A Sad Day

We are sad to report that Percy died Tuesday, August 8 in the afternoon.  
He will be missed!

Our Vacation during the Library Repair

While the library was being fixed from the rain damage, we visited Miss Renee's home.  There we got to know Zoey, the cat.  Yes a cat.  While we were nervous at first we soon realized that we were quite safe in our cage, thus we were able to have some fun making Zoey play "watch the birdie". (Think of a person following the ball during a tennis match - turn head, turn head, turn head...).

Miss Renee was holding Zoey
while this picture was being taken.
 Everyone one, birds and cat were safe.

Snuggling Together

See we both fit!

Beating Boredom

The reality of living in a cage instead of like a wild bird is that occasionally boredom can set in.  We don't have to struggle to survive by finding food and water, evading predators, so in one way our life is quite safe, but that doesn't mean that we don't get bored. Of course the ever changing faces and voices that visit our cage does keep us rather occupied - you'd be surprised what people will do when they think only a bird is watching (wink wink - we won't tell). But people watching can only be interesting for so long. One of the most interesting things we do is arrange our nesting material - that is all the white fluff in our cage.  Creating your own comfortable bed in which to sleep takes quite a bit of work and we take it very seriously (some of us take it a bit more seriously than others, sometimes a little too seriously - Oh be quiet, you seem to like to share a nest and I bet its because mine is more comfortable than your - that's because you are a fluff hog and there are pictures to prove it.) Anyway we spend a lot of time adjusting and moving fluff.  The two pictures below were taken two days in a row and it shows just how much we fuss.

This picture was taken on Wednesday, June 22 in the evening
As you can see the fluff is clearly in the left nest.

This picture was taken on Thursday, June 23 in the morning
As you can see the fluff is now in the right nest

The question was why was all the fluff moved from one nest to the other, that's easy because Miss Renee ruined the fluff in the left nest, see how it is leaning to the right while in the nest on the left well it was originally leaning to the left and Miss Renee flipped it to lean the other way.  As a result Kyp (and Percy though mostly Kyp) felt the need to move it to a completely different nest.  Miss Renee thinks we're a little crazy and fluff obsessed, but what is a bird to do?

So we can beat boredom by playing with fluff.  We understand that kids also get hit with boredom especially during the summer.  Well if you're starting to feel that way don't forget to come to the library.  You can visit with us and find out about all the cool things the library is doing here this summer.  We'll of course talk more about that later.

402nd National Park

We have just been told that we are now living in a National Park!  It is so cool, because in Parks they try to conserve the natural environment so we know that all our feathered friends outside will have better lives. This New Park is Called the Blackstone Valley Heritage Corridor and it is designed to preserve the Blackstone River and the history of the beginnings of the American Industrial Revolution all thanks to Samuel Slater.  If you've visited the library you will notice outside on the stone building section of the library are the words the Slater Building, that is because part of the library is housed in one of the original buildings belonging to Samuel Slater.  The Centennial park behind the library is along a section of the Blackstone River that was altered in order to power the mills in Slatersville, and it is where a lot of our friends live.  There is Fred the downy woodpecker, Mr. and Mrs. Redd the Cardinals and Steve the Sparrow all who live or occasionally visit the Park.  We're glad to know that they will be taken care of as the library will be doing more things outside in Centennial Park in partnership with the National Park Services.  We've even heard that the library will be installing a pollinator garden for birds, butterflies and bees.  Its going to be great fun and there will be plenty of new stuff to look forward to.

The Cat!!!!

Last Tuesday, the library held an event that upset us greatly.  The event was about birds.  But it was not called Percy and Kyp's all about birds it was call The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about that....Birds.  The Cat in the Hat!?!?! Can you believe it!  Really what does a cat know about birds.  Needless to say we told Miss Renee exactly how we felt about that.  She told us the Cat in the Hat event was to celebrate Dr. Seuss whose birthday is in March, but she could understand how a cat hosting a bird event would be upsetting, so she brought us into the event so we could help kids learn about birds.  After all we are birds.  She also promised that she would not do a bird event with the Cat in the Hat.  Hopefully you will join us the next time the library hosts a bird event by the birds.

Friday Clean

Did you know that every Friday is Clean Day!  Ask your Mom, we bet there is one day (or maybe more than one day) when she cleans your house. Go ahead, ask, we'll wait........  See we told you so. Well the same thing happens at our house (you say cage, we say house) and that day is usually Friday (honestly, sometimes it's a Saturday or a Monday).  On Friday Miss Renee (our mom) turns off the light, unplugs the heat and proceeds to take our entire home apart.  She changes the paper at the bottom of the cage, she empties our food and water bowls and scrubs them till they shine, and then she takes the bathtub and does the same thing.  She refills everything and gives them back to us thank goodness. Now for the most part this isn't a bad thing, but every now and then she takes it a little too far - she actually sticks her arm into our cage and scrubs everything - the floor, the walls, the perches, stands and even our nests.  It's very aggravating, first having our space invaded is far from our favorite thing, but she also cleans and reorganizes everything when she does this.  We don't like it at all, do you know how long it takes us to make our cage a home - and then she cleans everything!  The worst part is that she occasionally throws things away, like our nest fluff or even our nests all together.  We get them just the way we like and then POW!  all gone and we have to start all over. (At least she gives us brand new nests and fluff to start over with-could you imagine if she didn't <shudder>). It's rather annoying but she's says it's healthy for us to have a clean place and changing things means we'll never get bored (unfortunately she's right there - don't you hate when that happens).  Well, at your house next time it's cleaning day you better keep an eye on your mom to make sure nothing of yours disappears when she cleans.....just to make sure.

We don't like our door open!

