Non-random things about me

1. I like to do little quasi-scientific experiments in my spare time.
2. Food should feed the soul.
3. Non-humans are more intelligent than most of us give credit for.
4. I strive to help my animal companions achieve self-actualization and emotional equanimity.
5. Education, critical thinking and love can solve every important problem.
6. I'm frequently accused of being an unrealistic idealist.
7. I'm a moral realist.
8. I like to grow...

Bloody Bird

True confession. I've been falling behind in grooming so I wanted to trim the birds' nails today. C's nails in particular have been getting a bit too long and spindly... so I worry that he'll get them caught on something, get tangled and trip: ideas I don't much relish, seeing as he has enough physical complications to deal with.

So I did B's nails first. This is because he moves a lot faster than C, and I know I have less chance of getting him calmly if he gets too much of a glimpse of what's coming. Now, anyone who knows B knows that he hates being confined like the devil and gets extremely upset. So, after trying to hold him in a towel to get to his nails, I let him out and just sat him on my hand -- and for the first time EVER in our 20-plus-year-long relationship, he let me clip his nails while just sitting there on my hand. I was so proud of him; it was so much easier on both of us this way!

Cutting C's nails got a bit more complicated. He has the bad wing that gets in the way, and the lucky little front toe that crosses over the long one. I tried to trim his nails the way I did with B, but finally realized that he was getting too excited, verging on panic, and that I'd have to hold him in the towel to keep him still.

When I finally had him ready, I must have been rushing and made a terrible mistake... I clipped a bit too far on his lucky toenail, he squealed and twisted, and then I found some blood on my finger. I had cut too far to the quick. I got out the starch to stem any bleeding, but I feel horrible about it.

And now C's been huddling here on the perch all day with his back to me. He doesn't usually sit like that -- he usually likes to sit out front, facing out -- but he's right. I deserve it.

If you're reading this, sweetie, I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

From the choir

I was browsing Youtube the other day and found a video of a great a cappella cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" by a group called the Dynamics. The Dynamics actually sing all the manic little instrumentations of the original, which I found pretty impressive.

Here's another Youtube video, this one of Ben Folds doing a cover of the same song on piano and some improvised percussion instruments. My favourite version of the song is actually Iron & Wine's acoustic cover, which is very mellow and relaxing... but the birds quite like the boppy a cappella version from the Dynamics and have been singing along as I typed this. If I had it in iTunes, I'd put it next to the Jacques Loussier Boléro in their playlist; they were singing again to that earlier tonight too.
A recent pic of the boys in the shower. As is typical, only C felt like getting clean...

Loro música

Right now, I'm listening to a jazzy interpretation of Ravel’s Boléro by Jacques Loussier Trio. The birds really like it! One of the birds burst into impromptu mating song, syncopating his phrases with the beat of the Boléro. I've added it to the birds' playlist in iTunes, but they hardly ever use my computer. Bird C did type out a happy face once while I was working though. It made sense for him to type that out before anything else, since he IS the happy-go-lucky one. =)

The other week, I went to watch an Anton Kuerti piano master class. The master class was fascinating for a listener: it made me conscious of all these little distinctions in playing and interpretation that I wouldn't necessarily have thought of before. Kuerti advocated the Fresh Finger Rule for ornamentations for the student who played Mozart's Piano Sonata in D Major. What really impressed me was how Kuerti would demonstrate on his piano and have this beautiful sound come out in just a bar or two. I heard him play at a recital years ago, and his playing was beautiful then, as well -- but hearing two people play the same notes, back-to-back, both on Steinway grands, made Kuerti's mastery really obvious. I don't know how he gets that gorgeous tone with just a few notes... He must have magic, soulful hands.

The Relieving & The Ridiculous

I'm glad to report that Bird B's foot got better. I'm relieved that it was temporary and so must have been a muscle strain.

Though it's been much colder lately, I've still been trying to take the birds outside when I can. I figure it's good for the flock, even if it's for 2 minutes to get some cool fresh air.

B was especially good when I brought them out a few days ago. He took off from my hand for his flight exercise, flew around the yard in a circle, then landed right back on my hand! Usually, I would expect him to land on the roof instead, and make me wait and plead before coming back, but maybe he knew it was cold out and so didn't want to be caught out on the wet roof.

I'm posting some older photos of the birds looking all well and clean after a shower. Apologies for not having more up-to-date photos; I haven't been shooting much lately.

+++

I did Yoga for the first time in probably a couple months last week. My sister had brought me a Richard Freeman Yoga tape, so it was the first time I'd attempted this one. At first, it didn't seem all that different from my usual Richard Freeman Yoga Breathing and Relaxation tape, but after an hour of this new one, I was sore afterward for days! Literally days! Three days, I think. There were all these ridiculous poses that were reminiscent of stretches that would usually be done sitting on the floor, except that they were supposed to be done standing up. On one leg. I couldn't pronounce these poses, let alone do them. Those ones made me laugh at the absurdity of the effort -- and I'm not just talking inner smile!

Limber

I'm worried about the birds. Bird B in particular has suddenly started favouring one leg. He puts very little weight on his right leg/foot and limps around everywhere. Given that he can fly, and is extremely strong and agile (remember his inversions), it seems highly unlikely that he hurt himself. So this worries me. I resort to hoping that he did indeed have an accident, however unlikely, and strained a muscle, since I can't bear serious consideration of the alternative: a tumour pressing on the nerve.

This is an older photo from his more limber days.

Rhapsody

Feeling a bit wistful tonight on All Hallows Eve. Didn't celebrate really except for wrapping up some harvesting yesterday, as blogged.

Lately I've been tinkling the ivories more. It must be the reading that befuddles my brain, and impels me to wander away from the books to do something more tactile. And it's more immediately rewarding even if I can't play well. I've been practicing some dinky arrangements of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, mostly the third movement, but sometimes the second movement, Adagio sostenuto, as well as the 18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Technically, I think I'm in over my fingers as I haven't made much progress on either in over a decade. That may be why I never left them behind.

It will be colder starting tomorrow, All Saints' Day. I remember and look forward to warmer times for Beltane in the spring.

