Jack Sparrow.........

Jack Sparrow has been having some rough days lately.  His mate Canolla died in the night on Friday and he is missing her so much.  I am not a vet but she must have fallen or she had some internal problems going on as she was very healthy the day before.   Canolla was given to me by a student at school about 7 years ago.  She bought her at a exotic pet sale in southern Iowa. The female became the mate to Jack Sparrow and they had a total of five offspring together.  I finally took the nesting box away as they had two batches in the same spring. I gave the student a pair of the offspring when they were old enough.  She gave them to her aunt to raise which made me happy that an adult was in charge of them.

Jack Sparrow was in mourning for a while as he kept trying to find her and paced in the evening until it got dark. He had her by his side all those years.  Last night I opened a few cage doors and placed them in alignment.  Jack finally found the opening and went into the cage of his three offspring.  I watched them for a long time as I didn't want the pecking order put any bird in danger.  Jack was a little grumpy for a while when he first go into the cage  and then he settled in for the night.  Peaceful, he seems today even though you can see him clinging to the side of the cage calling for her every once in a while. I did keep the offspring cage right next to the parents for all these years so it was not like Jack Sparrow didn't know the three.

This is Jack's male offspring.  There are two males and one female in the flock after giving two away to the student. They have become friendly with us and just talk to us when we feed them.

This is one other of the male offspring.  The two look exactly alike.   The female also looks like the combo of mom and dad but she has the distinctly patterned tail that makes her different than the guys. 

It is hard to loose even a bird pet as you feel very helpless to keep them from having anything happen to them.  They are suppose to live a long time. Birds do fall and break their necks but I didn't see that happen.

We really didn't know how old Canolla was. She may have had some age on her before we got her.  I know that Jack Sparrow sure stayed by her side even though she was grumpy and ate from the seed tray first.  She always gave Jack directions about how things were to be in their home.

Meanwhile, the birds outside struggle to stay ahead of the weather.  They will be glad for spring.  I have heard one male cardinal do his territorial call once but that was right before a snowstorm.  He may be resting his call for warmer days.  When we thing 16 degrees F. is nice weather one knows we are desperate for spring.   No work today which is good.  I am really worn down from it all.  I plan to do very little physical work and just occupy space.  Thanks for stopping by today.