm, but tonight (as all the nights Thomas isn't home), he stayed up until I had to put him to bed.

Earlier this evening, I was in the kitchen making dinner. I heard some clicking; sure enough, Rocky was lurking around. I had the camera set to no flash, so he's blurry, but you can see him making his way in to be with me:He stops at every corner to see what's happening:
He started making his way towards me, then turned around, deciding against launching an attack (perhaps because I had a stick in my other hand so he knew it was pointless.)
Rocky is such an enigma. He won't let me handle him, but when Thomas isn't home, he likes to be near me. If I were forced to live with someone I hated, I'd spend the evening in the other room if possible, yet Rocky seeks me out. It's maddening; I can't understand him.