Halley and Comet

Comet sat on his swing and stared somewhat bemusedly at the newcomer, who spent the best part of his first hour at home sitting on the floor of the cage. that's him in the photo above, wondering who this other bloke is, I think. Comet had been on his own since the death of his previous cage-mate, for about 11 months. He was okay if his cage was outside, and he could talk to the wild birds who were nearby. But when his cage is inside, as it so often is on these winter days, he is waaay too quiet! And anyway, he can't groom the top of his own head, and beak. (When you see budgies nibbling each other's beaks, that's what they're doing. It looks quite cute, really.)

 

So, I went and picked Halley up from a local breeder. Here he is, having a bit of a feed. He's quite a young bird, about three months old, so now's the time to teach him to accept being handled. Comet will sit on my finger, when I stroke his tummy - but he never does so without a little nip on the finger to let me know that the cage is his territory, and I'm jolly well intruding!
I expected a certain amount of bullying from Comet, as the established bird, but there was none. He just sat and stared at Halley, who plucked up enough courage to flit up from the floor of the cage, and sit on a perch. Halley stared back, and for quite a few hours, there was silence in the cage. Later in the afternoon, however, I heard some tentative chatter. And Halley helped himself to some seed, which I think is always a good sign.
Here's the boys, sitting more or less together, on Halley's first day:

Halley's first attempt at being handled, which was when I took him from the box to the cage, was marginally successful - well, I got him into the cage! - but left me with bite-marks on the thumb, as I couldn't quite get the approved hold on him: on his back, in the palm of my hand, with his head between my index and middle finger, so that he couldn't bite. Not that he actually hurt, he just jabbed little thrusts rapidly at my fingers to let me know exactly what he thought of this treatment: Not much!

Therefore, when I attempted to handle him the next time, he fluttered around the cage; as far as he was concerned, this was not on! So, I handled Comet instead, brushing my finger against his tummy, and encouraging him to climb onto my finger. Halley was watching, I think, because the following day, I tried the same thing with him - and he imitated Comet! He climbed onto my finger quite calmly. (I wish I could insert a photo of that, however, it would take some juggling of camera and budgie! I might try to take a shot another time.) What I don't want him to imitate from Comet is this habit of nipping my finger at the same time. I shall discourage that as strongly as possible!

Oh, the Wonders (?) of Modern Technology!

Apparently, one can blog from one's mobile. I have followed the instructions and am now awaiting confirmation from Blogger to my mobile phone. Suddenly! ... nothing happened. (Thanks, Spike.) Actually, it didn't even happen suddenly. I registered a different way, probably totally confusing Blogger's system. Well, fair enough, it confused me! The "nothing happening" status quo continued. At least it's consistent. Well, it is 08.35 am on Sunday, Australian Eastern Standard time, which means time for a shower, and then I'll come back and see if anything's happened. (I'm assuming that if mobile blogging can't be done outside the U.S., they'd have told me so in the instructions. Surely. Sodding technology...)