It was synergy yesterday that a front page diary was about crows.
I have been studying and living with birds on and off for about 25 years. So I am just beginning to know something. I was inspired by Alex the African Gray whose recent death we mourned here. I will write my Alex story below the fold.
Right now my crow has a broken wing. It completely launches to one side and does not even fold up. There is no blood and no obvious wound. I have not tried to move it at this point. I have had the crow now called Ebony for the fifth day today. I know how to cut flight feathers so it would not drag. He is on an elevated perch so it does not touch the ground on the perch. He has gotten down and walked around dragging it and ignoring it.
Can I do anything to fix it? I do know if it stays this way he will never fly again.
California has the strictest animal laws in the nation. Taking him to a vet means the vet has to report me and animal control will come and take him and kill him. There is no appeal and it is the end of the story.
I consider Ebony a gift from the universe because what we really learn from animals is by living with them. I learned a lot from my birds but mostly what acute observation is and what paying attention really means.
Birds live on the winds and the air. Every rustle speaks to them, trees not only make music out of the wind; they tell the story of life's movement in the moment.
Ebony already knows I am a good person. He is very smart. From me pressuring him to mount my arm yesterday; this morning I only had to offer it and ask him to hop up.
I have already price cages and accountrements. I can get what I think I most need for $100. I am poor and do not want to spend this; if there is a chance I can return him to the wild. If his only life is with me, I will begin this and gradually add to it. My cockatoos and others in a past life were very expensive. Ebony will be a lot easier than a hookbill.
What Ebony hates about me is that I have to watch TV to fall asleep. Actually, I use DVDs which automatically shut off. He turns his back.
If people care to attach the diary from yesterday; it has some interesting stories. I do not know how to do that.
My only reason for getting a cage would be to protect him from my cats who right now are insanely jealous because they are locked out of my bedroom.
My Alex story.
My Mother lived on Lake McQueeny Texas about 30 miles north east of San Antonio. She frequented the bario swap meets. There she bought Alex for 40 bucks when the pet stores sold African Grays for 800 or more. She had seen famous Alex on TV. Our Alex had been wild caught with a net and smuggled across the border. He had a severely damaged wing that was never going to be right so he could not fly.
He was a very bitter and angry bird. He attacked any and all offers of anything. Yet, he ate his seed and fruit so maybe he did not consider suicide because I have seen wild things deliberately starve themselves.
I had been working with hookbills and an African Gray cannot break a finger. I had taught myself to acknowledge and recognize the most pain a bird can deliver and just let them see you endure it. Makes an impression. Alex made bloody mincemeat out of my hands. So we just left him alone. The only sounds he would immitate were other animal sounds from the cats and dogs around the house and mechanical. He would mimic the microwave and coffee machines buzz just to get my old mother up and at em.
His one pleasure was hanging out in the trees in nice weather. One day he got out of his cage and disappeared we had no idea how. My mother put the cage on the porce with door open and insisted it be left there. We all told her that he was dinner for something somewhere already.
One week later Alex showed back up his cage. He had decided to walk home. Now that he had made the decision that this was his best life--it became a good life. He sang row row your boat. He joined breakfast and loved peanut butter and toast. He lives with my brother now in Houston and his best friends are a pair of Boston Bull Terriers. He has been an extended member of the family so long that Alex's death really shocked us that our Alex may also be approaching his life time. I called my brother to sing to Alex; he loves Die Fliedermus.
I invite all Kossacks to share their various bird stories and give us some relief and motivation in a different way to stay politically active. There is no more specie extinction anywhere than in the bird world.