Last Sunday, we went to my cousin's, Brandon, house in Santa Ana, CA. Like the previous couple visits to Brandon, we always take Lily with us in a small traveling cage that fits between my sons' car seats.
At Brandon's, after lunch he decided to build an exercise machine for his puppy bull dog. Sitting inside the house with Lily on my shoulder all morning, I got bored and decided to join Brandon outside in the backyard chatting while he is working on his project. Like usual, my Lily was on my shoulder or roosting between my neck and shirt collar or clinging playfully on my shirt nipping on the buttons. Brandon had to use a power circular saw to cut up some 2x4s. I knew right away that as soon as that power saw starts up, my Lily would startle. Just before Brandon pulled the trigger, I grabbed my Lily right away so she can’t fly off. But it was too late, just before I could put my other hand on her, she startled and flew out from my hand. I was only holding her with one hand. I didn’t hold her tight enough.
After the second week of bringing her home, Lily grows so attached to me; only me. She won’t leave my shoulder for any reason especially when I take her outside. I take her outside everyday on my shoulder while I feed my fish in the outdoor pond. I never have to hold her. Her wings are not clipped. I don’t believe in clipping bird’s wings. This is the 3rd parrot I have ever owned. I had never clipped any of my birds wings. Despite, my first parrot got startled and flew away when I was 8 years old. I risked my young life and ran after the flying parrot in full traffic to get him/her back. I got into so much trouble with my mom and then later with my dad later that night. But that’s another story. When outside, Lily’s instinct is to always scanning the sky for predators. She is only 4.5 months old, what does she know about predators in the big blue sky, so I thought. When I got Lily, she couldn’t barely fly. I have vault ceiling so my Lily has been practicing flying and dodging walls and doors. She can fly up and down with ease. And she has been flying like a pro (inside the house).
As soon as Lily cleared the roof of Brandon’s garage, two adults hawks from nearby treetops swooped down on Lily immediately. The two hawks were diving fast from 2 different very tall trees. By the time they approached close to Lily, they were side by side. One of the hawks lowered its claws trying to grab Lily. Lily was screaming her lungs out. Brandon and I were, too, screaming our lungs out. The hawks were flying fast and missed Lily by a few inches. Lily flew higher in large circle around me as I was screaming her name. The hawks flew up into the sky and dived again for the second catch. By flying up high and dive vertically, hawk can catch prey at 200 mph. Lily made 1.5 large circles around me screaming while scanning for the hawks. Both hawks swooped down for the second time as Lily flew into a very tall tree. The hawks chased after her into the tree. At this time, I couldn’t see Lily anymore in the dense tree. All I could hear was her screaming inside the tree. Both hawks exited the tree and flew to the top of another nearby tall tree. Just then I saw Lily exited the tree and flew toward me. Both hawks dived at Lily again for the third time. Again, both missed Lily. Lily tried to come to me but then half way she decided not to come to me, but instead circled back into the same tree. I think Lily knew that if she slow down to reach me, the hawks would get to her. Lily is maybe slower but more agile than hawks. She can make sharp turn just as she has been doing inside the house. Hawks cannot make sharp turns. They can airbrake fast but slow in changing direction at high speed.
As Brandon and I was running after Lily screaming, all kinds of thoughts went through my mind. How I am going to tell my wife in kids if Lily is gone? They will be devastated. My two kids were inside the house playing on their iPad with Brandon’s two kids. They didn’t know what was happening in the front yard in the middle of the street. If Lily is gone, how I am I going to replace her. I can afford a few conures, but Lily is irreplaceable. Where I am I going to find another sweet, fast learning, conure like Lily? I have to go to work all day, Lily stay home with my wife. My wife and kids have grown so attach to Lily. On her own in just 3 weeks, Lily potty trained herself. We leave her cage door always open. We let her fly around the house all day long. She loves to hang around in the family room where most of us like to spend our time. She plays all day long on the television, lamps, curtains, and blinds. Her food and water are on top of the refrigerator. Never, we find her poops in any of the places where she loves to play and sleep. She poops only on the dining table, top sides of ceiling fan blades (easy cleaning surfaces were we can’t miss) above the dining table, and toilet sinks. Dealing with bird droppings all over the house was a major concern for us when we decided to get Lily. Early in the morning, she would fly into the restroom and roosts on my towel. As soon as my wife gets up, she flies right onto her finger. My wife just need to hold Lily over the toilet for 10 seconds for her to make her large morning poop. We can never find any of her poops inside her roomy sleeping cage or towels in our bathrooms or curtains or refrigerator top or beds. She never poop in flight. Cutest of all, Lily loves to go onto our bed and sleep on her back with both feet up. She makes cute soft duckling sounds when she is happy and comfortable on my shoulder. She loves to softly grab my earlobe with her beaks, fluff her feathers, close her eyes, and chirp softly. How am I going to find another conure with such amazing personality if Lily is gone? I would pay all I can afford to keep my Lily any day.
