Zoo Journal Spring 2001 - Bird Department
1/20/02
Today was the first day of the Spring semester Internship. I'm working in Birds again, yay! Today I went in and cleaned the penguin room. Not a lot happened. Our penguin love triangle is getting very complex. Apparently Cleo and Durban are brother and sister, Kramer is still in the box with Grey and Durban likes Cleo. Grey and Cleo are both in the beginning of a molt and Jell-O should be molting very soon. Anyway, I did the usual cleaning stuff and I was out of there with an hour to spare. I took Jell-O out and let her run around and play and I picked her up a 'flew' her around the room some. She really loves that. Amy didn't really have anything else for me to do so I hung around another hour and played with Jaycee. She loves to climb up on my shoulder and do the funky chicken. She's so cute. Amy mentioned me helping her with enrichment some this semester. I'd really like that, I think it sounds really awesome. I can't really do much with the Condors yet because I'm not an employee and they're the only people allowed to handle them because Humpty bites really hard. Anyway, this semester I plan on getting a lot of behavior observation in with the penguins. Especially the huge mating thing we have going on. I also want to work more intimately with another bird species. I'm not sure what yet, though.

1/27/02
Today was a lot like last week. I worked in penguins again. It was a huge mess because both Cleo and Grey are in their molt. Grey looks like an owl or something and Cleo looks like she swallowed another penguin, as Amy said. Sad news, Jell-O is no longer allowed out of the penguin exhibit because there's too much stuff for her to get into in the kitchen. Which is true. But it makes her very sad and it's upsetting to watch her trying to get out. Poor thing. I picked her up some and flew her around but she really wanted out in the kitchen. Oh well. There was like a pound of fish in the pool this morning when I got there. I'm not exactly sure why. Anyway, aside from that, Durban was calling for Iggy out in the exhibit and it was very depressing to watch. And I almost fell in the pool a couple times, but luckily did not. After that excitement I went and fed the Scarlett Macaws, Rhett & Scarlett, some peanuts and some kind of big brown nut I don't know the name of. That was cool, I've never interacted with them much. Then I went to the nursery and washed the 4 big windows in the African Plains exhibit. Harriet and Gretal stayed off my head for once. And Kitty didn't attack me. That was nice. When I was done with that I still had 15 minutes so I just played with Jaycee some more. She likes to get up on my shoulder and do the funky chicken. Or sit there and eat peanuts and drop the hulls down my shirt. From now on when she does that I'm going to button my flannel shirt so she can't pull it off. Because when I straighten she snaps at my fingers. I guess it throws her off balance and scares her. She likes me a lot more than she did, though. So that's really good. Anyway, that's about it.

02/03/02
I worked in the penguin room again today. Mostly because I got about 3 and a half hours of sleep last night. Otherwise I probably would have headed for the hill. It's nice to have a change of scenery. When you're awake, that is. Anyway, I did my regular penguin ritual. Jell-O is absolutely DESPERATE to get out into the kitchen again. I feel awful not letting her go. I pick her up and fly her around a bit but she doesn't like that as much. She wants out so she can get into things. Cleo is practically out of her molt and so is Gray. They both look very nice in their shiny new feathers. Not so much of a mess either. Everyone's eating a lot less. Only 3 pounds in the morning. I managed to give out 3 vitamin fish today to Morris, Durban, and Willard. Jell-O looked like she wanted one but she wouldn't swallow it. I was letting Jell-O play in my hair a little bit and I looked over and Durban was heading our way, looking very interested to see what Jell-O was so fascinated with. Needless to say I took off. Having him close to my face isn't considered intelligent or safe. Anyway, that's about all that happened with the penguins today. I got out early again and then hosed down PJ and Matthew's rooms. I took Jaycee out and played with her awhile. She decided she didn't want to get back up and we had to try every way in the world to bribe her and get her in her cage again. She likes me quite a lot, which is very amusing because she used to hate me. I cleaned out her cage while she was riding on my shoulder. And I cleaned Heather's cage, but I took Jaycee off my shoulder, because Heather hates birds. Anyway, that was about it for today.

