Happy 4th bird-day, Rappy!

Today is Raptor's 4th birthday!!  As with Mika's birthday earlier this month, there wasn't a huge celebration (since every day is their birthday in this house).  We showered Rappy with a lot of attention and all his favorite treats.  I even gave him an extra organic almond, since he loves those SO much! I tried getting more pictures of him but he is so much harder to photograph than Mika.  Raptor rarely stays still for photos.  This was the best birthday shot I could get - the rest were blurry or his face was away from the camera.  >_<

What a great birthday surprise that the medium Java stand I ordered from My Safe Bird Store as Mika and Raptor's combination birthday gift arrived TODAY rather than the 22nd like scheduled.  As usual, there was a bag of TREATS for the hoomans of the house from Kathie (thank you for feeding my fat!! LOL).  We really don't have room for another playgym where we are right now so I have it tucked away in my old bedroom at my parents house until we get to the house early next year.  ;)  

I also ordered a medium ScooterZ tent for him in a pretty shade of green.  Mika absolutely loves sleep tents but Raptor has always been weary of big fabric things and preferred to sleep on a platform perch.  I thought I'd give it another go and try a tent again just because.  I really would love for him to tuck himself into a tent to sleep.  Mika is always so warm and cozy in his.  I want Rappy to be warm and cozy at sleep time too!

Happy birthday, our stubborn, bitey, aggressive, bundle of fierceness!  Mommy loves you very much...  even though you just tolerate me.  ;)

Surprise!!

I had received a package from Things for Wings a week ago.  I had bought another fantastic willow coin swing (thanks to Danita's generosity in letting the swing go!), so I could have one for each of my boys.  When I opened the box, I found a surprise in there!  There was a bag full of beautiful toys, along with a cryptic note from the gifter.  Come to find out, the gift was from Peggy (Sadieladie1994 on Avian Avenue).  It was a totally unexpected gift and so sweet of her!  

At the time, I had to thank Peggy in private because Danita wanted to hold a guessing game as to what theme her new toy collection is, and the toys I received were part of that new collection.  Now that the guessing game is over, she said I can post the pics of these super cute "Island Hopping" toys!  :D  I'm not sure what these toys are named, but they should all be named "Fun & Fabulous"!  Hehe.

The toys are so cute I really didn't want to give it to the birds, but I caved in and gave them ONE. LOL  I put the toy on the Java tree in the living room and shoved Nutriberries into the wicker ball to entice them.  I let Raptor go at it first.  He immediately started shredding feverishly to get to the treats.  He also took a few chunks out of the balsa blocks.  When he was done, there was about half the wicker ball left - ideal for my non-chewer/forager, Mika.  I put more Nutriberries in the half-destroyed wicker ball and Mika went to town!  I was quite surprised!  

This toy was a HUGE success!  As of today, there is nothing left of the toy except for a little bit of wicker and raffia.  Raptor has destroyed the rest of the balsa and yucca pieces.  Thank you, Peggy, for such a generous gift and thank you, Danita, for always coming out with adorable new toy collections!!  :)

Wet birdies!

This afternoon I showered with Raptor, then Mika.  Since I was going to have both birds wet, I figured it'd be a great time to take wet bird pics!  Well, that didn't completely work out according to plan.  I put Raptor on the playgym in the office for less than FIVE minutes while I finished my shower with Mika and by the time we came out Raptor was almost completely dry!  >_<  The only wet part left was his head and back of his neck.  Mika, though, is still wet as I type.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised...  whenever Mika bathes, he gets SOAKED.  He'll get soaked all the way down to his skin, and he'll stay wet for quite a while as he dries off.  Maybe it's because Mika's feathers are just so incredibly soft and floofy?  Raptor, on the other hand, has an oily sheen to his wings and tail feathers.  Whenever he bathes, his face and tummy will get wet but water just beads right off of his wings/tail.

