Look at my very brave little - BIG lol - boy Winston Here he is on Dave's hand:



He flew around quite a bit today, therefore he was tuckered out by Night-night time. He made a few ok landings, he landed on his gym once, and on his cage once, and on the TV another time. He made quite a few crash/impromptu landings here and there but nothing too bad. He is pretty proficient in flying some tight circles and sharp turns.

We're making big progress with his Step up training too! From a flat surface he still has trouble stepping up onto our finger, but we were able to get him to step onto the knitting needle perch half the time - the other half of the time he would fly to another location. When we did get him onto our finger, we were able to practice quite a few ladders. The thing that we noticed was that we need to sort of lift his toes with our finger to encourage him to step up - pushing against his belly makes him lose his balance and he's not comfortable with that just yet. The first few times that he was on our finger he felt kind of unsteady but as time went on he felt more stable.

This is so exciting!!

Sarah, excellent progress!! It's interesting that you made note of this. It reminds me of Kita, she's very different from Kady in the way she steps up. I always have to be cognizant of who I'm asking to step up. Kita is almost like what you describe with Winston. With her I have to take her toes in my fingers/hand. If I try to put an arm out toward her belly, she pulls back to look at my arm, but if I take her toes in my fingers/hand she comes right forward. She's also more comfortable if I keep my fingers over her toes as we move. I don't force her to stay with my fingers there, but it seems to steady her. Winston might just need that extra reassurance of fingers supporting top and bottom of his toes.

Winston sure looks proud sitting there on Dave's hand!

And let me just say this.....


When he sits on my finger - and he sat there for awhile this evening, a few times - I could hold him just inches from my face....

And it took absolutely ALLLL of my willpower to refrain from bringing him in close and smooching that big blue belly all over like I do to Jerry every night!!

What a cutie! Making progress!

Aww thanks!

That is interesting that Kita steps up differently than Kady. When we would gently push on Winston's belly near his feet he would begin to lose his balance and then his first instinct is to fly to catch his balance, not step up (which does make sense!). But when we took the finger that we wanted him to step onto and sort of lifted it under and up on his toes, he stepped up pretty readily.

Such a wonder to observe and learn with different birds, I absolutely love this!

That's wonderful Sarah! He's gorgeous- he looks so noble sitting there!

Wow - he's really progressing! You're doing fabulous with him Sarah!

He's beautiful! Thank you for taking such good care of that little guy and giving him such a good home with lotsa love!

very good, I can see where it would take lots of willpower to resist kissing that blue jumps looks so tempting

Yay! Congrats to Winston for getting his wings, and congrats to you and Dave, Jac. It sounds like things are moving along wonderfully. You and Winston are learning lots about each other and he's figured out that you guys are friends! Way to go!