2/10/02
Morris is very sick. No one is sure why, though. Martha said that on Wednesday she was laying on her stomach outside the nest box and wouldn't move, not even when Martha was pressure washing around her. So they called in the vets and now she has to have an injection of antiobiotics twice a day. Not very pleasant for her, but I think she seemed spunkier today. Jama and Amy and I gave her the shot this morning. Jama can pick her up without gloves, which absolutely amazed me. But some birds just like certain people. It's amusing. Hopefully Morris will be ok, though. Sylvester is very worried about her. He attacks anyone that gets too close and after her shot she got in the pool and he got in and just swam slowly beside her. Amy also said that the night she was really bad she slept outside the next box and Sylvester stayed with her. It's very sweet. Another interesting thing with the penguins. Cramer and Gray not only are nesting together, but now they have an egg. It's going to be really hard to break them up. Willard and Jerry also have an egg and TN and Meg are getting ready to have one. I think maybe Morris is having trouble with an egg. But I'm really not sure. Makes sense, though. Cleo and Durban are still hanging around each other, but she doesn't really stay in the nest box with him. I looked in the nursery though and he was in her nest box with her. That amused me. He really wants her but she's the one who's kind of shying away. Anyway, Meg, Willard and Durban all took vitamin fish. I though that TN was going to. And then I threw one to Cleo and it fell in the pool so Durban jumped in and got it too. He's a pest. He strikes me as a geeky penguin who knows how to fight. I can't explain it. Anyway, I did my usual penguin stuff. Kept an eye on Morris. Talked to Jell-O. She still really wants out of her exhibit, by the way. After I was done with penguins I headed to the bird house and got Jaycee out and worked on some stuff Amy had left me to do. Jaycee is such a pest. I was talking to Martha about Morris and Jaycee had to keep putting her two-cents worth in. It was really amusing, how she'd keep chiming in and have a conversation with us with her 'HELLO' or 'YAYAYABLAH' sound. She hid under the desk and I had to find her. I knew where she was of course, but she thought she was hidden. She was climbing all over me while I was sitting in the floor, working on some floor coverings for cages. But she went back into her cage without a hassle this time. I think because Jama, Martha, and Amy weren't paying much attention to her. She loves attention. She kept regurgitating her peanuts for me. Flattering, but I wasn't very interested.


02/17/02
Morris is getting worse. Still not sure what's up with her, though. She gets injections and she's losing weight. I did my regular penguin routine today. Gave out 8 vitamin fish which is a record for me. Durban loves me when I have fish. He got 2, Gray got 2, the Cleo, Meg, Willard, and Jerry got 1 each. TN almost took one, but wouldn't at the last minute. She was being very bold today. She got within touching distance. I didn't touch her though, of course. Nothing too interesting to point. Same old penguin love triangle. Cleo and Durban are best friends and Cramer is shacked up with Gray. After penguins I did some yard work in the bird house and stuff like that. Then I played with Jaycee awhile. She's being much nicer about going back in her cage. I can't keep her from sitting on my shoulder though. I haven't updated on the baby macaws in awhile. One of the tame ones went to birdshow (orange band) and Marie and Nikki are getting meaner as they get older. It's their terrible 2 stage. We moved the 2 wild birds into their exhibit and the wild ones are getting much tamer. They love noise and messes. And they like it when Amy mists them with the waterhose. Matthew is mad because he can't go outside. That's about it.

