I have been reading up on Crows and Ravens at a fever pitch, so not much time for posting these days. My parents got me two great books on the topic for my birthday, very thoughtfully. The books have been backing up a lot of what I thought I have been learning, and teaching me some new things about the birds as well. Perhaps the most interesting thing has been one author's depiction of Raven's as emotional animals. While that has certainly been something I have noted, and observed personally, I do not think I would ever have thought to use that word. It is an example of the difference between true naturalists, and the rest of us. They have more empathy, and appreciation for the animals than most; it is why we need so desperately to learn to listen to and defer to scientists, conservationist, and the lot; their eyes, and ears, and hearts are bigger; we have something very important to learn from them.
I have been taking good care of Fig. She is spending more and more time outside these days. I changed her anklets to a removeable type of my own inventing, and she is learning to have them put on, and taken off. I use a double grommeted anklet of fairly standard design. A cord passes through both eyelets. One end has two knots to create about an inch of cord to grab. The other end has a length of rubber tubing which slides up and stays in place on the cord, holding the anglet grommets closed, together, by simple friction on the cord. A second rubber tube with greater friction is further along for extra security. Putting them on requires that I bring Fig in to an embrace which we practice, and she agrees too. Removing the anklets simply requires that I slide the rubber tubing back down the cords while Fig is perched. She has gotten much better at relaxing to do this. I am very happy because she does not need to wear anklets all the time which feels a bit freer, and more natural for her, and hopefully the anklets will last a lot longer. Progress, progress.
Fig's communication, and handling training continue. Everything has gotten a bit mixed up as I have switched almost all of her training time to outdoors on tethers now. She has very quickly learned to adapt what we previously did inside to the outside environment, but the switch has created a progress lag due to all the excitement and distraction that the outside environment brings. I am going with the flow. It will take Fig some time to learn to relax, and focus outdoors. She is making good progress, but occasionally is rascally, and disobedient. We go out at night sometimes still to continue to reinforce that I am her safety zone. During the day this principle is not as evident to her. I am not strict with her, and the focus is mainly on trust and relaxation, and working together to pay attention to the environment around us, and to build our bond. Most of our time is spent walking, sitting for a chat, or a preen, environment observing together, coming close to avoid danger or a threat such as a passing car or dog walker, handling training jumping to and from me, playing, chasing, catch, looking for stuff in the dirt, curiosity practice, all together...basically, I act like another Crow for her most of the time, which is not a bad job. I am always complaining that humans need to spend more time sitting, and looking and just paying attention to the natural environment's natural goings on, so now that is exactly what I am doing...watching the grass Crow, as they say. Walking together is a big part of our time together because Fig needs to learn that as long as we are together, things are okay, and walking is rather a bumpy ride on a person's arm for a long legged bird, so Fig needs to acclimate to the activity, plus I could use the exercise. It is fun for her to walk into the wind; she presses herself down and assumes a Falcon dive pose so she feels a bit like she is soaring along. We start and end every walk with a chat to connect, and debrief. Usually she starts time outside a bit wired up, and overly excited, and by the end she has preened, and mellowed out, and is interested in a close lovey snuggly chat.
The outside environment is dangerous, with cats, dogs, hawks, bicycles, cars, and other surprises, so we are focusing on being a team at paying attention to everything, and communicating about staying together, just like a pair of Crows would do. We even go through people's garbage, and strew it about all over the street. I communicate with Fig with gesture, voice, head movement, eye movement, eye contact and body stance. I am trying hard to get her to understand that she and I are to be thinking, and acting as one, as a pair, in tight coordination. It is all too keep her safe. Dogs, cats, hawks, they come out of nowhere, and I am all too aware that Fig could be gone in an instant if we are not tuned in to the task at hand. We are Team Safety, just like two kids on their way to school, a pair, watching for the inevitable one crazy driver who comes along when you least expect it.
I am paying more careful attention these days to Fig's language. Little by little my ear is able to catch the nuances and minor pronunciation differences of her calls. If I had never studied a bit of Japanese, I never would have noticed the differences in her utterances at all. They would all likely sound identical to me. Most people probably agree that a Crow says Caw Caw Caw, but in fact they say aw, gwah, wah, wrah, rah/lah, ha, hfwa, awa, hya, hwah, al, ar, yao, yar, yaw, and a whole slew of things which I am only beginning to hear, and start to be able to distinguish. Fig uses her tongue, the air in her beak, and her neck, and her diaphram to create sounds which are so slightly different in such a variety of ways, I am having a very hard time hearing them, and an even harder time trying to reproduce them with my own vocal apparatus. It is going to take a lot more very serious listening to hopefully figure it all out.