Eden's Eve

In the past weeks, I've been writing a lot off-blog so I've been rather low on words. But now, in honour of the last days of October, I'll post some doubleplusgood updates from the garden:
New record from Big Daddy. This chard leaf is over 95 cm long! I'm sure it could have gone longer but I was impatient to harvest one night. If I can control my harvesting urges, I should be able to get one over a metre long... but time may be running out.I also have a new record for my peppers! I've been harvesting some green ones that are over 9 cm tall, even larger than the one pictured here. And best of all, I got my one red pepper to ripen fully to a stunning scarlet! It's all documented here in this photo series:


For fans of the birds, here are a couple of photos of them from our time out today (October 30), enjoying the sunny afternoon:



Here's one with all my little darlings in one shot:


For M who asked for garden advice: First of all, I really cannot claim to be the best for advice on garden productivity, unless you use me as a negative example. It took me three years to get not much, as I have been lamenting for over a year on this blog. That said, I would recommend Lee Reich's Weedless Gardening, which is basically a gardening method inspired by nature. Besides the perk of having a theoretically weedless garden, I like the philosophy of minimizing disturbances to the garden and soil, which furnishes me with a ready excuse for not working too hard on it, so here are links to some articles by Reich.

My personal Holy Grail for gardening has been the tomato: you can't buy anything that tastes like a freshly homegrown tomato. I found sweet bell peppers to be rewarding also, since my green ones are about as sweet as the red peppers I buy at the supermarket, and my one red pepper was even sweeter and riper than that! I also like having fresh greens so I'd recommend some lettuces, which are pretty easy, and will grow early in the season. Don't plant too much because you probably won't be able to eat it all before they go to seed in the heat. Buy the tastiest lettuce seeds and watch the soil, since that will have a huge impact on flavour. And of course, I'm partial to Big Daddy and Swiss chard in general, which will keep going even through the summer heat.

Try some fresh herbs, since it's so much better to pick what you need from the garden than to go with dried herbs or chance it with fresh cut herbs from the store. I adore basil, but thyme, rosemary, or any other herbs you use would all be good choices. With the basil, you could make pesto, and with the tomatoes, you'll have most your ingredients for a fresh tossed summer pasta with extra virgin olive oil. (Remember that EVOO is good for your health, being a source of health-promoting monounsaturated fats and polyphenol antioxidants.)

As for size, I think that's very much a personal preference. Have it be as big as it needs to be to do what you want. Consider how much you like digging and toiling. If you're not sure, I'd advise starting smaller so that it's not too overwhelming at first, but leave open possibilities for future expansion. Also, you can use some containers if you have a nice lawn you don't want too huge a hole in, but keep in mind that containers will be more time-consuming to water. Smaller plants like herbs and lettuces will do best in containers, or even peppers if the container is large enough. I find that tomatoes really need their space, so that goes best in the plot.

Timing depends on your season. How long and warm is the summer where you are? If shorter, you may need to start earlier by seeding indoors, which may be a good idea anyway. But if you're looking for minimal work, you can always forgo that and just toss some seeds at the dirt and see what happens!

Jardin de Verdure

As requested, I'm posting a photo of my whole garden, as well as a little map plotting the location of the different veggies. The huge tall drying plants are the lettuce plants gone to seed. Usually I would pull them out after they flower, since they're not so edible by then, but I decided to let these ones go to seed to see if I'll get tons of lettuce plants next year without sowing any. I've since pulled up the seeded lettuces to make room for the other plants and laid the lettuce corpses to rest under the tomatoes. My philosophy toward gardening is pretty liberal and permissive, for those who haven't already guessed.

Apparently, peppers do well to have their first central fruits taken to encourage further growth of other peppers. So, after the initial peppers, I have been trying to remain patient long enough to let some of my bell peppers grow larger. I measured one of the larger peppers I've ever harvested at about 8 cm tall. We'll try to do better than that! Actually, one of my container plants is growing a bell pepper that is starting to ripen in spots to a vivid scarlet! I'll be so happy if I get a red pepper -- I just need this warm sunny weather to hold up.

I also got a picture of the only cucumber I've ever had as this is my first year trying cucumbers. There was one cucumber before this one that I was just about to harvest, but when I went to get it the next day, it was already gone -- undoubtedly the work of one of the monster squirrels. The cucumber was tasty though; I felt so accomplished and connected to my nearly-idyllic little garden when I plucked my cucumber off the vine, washed off its prickles, and then chomped on it while working outside.

PS. The plan view of the garden is kind of upside down when compared with the view from the front edge, so if anyone is trying to match up the veggies with the map plan, just turn that around. In other words, the top edge of the first photo points North, while the top edge of the plan photo points South. Happy orienteering!

Meditations

I'm not usually up at 6 in the morning but today I woke up just after 5, after about 4 hours of sleep. Only. My brain woke me, tortured by thoughts of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy, which I've been reading again lately.

I think I referred to the Meditations back in a previous post when I said I was reading something not very engaging. Well, the good news is, the Meditations are a bit more compelling this time around. The bad news is, its problems and inconsistencies, which seem irreconciliable at this point to me, are troubling enough to be encroaching on the quality and quantity of my sleep.

For the next hour, I tried to relax and fall asleep, but Descartes kept haunting me, so I gave up and decided to do some yoga for an hour. Thankfully, after the exquisite corpse pose, I'm feeling more relaxed and centred now and my head hurts less. At this rate, I'll either be the most flexible girl around, or the most sleep-deprived.

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
- Descartes

A Resting Inspiration

Alex the African Grey parrot died earlier this month, at the tender age of 31 years. Alex was made famous by Dr. Irene Pepperberg's studies into intelligent use of vocalizations by parrots, which have also inspired me in my care and interaction with my own flock members.

Here's a video obituary from ABC news that shows some of Alex's responses, and as well, here's a CNN live interview with Irene Pepperberg after Alex's death. The part when he asks Irene about Alex also being her friend was very moving for me. I interpret Irene as trying to protect Alex's legacy, as well as her work, by refusing to explicitly acknowledge any emotional attachment she felt for her avian colleague. Perhaps more revealingly, she also doesn't explicitly deny caring for him as a friend.

In Alex's memory, I'm also including a favourite anecdote about him from "That Damn Bird", a 2003 talk with Pepperberg:

We were training Alex to sound out phonemes...to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words... Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."

Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."

Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine.

I also figured out how to update the links section on the right sidebar of my blog, so now there are finally some real links in there instead of the dummy default links. Amongst others, I've included a link to The Alex Foundation, where more information on Pepperberg's research can be found. I even managed to hack a bit of html in the template (which is really not my forte, so this is a big deal for me!) to include an inspiring bit from Unger in my sidebar, so I hope these changes will improve the blog and encourage further exploration.

Rest in peace, Alex.

Look Ma! Spray Millet!

It looks like I've managed to make my very own homegrown birdseed after all!

After letting some of the pointy mystery seeds that I blogged about in July mature, we did a taste test. Once the birds figured out how to extract the seeds from the outer husks, they loved munching on it! I put some photos up in yesterday's post, although they were actually shot last month. Unfortunately, the monster squirrels grabbed most of the pointy seed heads for themselves, so the birds only got one or two. I also grew some oats, but the squirrels also ate that all up before I could harvest it for the birds.

Last week, though, I noticed a new kind of seed growing in my soil! Look familiar to anyone?

Yay for spray millet! The birds love it! They were just finishing up this one today!

Now I just have to figure out how to keep the squirrels away from the birdseed long enough for the birds to eat them!

Hopping Up

Today felt like summer, so the flock's been taking advantage of the good weather. B's quite good and still affectionate. Where C will be taking a birdnap, B hops around trying to preen everything on me, including clothing parts like zippers, ties, as well as the usual preening targets. A bit scarily, he likes to go for my eyes. Actually more than a bit scary, since he's not the most gentle bird, and he's liable to get very excited and vehement. He was being super cute today, trying to angle in closer to hop from the branch perch onto my knee, with his tail getting caught in the branches.

I think the wild birds have their eyes on B. A few days ago, B flew around for some exercise and landed on the roof. He was being coy again about flying back to me and C, when a mourning dove promptly landed next to him on the roof. The dove eyed the cockatiel, then fluffed up a bit and approached my B. B looked a bit nervous, and when the dove got even closer, B quickly flew back down to us. I don't think he welcomed the dove's advances!

Then, while we were hanging out today, I saw a blue jay land in a nearby tree, who I also think was eyeing B. In the past few months, B has landed in the big spruce out back a couple times, and both times, I saw a blue jay join him there as soon as B landed. So I think it might be the same blue jay curious about who B is, and why B's crest is yellow and not blue. He seems to be just friendly though, and not as amorous and intimidating as the dove!

+++

I've been a bit sick lately -- I think it's the flu -- so I have been trying to self-medicate. Tried the olive scallion tea again, but that didn't do much, so I tried a stronger Chinese herbal medicinal tea. Also got some Echinacea capsules and Vitamin C capsules (Ester-C) to help out my immune system, and while I think the Echinacea helped a bit, I don't think the Ester-C did much. But, I'm still not feeling great. So just now, I went for some Prednisolone, and I'm hoping that will work on my sore throat and coughing. I also have some Dextromethorphan handy to suppress my cough if I need it, but apparently, it may cause drowsiness and happens to be classified as a "dissociative hallucinogenic drug" at higher doses, so I think I'll try to avoid that one. Sounds like fun -- clearly not my style.

Feathered Glue

Since my schedule's been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to spend with the birds. Yesterday I finally had some time, and the weather was good, so we went outside to hang out while I tried to get some work done.

B must have missed me a lot from the week, because he was all over me like a feathered glue. He'd clamber up my front to sit on my shoulder, but not in the demanding self-interested way he usually does, just to get a choice perch from where he can look down on the rest of us. Instead, he was so well-behaved and eager for my approval that he would step off my shoulder onto my hand as soon as I presented my hand to him. He spent a long time enthusiastically preening my face and hair, and generally showering me with his birdy care and affection.

You're nobody 'til somebody loves you.
- Dean Martin, amongst others.


Addendum: Some reports have come in to indicate that the "Ethan Hawke" mentioned in my Cornucopia post should be more correctly spelled "Viggo Mortensen". The mystery star really didn't look like Viggo to me, but then what do I know? I probably couldn't recognize him without an entourage of hobbits. At any rate, I think both men were at the TIFF last week, so it's also possible I spotted both of them, wearing the same suit and pulling a switcheroo in the middle.

Clipping Time Coupons

I'm starting to see time a bit differently.

Last week I stocked up on 54 rolls of toilet paper from the store. I was careful to buy only the "double rolls". Double rolls apparently have 330-352 sheets per roll (varies with brand) instead of the standard 176 sheets per roll. Assuming it takes me 60 seconds to get a new roll out of the bag, remove the empty roll, put the new roll on, and fold and recycle the empty cardboard roll, this will halve the time I spend changing toilet paper rolls!

NEW AND IMPROVED! ADDED BONUS! That's an extra 25 minutes of time in my life per batch! Even more if I average more processing time per roll change!

I'd post a picture of my 54 rolls of toilet paper, but that'd cut into my time profit margin, so I'll have to invoke the imagination for this one.

Cornucopia

Last day of an era. My Occupation Title changes tomorrow so I've been trying to wrap up and do as much as possible before that. Shopping and stocking up on supplies. Even cracked out the ironing board for a rare (probably less frequent than annual) ironing session last night.

Best of all: I found an unmolested red tomato in my garden! I would have wanted it to mature a bit more, but even more than that, I wanted to avoid further pillaging from the evil squirrels, so I decided to harvest my little fruit and let her ripen in the relative safety of the great indoors. Isn't she gorgeous? My beaut's currently occupying an elevated position on my southern windowsill where she can bask in the sunlight. Should be perfect within a couple days.

You may notice the bed of Swiss chard that my Tomato is resting on in the photo. This is my first year growing this and I love it already: no bitterness in my homegrown chard, and even the thick strong salty stalks are juicy, not overly fibrous or tough at all. In my garden, there are two Swiss chard plants: one who's a little itty bitty guy, and another one who's quite large, to put it mildly. As I write, I'm cooking up three of the leaves in some chicken stock, which will probably feed me for a week, since the leaves are from Big Daddy. Why have I named this plant Big Daddy? Observe.Yep, that's a metre stick, and this leaf measures in at over 90 cm. For the Imperialists out there, that's about 3 feet. At these sizes, how can I blame Bitty Baby for cowering in Big Daddy's shadow? Though slight, he's still a cutie, and I'm sure he'll grow up to make me proud.