2/24/02
Morris seems to be staying about the same. That's great, she's not getting worse. She's no longer getting injections but she's being tube fed 2 to 3 times a day. She and Sylvester are in the nursery until she gets better. They have a sun lamp to keep her warm too. I had to help a little with tube feeding her today. Not fun. But she bit Amy, which is good. The stronger she gets the more she fights. Not so good for Amy though. Bloody fingers suck. It took about 45 minutes to take care of Morris. After that I did my penguin routine. Gave out another 8 vitamin fish. Cleo stole 2 from Durban, Willard stole 2 from Jerry, Jerry, Durban, Gray, and Jell-O got 1 each. Durban has this new thing of slinging the fish around while he eats it. I think he's trying to attract Cleo so she'll steal it (he likes her, she's just kind of 'whatever' at times). That would be ok, only he slings the vitamins out of the fish, which is the point of the fish in the first place. I'm going to have to try different fish stuffing methods from now on, I think. Cramer is still shacked up with Gray. I really feel so awful for her. She finally has a mate instead of a nestbox partner and they'll have to be split up. I'm really not into the whole breeding program. I think artificial insimination would be so much less stressful for the birds. Jell-O was hording food and not letting Cramer eat at her food bowl. Cramer had to go all the way across the exhibit to get food and bring it all the way back to her nestbox. She also kept away from me. Meg was kicking aspen so I bet he and TN have an egg soon. They made a huge mess of their box and Martha only changed it yesterday. So I had to do it again today. I changed Willard and Jerry's too. They broke their water egg and now Willard is roosting on a long clear pipe thing. I was confused. I put a rubber ducky in there though, so maybe that'll make her happy. I tossed out some more leaves, duckies, and rubber frogs before I left. After penguins I did windows at the bird house and more yard work. I also squeegeed the baby macaw window on the inside. Everyone was interested to see what I was up to. They mutter and talk all the time. They pick up tons of words. Someone was trying to say 'beautiful bird' and 'I love you'. Or that's how it sounded. Jaycee sat on my shoulder while I cleaned her cage. She likes to eat peanuts and drop the hulls down my shirt. It's great fun for her. Oh, and Jaycee does not like to go outside. I took her out in the run after Martha took Matthew out. Jaycee was in his room and I took her to the outside part and she gave me a warning 'I don't want to go out here, I don't like outside' bite. Didn't hurt, it's just her way of communicating displeasure. I don't go in next week because it's my birthday and I'm heading home for the weekend.

3/3/02
OFF TODAY

3/10/02
Today was a very eventful day. I have a lot of things to report from the last couple weeks and not much of it is very happy. When I came in this morning I inquired about Morris and Amy and Martha told me that she died Friday afternoon on the operating table. I'll start from the beginning. Morris and Sylvester were separated from the colony because of Morris's illness last time I was at the zoo. Sometime during that time Sylvester managed to break one of his flippers and it had to be put into a splint. Then later, Morris was beginning to get a little bit better. She ate a fish on her own from the bowl and stole one from Sylvester. Everyone was pretty happy about that, because it looked like she was getting some spirit back. The next day she got a lot worse, though. Then Friday she was really bad and the vets decided to do exploratory surgery on her to see what was wrong. Friday afternoon they anesthetized her and she didn't wake back up. After she died the vets opened her body up and it turns out her intestines were backed up horribly and had gotten to the point where they were welded together. They said that the cause of death was peritonitis. Peritonitis is inflammation of the peritoneum. A peritoneum is the smooth transparent serous membrane that lines the cavity of the abdomen of a mammal (or bird, in this case) and is folded inward over the abdominal and pelvic viscera. Anyway, since the mating season had begun she was getting ready to lay 2 eggs and that's probably what triggered the whole mess. Probably the peritonitis was coming on since she was sick last year, but it finally progressed to the stage of fatal with this batch of eggs. They found two yolks in her ovaries, so they probably couldn't get through the tubes. If she hadn't died on the operating table she would most likely have suffered a very painful, long, lingering death. Although I'm glad she isn't suffering anymore, it still hurts to witness my first penguin death. As unprofessional as it may be, I cried when they told me she was gone. It's almost like losing a pet. The really sad part to me is remembering how she and Sylvester were so close and now he's alone and in mourning in the penguin exhibit. He's just entering molt too, so with Morris gone, his flipper hurt, and