Blah blah caw.
I have been taking good care of Fig. She is spending more and more time outside these days. I changed her anklets to a removeable type of my own inventing, and she is learning to have them put on, and taken off. I use a double grommeted anklet of fairly standard design. A cord passes through both eyelets. One end has two knots to create about an inch of cord to grab. The other end has a length of rubber tubing which slides up and stays in place on the cord, holding the anglet grommets closed, together, by simple friction on the cord. A second rubber tube with greater friction is further along for extra security. Putting them on requires that I bring Fig in to an embrace which we practice, and she agrees too. Removing the anklets simply requires that I slide the rubber tubing back down the cords while Fig is perched. She has gotten much better at relaxing to do this. I am very happy because she does not need to wear anklets all the time which feels a bit freer, and more natural for her, and hopefully the anklets will last a lot longer. Progress, progress.
Fig's communication, and handling training continue. Everything has gotten a bit mixed up as I have switched almost all of her training time to outdoors on tethers now. She has very quickly learned to adapt what we previously did inside to the outside environment, but the switch has created a progress lag due to all the excitement and distraction that the outside environment brings. I am going with the flow. It will take Fig some time to learn to relax, and focus outdoors. She is making good progress, but occasionally is rascally, and disobedient. We go out at night sometimes still to continue to reinforce that I am her safety zone. During the day this principle is not as evident to her. I am not strict with her, and the focus is mainly on trust and relaxation, and working together to pay attention to the environment around us, and to build our bond. Most of our time is spent walking, sitting for a chat, or a preen, environment observing together, coming close to avoid danger or a threat such as a passing car or dog walker, handling training jumping to and from me, playing, chasing, catch, looking for stuff in the dirt, curiosity practice, all together...basically, I act like another Crow for her most of the time, which is not a bad job. I am always complaining that humans need to spend more time sitting, and looking and just paying attention to the natural environment's natural goings on, so now that is exactly what I am doing...watching the grass Crow, as they say. Walking together is a big part of our time together because Fig needs to learn that as long as we are together, things are okay, and walking is rather a bumpy ride on a person's arm for a long legged bird, so Fig needs to acclimate to the activity, plus I could use the exercise. It is fun for her to walk into the wind; she presses herself down and assumes a Falcon dive pose so she feels a bit like she is soaring along. We start and end every walk with a chat to connect, and debrief. Usually she starts time outside a bit wired up, and overly excited, and by the end she has preened, and mellowed out, and is interested in a close lovey snuggly chat.
The outside environment is dangerous, with cats, dogs, hawks, bicycles, cars, and other surprises, so we are focusing on being a team at paying attention to everything, and communicating about staying together, just like a pair of Crows would do. We even go through people's garbage, and strew it about all over the street. I communicate with Fig with gesture, voice, head movement, eye movement, eye contact and body stance. I am trying hard to get her to understand that she and I are to be thinking, and acting as one, as a pair, in tight coordination. It is all too keep her safe. Dogs, cats, hawks, they come out of nowhere, and I am all too aware that Fig could be gone in an instant if we are not tuned in to the task at hand. We are Team Safety, just like two kids on their way to school, a pair, watching for the inevitable one crazy driver who comes along when you least expect it.
I am paying more careful attention these days to Fig's language. Little by little my ear is able to catch the nuances and minor pronunciation differences of her calls. If I had never studied a bit of Japanese, I never would have noticed the differences in her utterances at all. They would all likely sound identical to me. Most people probably agree that a Crow says Caw Caw Caw, but in fact they say aw, gwah, wah, wrah, rah/lah, ha, hfwa, awa, hya, hwah, al, ar, yao, yar, yaw, and a whole slew of things which I am only beginning to hear, and start to be able to distinguish. Fig uses her tongue, the air in her beak, and her neck, and her diaphram to create sounds which are so slightly different in such a variety of ways, I am having a very hard time hearing them, and an even harder time trying to reproduce them with my own vocal apparatus. It is going to take a lot more very serious listening to hopefully figure it all out.
Blah blah caw.
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