Do Percy and Kyp ever fly away?  No they don't.  First of all they don't like having the cage door open even if it's feed them.  They always fly to the opposite side of the cage.  This is mainly because ever time the door opens there is  person behind it and people are big so they stay away.  

They have escaped the cage a few times but only at the vet's office.  It usually happens as the vet tries to capture them so he can listen to their heart and give them a check up. They don't fly away they usually go to the top of the cabinets making it very difficult for the vet to give them an exam. Otherwise the boys are very happy staying right where they are and it's the safest place for them.

Help your Library

On Saturday, February 13 the library is having a fundraiser to support the renovation of the library's adult and teen area.  They are having a Cookie Walk.  We were excited to hear about this because while we've never had cookies they sound like a human treat.  We don't get treats like cookies because we're not allowed sugar, we get different treats instead.  We get things like broccoli, fruit ball treats, millet seed, egg biscuits and other kinds of things.  While they may not seem like treats to you, we enjoy then a lot.  Anything that isn't bird seed is a treat. Right now our favorite treats are egg biscuits and broccoli.  Do you like broccoli?  Its our favorite green veggie!  Anyway, we hope that you can come and visit on Saturday, February 13 and purchase some cookies.  Even if you can't have them you could always buy them for someone else.  We might even purchase a few because we know that Miss Renee likes cookies but she doesn't like bird seed.

A Holiday Treat

For the Holiday we received a spray of millet seed - which you will notice on the previous post we asked Santa for, how lucky is that!

Santa Visits

Santa Claus is coming to visit tonight.  We made sure our letter to Santa was all set for him to take with him to the North Pole.

Happy Christmas!

Our new twig

This is out new twig.  It has multiple layers to perch on and they are all different sizes.  This is very important. Bird feet are very sensitive and are important to our good health, just like you feet are important. For us, being able to stand on a variety of surfaces is healthier.  Next time you visit take a look at our feet.  Unlike your which are generally flat, ours can stretch out flat, curl around almost into a fist, grip or partially curl.  In some ways our feet act a bit like your hands in that we can bend them to grip things.  The more we exercise our grip the healthier our feet our and healthy feet make for a happy bird.

Picture

We like to make having our picture taking as difficult as possible.

Just to make life interesting

Nest Overload

Now you have to be wondering - why does one nest need all this cotton fluff?  There are two reasons: 1 the higher I sit the safer I feel, in case anyone decides to sneek up on me while I'm sleeping and 2 it's just more comfortable this way.  The more fluff I have the better I sleep. Haven't you read the tale of the Princess and the Pea?  Its the same thing with me.

A nice Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice day with seed flavored scrambled eggs, one of our favorite dishes.  We don't get it very often and when we do its quite a treat!  We've been thinking quite a bit about sharing and our feathered friends who are out in the cold.  We've thought of a special treat that you can make and share with your feathered friends.

Materials:
1 slice of toast
peanut butter (or sunflower butter or vegetable shortening)
bird seed
raisins or dried cranberries
knife
cookie cutter, any shape
ribbon

How to:
1.Cut your piece of toast with the cookie cutter and add the ribbon to hang (you'll need to make the hole you can thread a needle or use a straw to poke the hole)
2. Slather your butter onto one side
3. Add the seed and dried fruit.
4. Repeat on the other side of the toast
5. Hang outside where you can watch your feathered friend enjoy their treat.

Percy and Kyp's 1,000 Challenge

WE CHALLENGE YOU!

In a effort to promote reading aloud, we have created a challenge for kids. While Kyp and I love to read on our own, we really prefer being read too. There is nothing quite like hearing a story read aloud to bring it to life. Mom reads us wonderful stories every now and again, and we wanted to spread the joy.  So we have created this 1,000 Challenge.

For kids 5 and under: We challenge you to read 1,000 Books Before you start Kindergarten with your parents.  For kids ages 5 (already in Kindergarten) and up: We challenge you to list to 1,000 read alouds (you choice to do 1,000 read aloud books or 1,000 days of listening to someone read aloud).

Just to keep you interested there will be special prizes from us just for you!

To sign up or to find more information, visit our 1,000 Challenge webpage.

A Quiet Fall

Things have been quiet for us. Lately we've been moving cotton fluff from one nest to the other. In fact its become a bit of a game moving fluff from one nest just to have it moved back again. The weather has been getting a little colder, we can tell by all the kids wearing sweaters, but Mom hasn't turned on our heater yet - she says its not that cold yet. At least she keeps the bath water warm, though between you and me we prefer bathing in our drinking water bowl rather than the bird bath. It's driving Mom nuts. We're hoping that soon Mom will give us a new toy to play with because while quiet can be nice, it does get a little boring.

Our Vacation

Hi everyone we're back!  We decided to go visit our Auntie Pat for a week, while Miss Renee was away on her vacation.  Hey if she gets one, we want one too!  Anyway, we had a great time with Auntie Pat.  It's always fun to visit her.  We got to spend time out on the porch where we could feel the wind in our feathers and say hi to some of our bird friends who visit Auntie Pat's feeders.  It was nice to catch up with all our feathered friends.  There was talk about food, nests, eggs and babies, who flew the highest or the fastest, lots of talk about the neighborhood cats, a hawk and even the games kids in the neighborhood were playing.  We caught up on all the gossip. 

At night we got to spend time with Auntie Pat, she reads to us, sings to us and talks to us all the time. It was nice to hear about all the things she's been doing since we saw her last.  She is a very busy lady.   Overall we had a wonderful time visiting, but its nice to be home.

Our Superhero Summer

Apparently we both wanted to be Superman

Boom! Kapow! Wham!  We're action packes

Belmont Public Library for Birds

The Belmont Public Library was created for birds.  Yup, that's right -  no humans allowed.  We are so jealous!  To read more about this story click here.

Special thanks to our friend Mollie, for sending us this story!