now the molt, he's under a lot of stress. Everyone is watching him to make sure that he's alright. He's the oldest penguin in North American captivity at 36 years. Today he was noticeably depressed. He did eat 2 vitamin fish though, so it looks like he'll continue with his molt. That's good. Dude (one of the penguins that was sent to Memphis, he was mated to Cramer) lost the mate he had before Cramer, her name was Lucy. She died when the egg she was about to lay burst inside of her. Dude went around afterward looking into other penguin nest boxes and calling for her. Everyone told me it was really pitiful to watch. And after that he never completed molting. He was stuck in this perpetual state of molt. He really looked awful. He was never the same after his mate died. I know he used to kind of wander around aimlessly and follow either Cramer or Iggy (when we separated him from Cramer) and look lost. But anyway, I think that most of the bird people were afraid Sylvester might do something like what Dude did. So far he hasn't, which is good. At his age and this stressful time in his life it might kill him. He's way beyond the normal penguin age. The other penguins were kind of subdued, but going on about life. Penguins in the wild can't afford to waste time on grief. That's a luxury the penguins in the zoo do have, but they never seem to grieve for very long. The colony, I mean, not the individual penguins who lose mates. I have noticed that none of the other penguins really bother Sylvester. They give him space, but don't ignore him. Mark said that when he was put back in the enclosure he got in his box and the other penguins all came back and looked in on him, like to check up on him to make sure he was OK. That was good. I sometimes think Sylvester is kind of the leader of the colony. Then I wake up and realize they're all pretty much anarchists. Anyway, other news in penguins, Durban, Meg, Willard, Jerry, and Jell-O all got vitamins, along with Sylvester taking 2. Cramer and Grey were very venomous today and snapped at anyone who got within a foot or so of their box. Human wise. I have a hypothesis about this. Since we separated mates last August/September, I think they might be afraid that we separated Morris from Sylvester instead of her dying. I think they might be afraid that we'll separate them. They will probably end up being separated, if we continue with the penguin mating project, but not right now. There's too much other stress going on in the colony. Really the colony has had a lot of stress in it since August. First we separated mating pairs, sent 3 penguins off, got 1 new penguins, changed their routine to fit the new penguin when she wouldn't eat then changed it back when she would, and then Morris got really sick, now she's dead and Sylvester is alone. It's not surprising that Grey and Cramer have their guard up. That's an abnormal amount of stress for birds. I hope they don't have any more for a long time. I don't think it'¢s healthy for them. Sometimes I think all Jell-O notices is if she can get into the nursery or not. All of her stress comes from the fact she can't be around humans. She's a weird little bird. Alright, moving on from penguins. After I finished there I went back to the nursery and cleaned out Matthew's room. It looked like the yellow pages exploded. They put a huge phone book in there for him to chew on and he turned it into confetti. He decided he liked me and he kept following me on his branches trying to get on my shoulder. He got on there once, but I don't plan on letting him do that again. He didn't bite me or hurt me or anything, but he's not very trustworthy. He got on my shoulder that time because of a mistake I made and I was too chicken to stop him. He chews on wood all the time and his beak is really strong and can do a lot of damage if he wants. I did scratch his neck and head for him today. He bristled his feathers out and looked a surprising lot like Johannes Bach. I found some really cool feathers of his too. I think it's really interesting how they're green on one side and blue on the other. It looks really cool. He's a very pretty bird. He's the messiest bird we have. It might be a tossup between him and the spoonbills, but they don't shred phone books like he does. Jaycee somehow knew I was petting Matthew and she got mad at me and wouldn't let me touch her for a few minutes. She forgave me, of course. She loves attention and she loves to be petted. Anyway, after Matty I cleaned PJ's room. Mark changed his name to Peter, by the way. I don't know if I wrote about that or not yet. I'm used to calling him PJ, though, so I'll probably continue to do so. He got out of his crate and came to stick his nose to mine. Almost but not quite, anyway. He never touches. Then he paced back and forth inside and out while I cleaned his run. I fed him his egg too. I love to watch him eat. It's not really describable in words. After PJ I cleaned the Mynahs. Not much to report there. I looked at them for awhile, they're really remarkably beautiful birds. In Indonesia, where they're from, people