+++

Saw Ex Drummer today at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, situated in Ostend, Belgium, is about a famous writer who's approached by three handicapped musicians to fill out their rock band as the drummer. With the soundtrack alternating between fairly sweet melodies and hard noise rock, Ex Drummer is a barrage on the senses: harsh scenes illustrating the lowest depths of humanity, surreal glimpses of violence and chaos, with some parts so extreme that they're absurd, funny, hyperreal and disturbing all at once. Well done, and I'd probably give it 3 chards, but for all the shock, I'd prefer something a bit more humanist or edifying, and there was no redemption in this film. No strong morality tale. Unnerving editing choices -- if you see it, you'll know what I mean. I'm still jarred by its effects; it's violent, graphic, loud and generally unsettling to see. The director, Koen Mortier, was there for some Q&A after the film, and he was so charming and funny, reeling off anecdotes with a soft-spoken accent, that the whole thing was rather incongruous for a Sunday afternoon. Makes me think of pointillism. Odd effect.

Also probably spotted Ethan Hawke outside some TIFF party after, but without cinematic lighting and makeup, it's hard to say for sure whether it was him or one of the other Hollywood types who look like him. Nice suit, though.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Behold the Carnage

I just went out to visit my garden and this is what I found.Some may grok how heartbreaking this is for me. For the past three years, I have been killing myself trying to achieve a homegrown ripe tomato in my own garden... my Holy Grail. I've survived sunless summers, hailstorms, bad soil, weed overpopulation and angst-ridden bouts of self-doubt. Now the bastard squirrels are running rampage over my garden and pillaging the choicest chunks of my fruit.

I was even resigned to letting them have the tomatoes that were growing on the ground, but was that enough for them? Oh no. These selfish rodents had to climb up and kill the one ripe one blushing against the trellis.

Send in your recipes for squirrel stew.

Medicative Moments

It's been cool and a bit rainy. I've been feeling similarly under the weather.

Over the past year or so, the realization has been slowly coming to me that I should learn how to self-medicate better. It's probably something I should have learnt to do a decade or so ago, like most people I know, but I never got the hang of ingesting substances for various desired physiological effects.

I never drank coffee or other caffeine to stay alert; I opted instead to stay awake naturally or just pass out when exhausted. Since childhood, I hated Aspirin and Tylenol as I found both nauseating, and the one time I took Pepto-Bismol for nausea, the pink liquid just made me throw up. Pretty much any drug bought in a pharmacy without a prescription is something I'd avoid, and I'd only take a prescription drug if there's a persuasive need for it. I grudgingly take drugs to cure the problem, and never to treat the symptoms. I don't take antibiotics for colds or try to misuse drugs in any other way, ignorant or creative.

At heart, I'm just a simple old-fashioned gal; I figure my body and my immune system, along with a reasonably high threshold for pain, will take care of most things. What I've been coming to realize lately, though, is that a good prudential reason for treating symptoms is freeing up energy to deal with something other than a debilitating problem. Better late than never, I suppose.

So, for what I suspect to be the mild cold that I have, I am actually drinking an olive scallion tea, which I think is a pretty weak form of Chinese herbal medicine. (Is there any other kind?) For the last month or two, I have also been considering a motion to take Advil for various aches and pains as needed. (These decisions take time for research and deliberation.) As well, for those who've been wondering since my Cast Iron post from last year: I have indeed heeded my most persuasive doctor and I have been taking Iron supplements as instructed. Intermittently. So, if you think I seem at all different from my norm, it's likely because I could be hopped up on any number of drugs.

Perhaps my subweather condition these days is a result of my Yoga-ing less than I was before. My attention has spanned much shorter lately, so I just haven't been in the mood for anything meditative. But I wonder, would more meditative moments allow me fewer medicative moments?

Blind Faith

I've noticed an unfortunate side effect from "flying" Bird C around. He really seems to believe he can fly. Since we started, he's been a lot more active, confident and stimulated. Virile. After all, it makes sense that a big part of avian identity would involve the experience of flight. I think his cardiovascular endurance is improving as well... so why am I calling this unfortunate?

The other day, he wanted to get back to home base, the cage. He was perched on my hand, started spreading his wings excitedly, and before I could cup him and let him "fly" as we do, he launched himself off my hand and promptly fell to the floor. I picked him up and while checking to see if he was hurt, he "flew" off my hand again. Thump. Since I'm pretty much just a stupid human with no trainer, our Pick up & Thump process repeated itself a few times before I caught on and brought him to the cage before he could jump off my hand again.

He doesn't realize AT ALL that he has yet to conquer gravity.

He doesn't seem to mind when he falls to the ground either. He just gets back up -- or thrashes around on his back, struggling to turn over -- and as soon as he's back on his feet, he looks totally unfazed and as happy-go-lucky as ever, perma-smile intact. As long as he's happy, I figure we can continue what we're doing, but I'll just need to be more careful about preventing successive launches. For those who are having a hard time picturing what's going on, please accept my apologies for the lack of visuals. My extendable arm is nowhere to be found, so I'll need a videographer before I can manage posting videos. Any volunteers?

C has such a strong spirit, it's inspiring. Nothing ever gets him down. One of these days, I half-expect to see him open his wings, launch himself into the air and fly smoothly to his destination.

What a survivor.

Cadavre Exquis

Busy lately. Trying to do some reading, but have been getting distracted by the great weather and birds. Of course, what I've been trying to read hasn't been all that engaging.

Been flying C a lot, and he's getting better. Now when I fly him, i.e., hold him while he flaps, I let him fly to where he wants to go, so that he can land at his desired destination, and get as much of the full 100% genuine flight experience that a flighted bird would have. He still gets tired quite easily after "flying" around the yard a couple times, and will be overheated for a while after, but I'm hoping he'll grow stronger and fitter the more we do it.