When I went to a conure breeder to adopt Lily, I knew that Lily was for us right away. The breeder keep about 16 Yellow Sideds and Pineapples in a tiny cage. He said, he was keeping all of the conures for sales in a small cage only on the weekends for potential buyers to see them up close and it would be easier for him to catch them for the customers. On the week days, he would let them fly around in his large aviary. He said that he only hand fed them when they were babies. He doesn’t have time to play with any of them after they weaned. I did my conure and aracari homework extensively and had my heart set a Pineapple conure before I arrived. Pineapple cost more than Yellow Sided as the breeder told me. I asked for a Pineapple, the breeder caught a Pineapple and showed it to me inside his kitchen so it wouldn’t fly away. He put the Pineapple on my kids arms but it kept flying away and crashed into the window pane. I asked the breeder to let me look at his stock some more. He then put the Pineapple back into the cage. I stuck my index finger through the cage bars while checking out the other conures. Just then Lily crawled right onto my finger while the other conures huddled in the back of the cage. Before I could utter a word, the breeder opened the cage door, grabbed Lily in his hand, and said this is a Yellow Sided, much less expensive than the Pineapple. I said let me see her in the kitchen. We went into the kitchen. He placed Lily onto my, 5-year old, Vincent’s arm. Unlike the Pineapple, Lily stayed on his arm. I asked my Vincent if he like this one, he said he like this one. I quickly checked Lily's physical for any sign of sickness or deformity. So right away, Lily, the Yellow Sided conure, went home with us that day.
After the hawks third missed strike, Lily flew back into the same tall dense tree. The hawks returned to their treetops and scanned for Lily. Lily was able to survive after 3 attacks because there were two hawks happened to hunt in the same area. Hawks are lone hunter. They even fight each other in the air to get prey from the other one’s claws. These two hawks were desperate to hunt the same prey simultaneously. While at the same time, Brandon and I was screaming on the ground right below them. That proved to be too much distractions for any one hawk. Wings are important to hawks. They will not risk injuring themselves in a mid-air collision while chase the same prey. If there was only one hawk in the area, my inexperience Lily would not have escaped death so far. After Lily went into the tree for the last time, we cannot see her anywhere; she is mostly as green as the tree. Lily has now learned her lesson and not make any sound or fly outside of the safety of the dense tree. The tree is only 3 houses down the street from Brandon’s house. I went to the tree and called Lily’s name endlessly. Just then my wife and Brandon’s wife came back from grocery shopping and the kids ran outside when learned of the commotions. As soon a Brandon told them that Lily flew away and was chased by a pair of hawks. My wife left the car in the middle of the street and looked for me. My son Daren cried as he saw his mom cried in tears while running to me. My wife later admitted to me that she had the same thoughts going through her mind while running toward me. The tree which Lily last seen flying into has a large canopy that extended from the front yard to past the backyard of the neighbor’s house. Brandon jumped into his car and drove around the block where the other side of tree canopy extends to. My family and Brandon’s wife, Kimberly, stood under the tree outside the neighbor’s front yard, separate by a fence, calling for Lily. Ten minutes went by, we didn’t hear Lily make as single sound. Normally, Lily would squawk in reply whenever my wife called her name. My wife didn’t believe me that Lily flew into this tree. She was certain that Lily were eaten by those two hawks or had flown far and lost. Suddenly, from below the fence top, Lily quietly flew out onto my Daren’s shoulder. Lily was smart enough to crawled down from the tall tree without making any sound to attract the hawks. She was smart enough not to fly down, but instead crawled all the way down below our eye level to reach us. As I grabbed Lily from Daren’s shoulder, I noticed there were two cats sitting under the tree watching us.
Lily and all of us have learned our life lesson. At home, I tried to take Lily near the large glass window unrestrained with the blind scrolled up. She would fly back to behind my neck as soon as she sees blue sky. Now, she knows that the big blue sky is not safe for small birds. It has been 6 weeks since we adopted Lily.
Jackpot!