catch them wild for pets. That's not really a good thing, but I can see why. If you don't know what they look like, you should look up a picture on the Internet. Bali Mynah. or Myna. I'm not ever sure if I spell it right. After that I did the African Plains room. The buster, Kitty, was especially full of hate and loathing towards me today. She actually got me several times. Once she broke the skin on my knuckle. It doesn't hurt at all, though. Her beak is really weak and after being bitten by a penguin, her bite is nothing. But she followed me around the room getting in the way and flying up at me. That's the first time she did that. I even fed her raisons and she just kept on. She'd take them from my hand and then she'd bite me and fly against my legs. It was really annoying and we attracted a crowd. Everyone wanted to come see the girl get attacked by the bird, I guess. The turracos were very nice today. They followed me around and I fed them raisons. Since I had an intern meeting today I stayed in penguins until about 1. After I did the African room I got Jaycee out and sat down with her. She got in my lap and I pet her just like a cat or a lap dog. It's really amusing. She likes to eat peanuts on my shoulder and get the hulls in my shirt pocket or better yet, down my shirt. She's a mess. She did say "BYE" instead of "HELLO" when we left this morning to do rounds, though. That was funny. Maybe she's figuring out there's a difference between those two words. It's so funny when she wants you to stay and pay attention to her she screams "HELLO" as loud as she can as you're leaving. It cracks me up. She's really hilarious with her funky chicken and the "HAHAHA" thing she does. Anyway, the baby scarlet are fine. I went in to give them a peanut and Nikki got on my shoulder and bit my ear. The others were well behaved. Heather was her usual happy self. I should note that when I came back in from feeding Matthew I walked to Jaycee's cage because she kept calling "Hello" to me so I would and I noticed she bristled out her feathers at me and she looked a lot like a lion. It's amusing how they all can bristle their feathers and look like different things. Jaycee like a lion, Heather like a punk rocker, and Matthew like Bach. I don't know why she bristled her feathers though. Maybe it's some kind of "YOU WERE WITH ANOTHER BIRD!" thing. The other birds do it so I can scratch their neck easier and it's a pleasure thing. She doesn't do that, though. Maybe I just don't scratch on her neck like I do the others. I'll have to try next week and see if there's a difference. And that's it for the bird world for today. A lot happened.

3/15/02
I didn't go into the zoo today, but Amy just called me a little while ago and I want to write this down before I forget. Tuesday night Tennessee died in the exhibit. I noticed she wasn't 100% on Sunday, but she went down really fast. Cause of death was the same as Morris, peritonitis enhanced by breeding complications. I wasn't shocked when Amy told me, I think everyone just lived day to day with Tennessee, and then after Morris died it just wasn't surprising at all. I am shocked by the cause of death though. It seems very odd to me that our penguins are suddenly dropping like flies because of peritonitis and breeding complications. Tennesee was Morris's chick, but that's still very bizarre to me. I know that Morris had a slight hump on her back because of the peritonitis and Tennessee had spinal complications so she had a hump on her back, she was actually famous for it. Also I've noticed that aside from Sylvester, Tennessee was probably the closest penguin to Morris. In the whole family thing it's more like Jell-O (another of their chicks) was a daddy's girl (Sylvester) while Tennessee always bonded with Morris. I would be interested in persuing why this is happening, though. It's still very strange for it to suddenly shoot up like this in two birds at once. I haven't been into the exhibit to see anyone, but Amy said that Meg is calling and running around the exhibit a lot more than Sylvester did, but Sylvester is in full molt so that's not surprising. She also said that he started hanging around Jell-O more. The most tragic thing is that Tennessee and Meg and Sylvester and Morris were the breeding pairs I would most have hated to see broken up. They had really close bonds. I remember working in the exhibit and Meg would go off and leave Tennessee in her box and then he'd call for her and she'd answer him and it was like a little game with them and it was so cute. Oh well. Since I've been working with penguins in August of '01, I have seen 5 birds leave the colony and 1 bird enter. It's exciting to get a new bird and work with them and learn about them, but I'm beginning to think like a penguin at times and I just really want the colony to be stable for awhile. It's so stressful on everyone when something like this happens. I dread working around Cramer and Grey's box tomorrow. I'll write more on everyone's behavior tomorrow and some more details about everything. It's just important I get this part down now.