I've been doing more yoga lately, and finally did the full hour today, after doing more and more in the past couple days to work up my patience. I love the last pose, Shavasana, the corpse pose. This is not just because I'm lazy or anything, but after an hour of intense stretching and deep muscle workouts, just lying there in corpse is so relaxing. Today, I think I must have laid there for about half an hour or more. I was hungry during yoga, but then the hunger just dissipated while in corpse. I felt like I was almost napping, except I wasn't asleep, since I was still thinking lucidly. Either that or I was actually asleep, but having a lucid dream about being in Shavasana.

Mr. Bird's Neighbourhood

B flew off again yesterday, this time toward the neighbours whose yard backs onto our yard. He got excited and flew off farther than usual, since he usually curves back around so that he never strays too far from the edge of our yard. Far enough so that I couldn't see him. Hate when that happens.

So I grab my shoes, keys and C to trek off to the next street to find him. The scary part is that I have to walk (really, I was shuffling as fast as I could, but smoothly enough so that C wouldn't fall) to the cross-street in order to get to the parallel street that the other houses are on. When I go that far from the house, I can't hear B anymore, so I get worried he can't hear us either. Then I worry that he might think we disappeared, fly around in a panic looking for us, and by the time I get there, it's impossible to find him since he's already moved.

Well, thankfully that didn't happen. I finally get to the next street, and go down listening house by house until I figure which house his calls sound closest to, but I still can't see him. I figure he's in the neighbour's backyard. So I go to their front door to ring the bell and while I'm waiting for them to answer the door, B comes flying out around to the front of the house!!

I couldn't believe it! He was so smart to know to fly around to us, even when he was probably worried, not having seen us for 5 whole minutes. He lands on an upstairs window ledge, so from there, I just ask B to fly on down to us so we can walk back home. He got a bit of a lecture about not going so far next time, a bit of a lesson about what street we were on in case it happened again, and a bit more praise for being so smart to fly around the house to the front even though he couldn't see us, for being so good to come so quickly and staying put the whole time in between. C was also very well-behaved and calm the whole time, sitting on my hand and making contact calls to B once in a while to help. Some passersby commented on the birds, how beautiful they were, with some curious questions about whether they could fly, fly away, and so on. I'm thinking about taking them for more walks while it's seasonable.

B seems to be getting more and more independent, and I'm getting the sense that he wants to explore the neighbourhood and venture into the world beyond. He also seems more responsible, being less stubborn about sitting somewhere unreachable just because he can, while me and C are waiting and worrying. Maybe he listened the last time I lectured him about not making his mummy worry, and about how much better it was to come back sooner so that everyone can have fun, not just him.

The photo is from the other day, but doesn't he look so incorrigible?

Flying Without Flying

All is going swimmingly in the flock this summer.

I have finally figured out how to exercise C. I was inspired by how they exercise clipped birds at Parrot Island Sanctuary, which I read about in Companion Parrot Quarterly: they hold his body and let him flap around the room while being held. They really seem to think they're flying! Here's the video I watched from their website of a woman flying an Amazon parrot this way.

A couple days ago, I tried it just like on the video, cupping C's body in my two hands and letting him fly, but I couldn't really get his body, so he'd often end up flapping out of my hands and landing on the ground, as I tried to run behind him at the same rate as his flapping. A lot of stop and start. He gets very excited when he's outside and desperately wants to fly. So when we were outside today, I decided to hold his body with just one hand and started running around the yard. Well, he did it! He started flapping his wings and kept going like he was flying! He even held his little feet back in a flight position! I was so proud of him. We did that a few times, then I realized he was looking pretty spent so we figured that's enough for one day. That's why he looks so sleepy in the photo.

I plan for us to do more flapping like this for as long as we can. I hope the summer's long -- I figured this out so late! Of course I will still do the flapping on hand but he can't sustain that very long because of his weak legs and feet and/or excitement, which means he often flaps/falls off my hand. Besides, this seems like much more fun for him, and better exercise for me too.

B has taken to the branch I set up outside as home base, and will often fly straight there when I say "Fly to perch". I'm also now able to encourage him to fly from my hand, to get exercise flying around a bit outside. Today was the first day where he's been able to launch from my hand, fly up, loop around, and land back on my hand. He seems to turn back around as soon as he's gone anywhere; that's how devoted he is to us (not really "us", of course, but just Bird C, really). When he lands elsewhere, on the roof, or in a spruce, he comes back almost immediately (within 1-2 minutes). Those were both today; he was very cute, hopping from branch to branch on a spruce until he had a clear shot back over to us. I couldn't actually see him, but I was circling counterclockwise around the spruce to see him, and he was hopping to circle in the same direction on the opposite side of the trunk, so I'd hear him and see the branches shake a bit with a flash of grey-black tail every now and then.

B loves the camera. When I'm shooting, he looks right at it and will even start serenading it sometimes. Today, I took a series of closeups from a high angle, and he was very agreeable, tilting his head up to eye the camera whenever I asked him to look up for the shot. What a star. He's even got the moody hooded brow.

Wondering what the birds are sitting on today in these photos? Me too! In the Spring, I collected some of the birdseed husks that they'd finished eating and scattered them in the garden, hoping it'd help break up the soil and keep it from impacting. Over the past few months, these grassy things have started growing. At first, I just thought they were grass and let them be. Then they started getting really tall really fast, and growing these seed heads that don't look like anything else I've ever seen in the wilderness of the yard. They're starting to mature from fresh green to seedy brown, and I think I can recognize the little seeds coming in. I'm wondering if they might be millet. Or if not millet, whatever those long pointy seeds in birdseed, that come with the round millet, are. Does anyone know?

Do I dare think I finally have a source of organically grown bird seed? I pulled up a clump of it to transplant to a pot with some flowering spinach, so that they can play with some living greens indoors, assuming they survive the transplant.

Verbal Birds

After a couple weeks with the N. hollandicus research on operant conditioning with target stick, both subjects were doing quite well. On July 3, we had Bird C giving 91% success rate at 21/1 (#Successful Repetitions/Errors) and Bird B at 87% success with 15/2. I thought they might be getting bored with touching the rocks, so I decided to move on to training with verbal cues only after one normal session each -- that means no target sticks to give them the answer.