Anyway, the wet bird pics of Mika came out really well - he looks like a punk rocker with his head feathers sticking up!  Hehehe!

With Raptor's wet bird pics, you can see that it's mainly his head that is still wet.  I had a REALLY hard time getting good pictures because he kept moving back and forth all over the tree, rubbing his beak all over the place.  Such a bummer because I had him in the water for a good 10 minutes!

Petstagram / Instapet.

The last time I checked, Instagram was only for the iPhone.  Well, I recently read something about it being available for Andriods so I downloaded the app.  It's such a simple app that just puts filters on your photo and crops it to a square, but I really like it!  I like squares. LOL  If you would like to follow me on Instagram, I go by the same username as this blog:  BirdsFTW.  :)

Anyway, just thought I'd share some photos I've been posting on the account:

"Hudson" setting/filter

"Hudson"

"Hudson"

"Hudson"

"Lo-Fi" setting/filter

"Lo-Fi"

"Lo-Fi"

"Brannan" setting/filter

"Brannan"

I'm enjoying this app so much that I'll probably continue using it to post my photos on here... at least until I learn how to use my real camera this summer.  I hope.  >_<

 

Dream purchase - a Java tree.

I have wanted a Java tree for I don't know how many years.  I never got one for two reasons:  1. I didn't have space in the previous places I've lived and 2. it was just a bit too pricey with the cost of shipping.  Another reason, though a minor one, is because I had never come across a tree with branch placement I really liked.  I wasn't going to spend hundreds of dollars on something I felt mediocre about.  

My "dream" Java tree belongs to Natacha - http://poiworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/play-stands-in-my-living-room.html (last photo).  No tree has ever come close to hers.  I love her tree for several reasons:  1. the branches are multi-level, 2. the branch placement looks fairly "even" to where the tree looks balanced, and 3. it has a straight trunk.  I never expected to find a tree that looks exactly like hers, but I wanted a tree that had those three criteria.  Because no two trees ever grow alike, in my experience and YEARS of searching for "the" tree, I had never found one worth purchasing...  until now.

There was a tree I had been eyeing up on Bird Paradise for several months.  The tree had multi-level branches, the branch placement looked balanced, and it had a straight trunk.  Quite frankly, I was surprised it hadn't been sold a long time ago.  Then the store had an online sale - it was my chance!  I wanted to pick it up during the sale because I knew we'd have space for it when we move to the house next year.  I bought the tree I thought I would never have - even though the shipping cost more than the tree itself. >_<  It was a (bird) dream come true.  :)  I was very happy and excited for this purchase.  Then...


Something went wrong.  My tree ended up getting sold to someone else by accident.  I have to admit I was really sad over this because I had waited years and years and years for my tree.  Kathy, the owner of Bird Paradise, is such a wonderful woman to work with and she took it upon herself to personally make this right.  She went to her warehouse, keeping my criteria in mind, and sent me pics of some trees she thought I would like and were not on the website.  Out of the pics she sent me, one jumped out at me even more than the original tree I had bought.  This tree was amazing!!  I loved this tree even more and it made me happy that my original tree had been sold - otherwise I would never have known about this one!  Kathy did an excellent job of making her customer happy. :)  My tree was on its way to me when...


Something else went wrong! LOL  The tracking showed the package had reached Honolulu and then nothing.  Days and days went by without delivery.  Kathy had UPS put a tracer on the tracking number to find out what happened.  More than a week passed without any word from UPS so I had begun to lose hope.  It turns out my package somehow got rerouted back to the mainland!  So after a long journey of back and forth, it arrived this past Friday.  I could not be happier with the tree.  I love it - just as much as I love Natacha's. 

The new Java tree!

Raptor exploring.

He loves boings.

Nom nom nom.

Lots of play space!

Now, I'm on the lookout for one more Java tabletop stand and I will be done.  I'm constantly keeping my eye out for one with branch placement I like. :)