**One Year Update**
I spent almost the whole day in my aviary today, listening to the birds sing and watching their silly antics while I cleaned and planted spring flowers. It got me thinking and I realized that it has been about a full year since I made the decision to convert our unused greenhouse into a dedicated space for birds. It took me a couple months to get everything ready for the move into the aviary, but I started this project and set everything in motion in late March 2020.
That got me thinking about this thread and I figured now was as good a time as any to do an update and look back over the journey so far. Plus it gives me the chance to share some pictures of what the aviary looks like now and let you know how all the birds are doing in their new home.
The aviary doesn't look too different, although you can see that I've switched to using paper because it was too cold to rinse the floor with water during winter. With the weather warming up, I will have to decide if I want to keep using paper or switch back to sweeping and rinsing. Not sure yet.
Let's see ... it has been an eventful year. First off, I do have some sad news to report. Although the majority of my birds made it through last year unscathed, despite the wildfires, weird weather, and general craziness of 2020, another of my Lady Gouldian finches died unexpected in the late fall. It was my silver finch, Sterling. He was one of my favorites and best friend to my yellow finch Jasper. Sterling was such a sweet curious little guy and a joy to have in the aviary. He will be missed.
I am not sure what caused his death. There were no signs of illness in any of the other aviary inhabitants afterwards and I didn't notice anything off with Sterling on the days proceeding his demise. The only thing that stands out in my mind is that one of my neighbors was doing brush burning that day and there was smoke in the air. It might not have been related, but it pains me to think that my birds would survive all the wildfire smoke we experienced earlier in the year, only to have one die to a little smoke from a burn pile in someone's backyard. Just not fair. Sterling was a young finch and should have had many more years ahead of him.
Sterling is survived by Jasper and Crimson, my two remaining finches. I am also down to just two button quail, but that was a choice. Of the original four, only one was female (Terra) and the other three were all confirmed to be male by behavior (Slate, Clay, and Geo). The three boys were chasing Terra relentlessly and fighting amongst themselves, so I made the decision to rehome two of them to restore peace to the aviary. Geo was the lucky man who got the girl. For the other two, I found a nice lady who was looking for a pair of button quail to keep as pets. She was very excited to meet Clay and Slate and start her button quail adventure. We've kept in touch a bit through Facebook and they look happy in their new home. Without Terra to fight over, they are getting along fine and they are being well cared for by a kind and attentive keeper.
Lastly, I lost one of my female parakeets. Johnny Girl, my pretty green girl, went missing one day in late October. I went out to check on the birds as I always do and couldn't find her. Searched everywhere, but she was gone.
I discovered a hole in the back wall of the aviary where a piece of wood that was not properly secured had fallen out. It was about the right size for a parakeet to squeeze through, so I assume that was how she made her escape. All of the other parakeets were properly accounted for and I patched up the hole as soon as I noticed the missing bird. She was sighted by a neighbor about a mile from my house, roosting in the rafters of his barn, but hasn't been seen since. I kept hoping she would find her way back or get found by someone else, but it has been too many cold months since she went missing to hold out much hope at this point. Fly high, Johnny Girl.
My other twelve budgies are doing fine and made it through their first winter in the aviary safely. Actually, I should say ten budgies, because two of my budgies stayed in my bedroom rather than the aviary. I moved Lemondrop and Goldie into the house in the early winter for health reasons.
When I first moved the budgies out into the aviary, some of them couldn't fly due to a severe wing clip received at the pet shop I got them from. Lemondrop's wings were NOT clipped when I got her, but she was also flightless. It was harder to tell when she was cage-bound because she was such a good climber, but once she was in the aviary, her flight disability was much more obvious. I initially hoped that she was simply a slow learner or maybe she was clipped too young before I got her and never properly fledged. But her flying abilities did not improve with time or practice. She could climb around like a monkey all day long, but if she tried to fly, she would drop like a stone. Despite her lack of flight, Lemondrop could navigate around the aviary surprisingly well and appeared to be quite happy, so I was going to keep her with the other aviary birds, but she took a bad fall off a high perch and suffered a keel injury. I moved her into an indoor cage to monitor her during her recovery, along with Goldie for companionship.
They were good cage mates. Sometimes bickering like an old married couple but always together, grooming, preening, and feeding each other often. Lemondrop is very hand-shy, so I took this opportunity to work with them together. If I could get Goldie to eat millet, Lemondrop would be brave enough to come over for a few bites. I wouldn't go so far as to say she likes me, but Lemondrop is not completely terrified of me now. Progress!
Over the winter months, I have been considering ways to keep Lemondrop safe in the aviary and have come up with a plan for padding the hard concrete under the main perching areas where she is at most risk of falling. I am already putting down paper in that area, so it will be easy to do. The padding can go under the paper and should cushion any serious falls. I have just been waiting until the weather is warmer to try moving the two yellow girls back into the main aviary. And today is the big day!
I put their cage out in the aviary and let the other budgies inspect the new arrivals. They must have passed inspection, because everyone got bored after about half an hour and went back to what they were doing before ... which is mostly chewing on the walls, floor and ceiling non-stop, because everybody has spring fever and wants to carve a nest cavity out of my poor aviary.
Yes, I see what you two are doing up there, girls. Please stop. Huh ... what is that grinding sound I hear behind me?
Hey! I see you guys, too! Don't eat the walls!
Sigh ... you are too darn cute. Fine, fine. Eat the walls. I need to buy more chew toys asap.
Oh look, Snowball found some fresh wood! The urge to chew is strong in that one.
Anyways, I decided it was time to release the yellow girls, so I opened the door. And of course, they ignored the open door completely. I am not sure why it still surprises me when this happens. I should be used to it by now.
Eventually, June noticed the door was open and she came inside for a look around. Noticed they had some tasty seeds just laying around uneaten and decided to help herself.
I went back to my work, while monitoring the goings on. Besides releasing budgies and cleaning the aviary today, my main task is planting some pretty pansies and red gerbera daisies for the birds. Most of the plants I planted last year were annuals so they didn't survive the winter and I lost a few of the perennials too, so the aviary is looking a little too sparse. It needs a splash of color.
That's much better!
I still have the apple tree, fig tree, flowering currant, dwarf blueberry and citrus trees. I plan on trying some hanging baskets later on this year. For now, this is a start.
Speaking of starts, Goldie started to go out of the cage, but went back in when Lemondrop didn't follow her out.
These girls are just too precious for words. I am going to hang out in here for the rest of the afternoon to make sure they are settling in okay. Perfect opportunity to write up a long post.
But I just hit the limit on photo attachments (didn't know there was a limit!), so I will continue in a second post. I must upload more bird pictures. Pictures are life!