Yahooooooooooooo Winston!!! What a gorgeous bird!

Enjoy!

Jessalyn and Ruby

Thanks so much, Jessalyn and Ruby - and everyone else too for the words of encouragement.

I'm happy to report that last night Dave worked with Winston and had many successful step ups (treats were involved). He has the birds on Tuesdays due to my yoga class right after work and I was disappointed that I didn't get to spend the evening seeing how Winston interacted last night. But I'm super excited for tonight's play session.

Jack, my son, has Guitar hero & he loves it - he's planning on getting the GH3 soon. Although he has both systems they had 2 guitars only for the PlayStation at Best Buy so he went with that version.

Laker however plays with the 'real' deal, as we have both bass & regular guitars in my son's bedroom. Rio hasn't yet. In fact now that Jack has his new trumpet he keeps his door closed when he practices. Poor Budgies fly up & down the hallway frustrated. Budgie nails scratch the finish! - not the $3000 level Trumpet obviously.

I know you've seen Laker on the guitar.

That's a great picture! And we don't have any real instruments around so Laker is much more sophisticated than my guys. Yes poor budgies being shut out of the room!

CUTE Laker is looking very dapper in his fall feathering, and he looks mesmerized!

Very cute Laker.

I'm happy to report that Winston's latest developments are not a fluke, they're continuing! Tonight he flew to me many times for treats - he even tried to land on my head twice just for kicks (no treat involved) but he hasn't mastered that yet. He just buzzes me and another time he almost landed on my glasses He's still stepping up for both me and Dave - one time I offered to carry him over to the food dish during dinner, I offered my arm, and he very politely gave me a gentle peck with his beak to say No Thanks. I withdrew my hand, offered the food dish, and he hopped right up. We communicate like that beautifully with each other.

He's starting to relax when he's perching on us, but he's still on edge for the most part. I try to play the blinking game while he's on my finger/arm but usually his eyes are pretty wide and he's still too jumpy to relax that much. But tonight I got some good fluffs and some slight beak grinding while he was hanging out on me.

He really loves the forgaging basket too, he played and rummaged in there quite bit this evening - he's taking a liking to the balsa wood and sisal rope, he's getting new toys with those this weekend!

Ah, you have such sweet birds! Dave does look very proud....

Nice going - glad he is continuing - it is a real breakthrough.

Music helps a lot. The group enjoying music is a fun thing. Sometimes i whistle the tunes & the birds politely listen & wait for their turns. Did you play music last evening as well?

Hope he likes his new toys. Post photos when you get them.

I love the beak grinding noises. Rio is our biggest grinder. Matthew has given him his nickname - Grendel - & i think it suits him more than Rio.

We did not play music last night. Dave and a friend were playing a football video game and that's not nearly as loud and exciting as the music. But Winston was still very curious and outgoing just the same.

I love beak grinding as well, Jerry is a big grinder.

Where did the nickname Grendel come from?