Results were less successful. In general, there was much more trial and error, although I think the subjects have "favourites" where they often get the right rock on the first try with certain colours. I say "Touch green" or "Touch green rock" and B almost always gets it. Bird C seems better with "Touch pink". I started with 4 targets (green, clear, shiny, pink) then reduced to 2 targets (clear, pink) then added 1 more target (green) and sometimes another target (rust). Perhaps I should be more consistent. I realized 4 was too many to start with, so I just concentrated on teaching "pink" and "clear" until they seemed to get it. Data was not collected for these sessions, which went on several days, since I haven't figured out how to make pretty charts and graphs with the data yet. Sometimes, I'd pull out the target stick to help them learn the answer. Sometimes I'd hold the correct rock up to their beak so that they would learn that touching that green rock when I said "Touch green" would get a click and treat. Then we took a break from training for a few days and just started again today.

B's flying is becoming much more confident. Scary incident last week: We're outside on the back deck and B is getting more and more excited. Suddenly he launches himself off, flies straight down the driveway at the side of the house, and toward the front. We've spent most of our time in the back, where it's quiet and safe, without pedestrians, cars or other vehicles, so I'm nervous and frantically running off to the street in my slippers and pajama pants with C on my hand. I can hear B calling and calling, regular screams, but I can't spot him no matter how much I search the trees and roofs of the neighbouring houses. Usually, he won't fly back towards us unless he can see us. And often, he doesn't unless I see him first and get his attention off his screaming long enough to attempt a flight back.

Suddenly, I see a grey blur zoom from my side of the street across to the other side of the street. I can barely see what it is, but it's not moving like a normal wild bird, so I start screaming his name and waving my arm wildly from the end of the driveway. He must have seen or heard me because the grey blur then takes a sharp turn and veers straight toward me, fast. Then, B lands past me on the driveway. He must have been flying too hard to aim for my hand, because when I pick him up, he's completely out of breath and looks all panicky.

Thank goodness I was there to call out to him so that he could fly back to our driveway instead of getting more lost from a panicked flight. I'm guessing he must have come across a cat, and took off like the devil then. Otherwise, I don't think he would have been flying when he was already tired -- usually he takes his sweet time up on some choice perch while C and I are calling and begging him to come back down for 20 minutes. Plus, we've seen a cat in the area, and I think the house a few doors down has one -- right around where I sawthe grey blur emerge.

B's been a very good bird lately though. Today I took him outside for a flight, and he flew around the backyard twice before landing in the garden, then came right back to us as soon as he could. He's not very good at aiming for a landing on my hand. Sometimes he ends up on my shoulder or the top of my head, or more painfully, scrabbling off my forehead, and sometimes he misses me altogether. I'm not sure if he's landing in low spots (driveway, garden) on purpose these days, so that I can pick him up easier, or if he just runs out of steam at the last minute.

Or maybe he doesn't like the roof any more. A couple of days ago, it was sunny and I took them outside; as usual, he flew and landed on the roof. Sunny day and the black shingles must have been hot. As usual, he likes to run to the edge of the roof before flying, the lazy thing. He'd try running down towards us, but then he'd stop to pick up one of his feet. I tried yelling at him to just fly over, so that he could be off the hot roof, but he'd just take a few steps, then stand there on one foot, beaking the lifted foot. I'm starting to question how clever B really is. He may be too much in the moment to be able to do any of the thinking and planning ahead that would require higher intelligence. I felt pretty helpless, since I knew it must have been really hot, yet I couldn't just get him off that hot roof. When I finally got him back, his feet were baking hot all right, so I took him inside and ran his feet under cold tap water. I hope he didn't get too burned.

Q: What is the victory of a bird on a hot tin roof?
A: Just staying on it I guess, long as he can.

Avians With Rivalry

I'm posting more about the birds and the research we are undertaking into Operant Conditioning and Model/Rival strategies in training. Irene Pepperberg has found the M/R much more effective than classical OC, and I definitely saw that it was effective with at least one of the birds. I originally started the conditioning, hoping to train on recall so that I would feel safer taking the birds outside, that if he flew off by mistake, he would come back. While we're not progressing on that aspect of the training, their enthusiasm has inspired me to see how much more they can learn. We'll be somewhat limited in communication since the birds don't speak English, and my Cockatiel is not exactly fluent. I'm improving, though -- I think!

An unfortunate side effect from the Model/Rival technique and my inexperience with all this:
Since B has been jumping down to compete with C during C's sessions, I have tried to be consistent, and if B touches the indicated target during C's session, I reward him accordingly before bringing him back to the perch. Well, I guess the Model/Rival now works both ways, because now C sometimes jumps down during B's sessions to compete with B back! Chaos. Without thinking, I inadvertently taught both birds to interrupt each other's sessions for rewards! It's cute that they're so excited about it, though, and I'm gratified to know that they're so smart. (The alternative -- that I am so dumb -- is considerably less gratifying.) So now I just need to pick up the interloper as soon as he starts clambering down, without giving him a chance to get the right target, in which case I will be committed to supplying the reward as I have been trained.

[By the way, the above isn't an image of their rivalry but rather the opposite. I took them outside to sit in a tree, which is something that birds like to do. It was such a nice day that C started singing to B. You can see in B's expression how excited and pleased he is to be serenaded...]

I'm still doing flight training every day with Bird B, to practice several things: i) flying from high to low; ii) angling and flying around corners; and iii) flying back to me and Bird C, especially when called (although he pretty much does it whenever he wants, which I figure is also good, as long as he's safe). The flight training seems to be helping. We were practicing outside the other day, where Bird B typically gets "blown upwards" whenever he tries to fly down to us. B was on the roof and I was on the ground with C, urging B to come to us. Suddenly, B launched himself into the air, flapping so hard and fast, fighting frantically to fly down without getting lifted up, and then in seconds, he had made a perfectly abrupt landing right onto my hand! I was so proud of him for that flight! I piled on him much praise and admiration as his little body was heaving from the effort.

Observations: 1 target added since previous session.
7 targets used: pink, clear, green, shiny, rust, purple and orange rocks.
2007/06/30
B1: 65% correct. 17/9 successful repetitions over errors. 5 errors on rust rock. 3 errors on shiny. Target to stick on clear. While target to stick is recorded as an error, I think that strictly speaking, it's the researcher's fault rather than the subject. Researcher must withdraw stick in time so that it is not in the way. 1039-1044h.