3/16/02
Today I didn't get many more details on TN. Just that the vets think that her death and Morris's death are completely coincidental and had nothing to do with each other. I don't know how much I buy this theory, I'm not too into coincidences. Meg was wandering around the exhibit completely lost today. He keeps running to nest boxes and looking for TN. He follows Jell-O around a lot too. Maybe because she's the only solitary penguin, or because she was TN's sister and maybe has her scent a little or something. I don't know. He was acting weird, though. He kept running away from me as fast as he could, which is odd, he's never done that. And once when I went in with the pressure washer he was laying on his stomach outside his nest box with Jell-O, Willard, and Jerry around him. He moved like immediately when I got within 15 feet. It was strange though. I told Amy and she said they'd check on him. It could just be some weird mourning thing or he could be getting sick, everyone is keeping an eye out just in case. When I first got in this morning Jaycee needed new water so I got her water bowl and she caught a ride on my arm while I was getting it and then didn't want to get off when I had to leave. She's a pest, but I love her anyway. Anyway, in penguins everyone was kind of getting back to normal. They all spent a lot of time in their nest boxes, though. Sylvester is in mid molt and he looks terrible. He got out of his box and roamed around some today. I didn't mind, I think it's a good sign for him to move a bit. I know he's still grieving over Morris. But everyone was picking on him when he went anywhere. Cleo and Durban came at him and so did Willard and Jerry. Poor guy, I feel really sorry for him. I think I feel more sorry for Meg, though. He's just such a goofy and confused bird. He looks so totally lost. Sylvester is older and has had more experience. Watching Meg today almost had me in tears. I had to turn away at one point when he came to the nursery and stood looking around at me and the empty boxes. He looked lost. It's weird but the more time you spend with the birds the more you can pick up on their emotions and it's like they have actual facial expressions. I wonder sometimes if I'm getting too close to the colony. I haven't decided yet. I like being able to pick up on them, though. Anyway, Meg took a vitamin fish from me and Sylvester took two, so that's good. Jerry, Willard, Cramer, and Durban all got one too. Anyway, that's about all that went on in penguins. David Hamilton was working in the kitchen on some enrichment. It was amusing. Anyway, after that I went to the bird house and cleaned Matthew's room and Jaycee road on my shoulder and then I put her outside there. I worked on PJ's run next and she came over to the fence. I turned the hose on mist and gave her a bath. She LOVED it! She said "A bath!" and spread her wings out and shook her little tail feathers and turned around so I could get her back and just had a great time. She was absolutely soaked. It was pretty warm out though, so she was OK. Then I sprayed down the Mynah room and squeegeed. After that I was pretty much done. Amy had some trail mix and I gave some to Jaycee before I left.

