7/7/07 Conure Escape

by Jeanie
(Golden, CO)

On 7/7/07 we won the bird lottery by finding my one year old blue crown, Poppy, walking along the trail. I had foolishly walked out of the door, with him riding shotgun, and a 25 mile an hour wind just wipped him away. We put up posters, and searched for three days, knowing with each day, the chances of finding him again were slim. We live in the foothills of Colorado, and have a huge supply of hawks, eagles, owls, then coyotes, you name it, plenty of hungry bellies for a fattened, blue crown.

We knew time was running out, when on the third morning, a hiker called, having spotted Poppy on the trail. We ran down, and with just unbelievable luck finally located him in the top of a cottonwood! And, we found him in all the forests greenery, by the small answering "awk" he would emit after calling his name.
We actually fell out of the tree, unable to "target" fly, he fell down the branches, head over heal, onto my husbands back. That was 7/7/07.

He was very hot, being July, and dehydrated. As my husband emerged from the gully, I could see Poppy riding on the middle of his back. I was so afraid he would fly again, when they walked up to me, I said "UP", and he jumped on my finger, and I grabbed him, thinking he could bite to the bone, but I wasn't going to let him go. Well, he was very happy to have us back, having NO intention of trying to get away.

To this day, he is fully flighted, but only flys in the house certain flight paths, never changes, and NEVER GOES NEAR A WINDOW OR DOOR. I think, he thinks, he was somehow sucked out in that nasty outdoors, he suffered because of my stupidity, but never again. He's 4 now, and content to claim his territory, but he has NOTHING to do with what is going on outside.