C1: 89% correct. 25/3. One error each on purple and clear. Target to stick on rust. 1044-1051h.

B2: 58% correct. 18/13. No errors on green. Extremely poor performance. B's performance deteriorating today with repeated sessions. 1052-1059h.

C2: 76% correct. 22/7. Many errors are target to stick. No errors on rust or orange. B jumps down to join C toward end of session. 1100-1108h.

C3: 79% correct. 19/5. Three errors on orange. One error each on clear and purple. No errors on pink, rust, shiny, green. 1948-1953h.

B3: 82% correct. 9/2. One error each on orange and shiny. Session interrupted by telecommunications. B eager to continue his training session and insisted on finishing training before researcher should finish telecommunications session. 1954h.

B4: 73% correct. 16/6. Three errors on orange. Two errors on purple. One error on clear. No errors on pink, rust, shiny, green. 2014-2019h.

C4: 93% correct. 14/1. Single error was target to stick on green. B jumped down during this session. 2019h.

B5: 76% correct. 13/4. Two errors on pink. One error each on purple, orange.

C5: 86% correct. 19/3. One error each on rust, orange, clear. One error due to researcher impatience as subject still masticating. 2030h.

Trends in errors: I have noticed a trend that I will call the Ultimate Indolence Effect. The birds often have errors with any targets that are at the end of the array. They almost always go for the penultimate target, too lazy to go all the way to the end to get the correct target. This appears to be ineffective, since it only delays when the subject will get the reward. Nonetheless, the UIE seems to be a factor with both birds. I have since tried to rearrange the targets so that they will be roughly equidistant to the subject in a surrounding arc, instead of in a straight line where the ends are much farther away. I hope this will negate the Ultimate Indolence Effect.

I should probably feed data into a spreadsheet for analysis, as typing up notes on each session and the errors isn't getting anywhere.

Up to the minute news!

Data from N. hollandicus Operant Conditioning
Criterion: Subject must beak target rock as indicated with target stick. Beaking the stick or beaking another rock before indicated target is counted as an error. Subject is still rewarded upon successful touching of target, even if numerous incorrect trials are made first.
5 targets used: pink, clear, green, shiny, rust rocks.

2007/06/28
Session C1: 82% correct. 14 successful repetitions, 3 errors. Errors with "pink rock" and "clear rock". [Session interrupted near start. Bird B jumped across to the treat dish and gorged himself while researcher was distracted with telecommunications.] 1226h.

Session B1: 33% correct. 5 successful repetitions, 10 errors. Zero correct repetitions with "rust rock" and "shiny rock". Some errors with "green rock" and "pink rock". No errors with "clear rock". I've observed that Bird B appeared to dislike the rust rock the most, often throwing that one off the table first. Animosity toward rust rock appears to have declined recently. 1233h.

Session C2: 80% correct. 12/3 R/E (# of successful repetitions over errors). 2 out of 3 errors were targets to stick rather than pink and clear rocks. Touched green rock instead of rust rock on the other error. No errors on green and shiny rocks. 1233-1238h.

Session B2: 50% correct. 10/10 R/E. 1 error was target to stick. 1238-1243h.

Session C3: 100% correct. 10/0 R/E. 2027h.

Session B3: 83% correct. 10/2 R/E. Both errors on green rock. 2029-2031h.

2007/06/29
C1: 57% correct. 8/6. Zero correct on green rock. Some errors on rust, pink, clear. No errors on shiny. 1339-1343h. Recorded on video 6915.

B1: 82% correct. 9/2. Errors on rust and pink. 1 error on rust was target to stick. 1348-1351h. Recorded on video 6916.

C2: 83% correct. 10/2. 1 error on pink. 1 error on rust was target to stick. Duration 2:36 minutes, ended at 1355h. Recorded on video 6917.

B2: 64% correct. Errors on rust, pink, and clear. Duration 2:41 minutes, ended at 1355h. Recorded on video 6918.
1 target added: purple rock (polished amethyst)
6 total targets used: pink, clear, green, shiny, rust and purple rocks.
C3: 100% correct. 19/0. 1403h. Recorded on video 6919.

B3: 82% correct. 9/2. Duration 1:48 minutes, ended at 1408h. Recorded on video 6920.

C4: Data lost and estimated at 57% correct. Estimated #R/E at 8/6. Many errors, subject disinterested. 1756h. Video recording attempted but failed. Possible distraction?

B4: 50% correct. 4/4. Subject disinterested. 1800h.

Bird C's performance is quite consistent, and successful repetitions usually increases with repeated sessions in succession. C appeared to be stimulated by challenge of added purple rock, and gave a 100% success rate on 19 repetitions immediately after. As previously noted, Bird B's performance and interest fluctuates wildly with his mood. I believe many of B's errors are in fact expressions of frustration as he attacks various targets before focusing on the task. Some of B's errors are due to laziness/efficiency as he beaks all targets in vicinity to procure reward with the least amount of effort.

+++

Garden update: 2 tomato plants have survived transplanting to the garden, and while not exactly thriving, they are surviving. A couple of tomato seedlings have sprouted out in various containers. Unidentified green lettuce in garden along with other plant life (unsure if it's mesclun lettuce or weeds) are doing well and some have been harvested. Red butterworth lettuce in containers also doing well. Several sweet pepper plants are growing, with one in particular growing leafier and larger. Others are tiny.

I'll post another version of the flyaway bird photo. Can you spot him?

Cut On The Bias

Details of Operant Conditioning Study Procedure on Nymphicus hollandicus
I realize I need to expand on my Step 3 from last post instead of lumping all the progressions into one.

3. Introduce secondary target: a green tiny plastic sword for cockatails - haha. Secondary target is touched with target stick, and N. hollandicus must touch secondary target, rather than target stick itself, in order to procure reward.

4. After success with Step 3, multiple secondary targets are introduced in addition to first, for total of 3 targets. All targets are plastic cocktail sticks, referred to as "swords" with the subjects due to characteristics of first target used, i.e. "green sword", "clear sword" and "white sword". (I'll have to teach the birds how to read 1950s Vegas typefaces another day, then we can use "Mirage swizzle" and "Bellagio stick" as alternative names.)