3/17/02
Today I tried some new enrichment with the penguins. I took my bubbles with me because Amy said that some other zoos try that with penguins and it works really well. Anyway, when I got there I had to see Jaycee of course. She's spoiled rotten. After that I headed for penguins and did all the regular penguin things. Amy said when I blew bubbles to make sure to rinse the soap down the drains so I had to have the hose with me. I tried it in the nursery first because Cleo, Durban, and Jell-O were in there. As soon as I blew the bubbles they hightailed it out of there as fast as they could. They were simply not interested in the least. But then Meg kept coming into the nursery and looking over the partition (probably looking for Tennessee) and I decided to see what he'd do with them. At first he just stood there and watched them and kind of hunkered down. After awhile he moved closer and kept watching and hunkering down and being really curious about it. Then one landed on his beak and popped and he started running at them and biting them and popping them with his beak and having a great time. He LOVED the bubbles. I was pretty surprised, I wouldn't have expected that from him. I'm really happy though, because maybe it can be some kind of therapy for him or something. He's so pitiful when he runs around the exhibit calling for TN. He and Sylvester are so sad. Meg will call and then Sylvester will call and they both look depressed. Oh well, it's terrible. At least Meg liked the bubbles. I also tried the bubbles again out in the exhibit with Durban, Cleo and Meg again. This time Cleo got interested and popped a couple with her beak and of course that got Durban interested and they sat there and popped the bubbles with their beaks and nosed them around. Meg was doing his usual thing, only not as much because Cleo and Durban were there too. Cleo is getting a little attitude now. She'll attack other penguins with Durban and they get in fights with Willard and Jerry and attack Sylvester and anyone. While I was blowing bubbles for them she kept sneaking up on my foot and biting my shoe. Then Durban came to help her and I had two little penguins hanging onto my shoe. It was just like the first day I ever worked in the exhibit. Oh, and the penguins are going through their hoop too. Cleo got in and swam through it and now all the others do, except Willard and Jerry still stay away from it. That was cool. I'm looking forward to enrichment weekend next week. There are tons of enrichment ideas I'd love to try with the penguins. Anyway, Meg, Sylvester, Willard, Jerry, Durban, Cleo, and Cramer all got vitamin fish. Sylvester is still molting, poor guy. Tons of penguin feathers everywhere. Looks like one exploded in the exhibit. That's about it. After penguins I had to go back and see Jaycee. She rode around on my shoulder for awhile and stuck her head down in the pocket of the flannel shirt I was wearing. Jama and Martha thought maybe the guy who owned her before put birdseed in his pocket and she'd get it out. I dropped a couple peanuts in my pocket to see what she'd do and she stuck her whole head in. It was rather amusing with her little body hanging onto my shoulder and her head down in my pocket. She's so funny. She has to help me talk or talk to me when I'm talking to someone else. I was talking to Martha and Jaycee was doing something on my shoulder, swinging her head around or regurgitating peanuts for me and all of a sudden I got smacked in the lips by a beak. I have no idea what she was doing, but I think it looked like she was biting me or attacking me. Martha was like wide-eyed because she thought she bit me, but she just touched my lips barely and didn't bite or anything. Just touched me. It kind of surprised me too, because when they make sudden unexpected movements you're never sure exactly what they're going to do. I don't think she was doing anything but swinging her head around to get attention and she accidentally hit me. That's what Martha said too. I'm not too worried with having her on my shoulder unless Tammy was around. Then I might not let her. She loves Tammy so she probably wouldn't let me do much with her if Tammy was there too. She's a pretty sweet bird to the people she likes, but she's really picky. But most birds are. Heather only likes Martha, Matthew only likes Amy, but if Amy isn't there he'll take up with Jama and he's let me do some stuff with him too, and Morris liked Jama, it was amusing that Jama could pick her up without gloves or anything, Jell-O loves Tammy, and I really have no idea which birds have taken up with Mark. Right now I'm trying to sort of 'tame' Meg. If I crouch down to his level and hold out my hands to show they're empty he'll look at me kind of curiously and sometimes move forward a little. And he got pretty close when we were playing with the bubbles, but I had the partition between us. In the exhibit he got close too. Maybe he'll warm up to me. I hope so. I'd like to get Durban to warm up to me too, but he's only interested in being nice to me when I have fish. Oh well, we'll see. That's about all that happened today. Next week is enrichment weekend, so it should be interesting.