Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Parrot Season



Parrots Inside !
 I am so remiss, a lax blogger of late.  Another biz travel overseas now done and I am back and recovering from jetlag.

Here is the BIG news that happened while I was away !  Our home became a nesting place for some lovely Adelaide Rosella parrots.  To see a nice pic of what they look like, check out  this link an Adelaide Rosella photo link.

First, I must tell you, I really like these parrots.  They are gorgeous and have multi colours, with banded colour and black feathers on wings and tails.  Cute blue cheek spots.  Shy and swift, slender graceful parrots.  Sweet little bird songs and chirps.  And I read that they are fastidious, preferring tidy and clean nesting spots, not soiled or marked by other creatures, like possums.  That clinched it for me.  Parrots that are fastidious about their homes and nests, my kind of parrot !

So, what happened while I was away ?  Well, all the excitement it seems.  Apparently the parrots were already in residence here before I travelled.  In fact the cats and I heard something above the front window, over the ceiling one night before I left (we thought it might be mice--yeew !)

Anyway, when some electrical wiring work was being done, the access to the roof (from the kitchen) was open while guys were going up and down ladders into the roof.  And a parrot flew into the house from the roof !  One of the electricians told Ian a parrot was in the house.  Ian found it, at the window in the Dining Room, and he opened the door to let it outside.

But he wondered how a parrot flew from the roof cavity into the house and when the electricians left, he went to go see what was going on.  And he found a clutch of four young parrots in there.  He also found how the parents got in the roof, they chewed through some of the original timbers up in the eaves area, to gain access.  However, the access for fledgling birds to egress when ready to leave their nest did not look promising.  And with hot weather, he worried the birds would perish up in the roof one hot day.

View of the entry to the improvised parrot nest box
So what to do ?  Well, make a nesting box.  Ian fashioned one of cardboard.  He used gloves to put the small parrots inside (he said they all went off, squawking something tremendous--I miss all the fun !).  And he tied the box up at the top of the gable, right under the eaves of the roof peak.  happily one of the parents found the box within an hour, as Ian saw it go in.

Now we hear the parrot babies thumping  in the box, and sometimes I hear small bird sounds.  So long as they keep active, we are optimistic they are being fed and looked after.  They maybe half grown by now, so perhaps have another several weeks before they become fledglings.

parrots' nest box, tied under the top of the eaves of roof

We are wondering what to do next year.  Will these parrots want to come back to our roof again ?  (they often do return to a nesting place).  This winter I had wanted to put a proper timber Rosella nest box up in one of our big gum trees.  I got over-ruled by that, but maybe it is not such a bad idea.  There is time to work out a plan for this though.

Meantime, we hope the small birds get looked after (thought we do have Young parrot food to mix up and give them if we think they need it...but seems best not to interfere if they are OK).  And get to fledgling stage.  I hope to see one of them.  For now, I will be content with seeing the parents in the tree opposite the makeshift next box.







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