5. After success with Step 4, a different and larger set of targets replace the "swords".

Observations:
I don't have notes on the early period of the experiment, but after a few sessions, both birds had learned to touch the stick for a treat (Steps 1-2) and after a few more sessions, had readily learned to touch the green TPS for their treat instead (Step 3). After several days on Step 4 (about two sessions per day), both subjects were regularly attaining an estimated 90% success rate with the 3 "sword" targets. I would touch a given swizzle stick with my own target stick, give the verbal cue, e.g., "Clear sword", and the bird would touch the correct "sword" on the first try.

I realized that with only 3 targets total to choose from, it was pretty easy as a challenge. I needed to change the targets for several reasons: i) to ensure that the subjects weren't unduly focusing on the swizzle sticks and missing the point of targetting; ii) to get more persuasive results with a more difficult task; and iii) to keep them stimulated and interested in "playing clicker". Furthermore, the green sword had been broken by a certain bird who shall remain nameless, so my idle fantasy of teaching the birds a little fencing routine were dashed for the time being. They did like picking up the green sword and swashing it around, though, and I still think they're handsome and charismatic enough to be movie stars!

It was time to move on to Step 5. I needed some new targets that were colourful, distinct, in a set greater than 3, and preferably less fragile than the swords, so I got the Fisher Price kids. I'll post a photo of all the Materials used in the experiment, which will better explain my problem.
The Fisher Price kids turned out to be a Pandora's Box of linguistics.

Upon first glance, they appeared to be a fairly simple set of toys: 2 girls, 2 boys, 2 in green, 1 in blue, 1 in red, 2 hairless, 1 with blonde hair, 1 with red-orange hair, 3 with peach complexion, 1 with dark brown complexion. I first referred to them by clothing colour and gender, i.e., "green girl", "red boy", "green boy", "blue girl", before I realized that I was imposing my own cultural bias. The toys had no genitalia, and I was assuming their sex based on hair, clothing and torso shape. Of course men could wear long hair, pigtails and frilly collars as well as women, and women could be hairless also. Who am I to judge someone else's gender based on my own antiquated notions of masculinity or femininity? I'm not proud of my prejudices, and I didn't want to pass them on to innocents.

The verbal cues became longer, to the tune of "yellow-haired blue kid" and "bald kid in red" and other equally long-winded and inconsistent phrasing. Not only were the birds unlikely to learn the names of the colours, but I was worried that they were not even associating the verbal cues with the proper targets, even if they understood the concept of colour. When the toys were standing upright, the birds would often touch the head of the toy, not the coloured torso. I then tried to rename the targets but I couldn't come up with neutral and sensible names for them based on their upper characteristics. Was the hair "blonde" or "yellow"? "Red" or "orange" or "red-orange" hair? Were the follicularly challenged toys "bald", "shaved", "hairless" or just "sparse"? Was the dark-skinned toy "black" or "brown" or what?

An added complication was that Bird B would often get frustrated during training and throw or shove targets off the work table, and he appeared to have a particular distaste for the "red kid with no hair" who happened to be the only one with a dark brown-skinned head. Now, I don't think B is racist, but rather that he has some unresolved issues with brown plastic things (if you know him, you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't, I'm not at liberty to discuss his personal history here) but I still wasn't wild about the implications of training B to peck at and attack brown anthropomorphic entities on the head. His attack instincts are well-honed enough for me already, thank you very much.

The birds must have been about as confused as I was, since they never picked up on the training with the Fisher Price targets to any great degree of success. I think Bird C did do a bit better than B, as usual. Bird C tends to pick up on new challenges faster, and Bird B seems to learn from C's success (Model/Rival, much like what I read about in Pepperberg's The Alex Studies) as long as he's not too frustrated and if he's in the mood to indulge me.

A couple days ago, I moved on to the semi-precious gemstones as the new targets, starting with the set of 5 as pictured. These targets were comparatively easy to name by physical characteristics: "green rock", "clear rock", "shiny rock", "rust rock" and "pink rock". I've become more aware of the importance of simplicity in verbal cues, and now I simply say firmly "green rock" or sometimes "touch green rock", instead of "[Bird C], touch the green rock, please." I do praise quite effusively when I get excited, but that's when they're eating their rewards and not likely to be distracted by anything that comes out of my mouth. I figure the verbal cue needs to be clarifying rather than confusing, and it's not worth the confusion to impose human etiquette on them right now.

2007/6/27 Notes
I did 4 early sessions yesterday, and repeated this twice more through the day, whenever the birds seemed receptive and a bit hungry, thus motivated. I alternate sessions with each bird so they don't get too frustrated watching the other one eat.

Session C1:
A lot of misplaced targetting as C goes for stick quite frequently, rather than target rock. B gets excited watching C get rewards and jumps down to compete. I separate them before an all out rumble ensues.

Session B1:
A lot of trial and error for B, as he touches different rocks for each task. High frustration, pushes rocks off table.

Session C2:
Higher success this round, about 5 minutes after Session C1. C goes for target rock instead of target stick, with high success in choosing correct rock. Sometimes, he seems to "forget" which rock I had touched. With a repeated verbal cue, C appears to pause and think about the verbal cue, then correctly touch the indicated target rock.

Session B2:
Higher success than B1 as well. Less frustration and more concentration on task.

Session C3 (hours later):
Very successful with target rocks. Good focus, long attention span.

Session B3:
Attacks targets. B quite successful when he focuses, but B is short on attention and long on frustration. (We need to work on that!)

I plan to record observations more quantitatively from now on. I also want to figure out how to incorporate the Model/Rival strategy more. As evidenced in the above notes, B often feels so compelled by the rival aspect that he jumps down to compete directly with C for the task's reward. B's success rate in these instances is close to if not exactly 100%. However, I don't want to encourage too much direct competition, since B is physically stronger, more aggressive, and has a sharper beak than C and I'd worry for C's safety. Not to mention a possible breakdown of the relatively harmonious relationship between the two if B saw C too regularly as a rival rather than friend. Looks like I can use a human model after all.

Added note: In previous Model/Rival strategies with the birds, B has always been very receptive. C did not care at all. It seems that C is internally motivated (by his stomach, to be exact!) to learn and succeed, whereas B is perhaps more motivated by the social interaction and by not being "left behind". (Insert further analysis of B's psyche based on past traumatic experiences.)