Luke252
New member
- Aug 6, 2013
- 134
- 0
- Parrots
- Bluey - Opaline Blue Budgie, Larry - Greater Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Charlie - Samueli Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, Max - Eastern Long Billed Corella
Hey guys!! 
Thought its about time, now that I ve got a tiny bit of down time, that I share this pretty incredible story that happened about a month ago.
So I am sure alot may know me by know and know that I have three Cockatoos, Larry, Charlie and Max. (Pretty Fitting names) Anyway about a month ago, I had a day off both work and school (a rare occurrence). It was a Monday, and so, since I was working extra over that weekend missed out on cleaning my birds cages, and used that bit of down time to give them a good clean out. Bluey my Budgie is simple, I just let him roam my room whilst I clean his cage. Whereas with the others I put them on one of their stands so they don't get in my way. Now Larry, My Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, is the most nervous out of the lot (Despite being the oldest). Charlie and Max are real showoffs. Larry is a rescue bird that I rescued when he was about 6 months. He's come through so well yet is still quite a nervous bird. Also, Larry's wings were never clipped properly, The secondary flight feathers were clipped way back past the coverts, and his primaries were fully grown out. I made the decision to let his secondaries grow back out before I clip his primaries, however to this day they are still not growing back out.
Anyway, so I was at the section of cleaning their cages where I had to go outside and scrub and hose down the trays and grills. Whilst I was doing this I had the door to my birdroom shut. My dog, a 9 month old Labrador, was tied up so he couldn't get in my way while I was cleaning. Unfortunately, somehow, buddy (My Labrador), Broke out of his Lead and ran straight for the bird room. Somehow he figured how to open the door (fixed this problem now), busted in and gave Larry a huge spook. My birds are fine around dogs, however as I said earlier, Larry is a little nervous and so the sudden bang of the door opening gave him a scare. His natural instincts kicked in and he flew, out the door up, up and away really high. Got to a point where he couldn't fly anymore, turned around came back down however flew out behind the tree line, and I just couldn't see him anymore.
The first thing I did was a massive search of the area, walked around the block, knocked on peoples doors etc. Nothing. My initial reaction, since he flew behind the tree line and I never saw him land was that he actually never landed. This thought and feeling haunted me for the whole week. I left his cage outside and seed, hoping he would come back. On the Tuesday I posted out over 500 flyers across in the neighbourhood with the small hope someone may have seen him. Took me nearly 4 hours and sent me in a radius of 5 km, but I was so determined to find him. On the Wednesday I finally got news back from a lady who called me while I was at school. She said that she saw a SC2 in her backyard at around the time I had advertised on the flyer. She said the bird was climbing on her pool fence, then climbed on her veranda and started climbing on her sliding door trying to get in side. She said she got freaked out and closed the blinds thinking it was a wild bird. 3 hours later she opened them back up and he was gone. I went to her house to talk to her, inspected the area. Turns out the house was very close to mine and infact in the area where Larry flew behind the tree line.
On Thursday I intensified my search. I went knocking on many doors in the surrounding area, and entered into backyards in pitch black dark hoping I could find Larry roosted up in a near by tree. I was just hoping by now Larry had not flown off far. It was Thursday night, and the last know sighting was on Monday Afternoon. By this time my hopes had reached rock bottom, and I had pretty much given up. I needed to accept that Larry was gone. I had done everything, been everywhere. He was gone.
On Friday, I was walking back from gym. I got to a T intersection point on my street where I was crossing over the road. As I reached the halfway point of the road, I heard an unusual Cockatoo screech. To be honest, when I heard it, not a single thought of Larry came to my mind. But I am the type of person who always investigates when I hear a bird. So interested, not thinking of Larry at all, I turned around and looked up to where I heard the noise. There I saw perched on top of the electricity pole, stretching right down looking at me at SC2. I stepped closer, as the bird began to make his way down to the lowest wires. It was not until this point that finally the thought of Larry reached my mind. I continued to Look up, and carefully whispered the name, "Larry." All of sudden, hanging off the lowest wire trying to get to me, the bird replied, "Hello Larry." It was him, I knew it. I had found him, or should I say, he found me. I don't know if any of you could begin to imagine the feeling I felt at this point. Then began the hard task of getting Larry down. But I guess thats a story for another day. The important thing was he was home. Finally, safe and sound, not too late, not too early.
Well thankyou to anyone who made it this far. Sorry it was a long story, but that was the best I could do. Just thought I d get this out and share it. Now everytime I see Larry, we always give each other a wink, and think back to the crazy week long adventure, that was Larry's vacation.
Thought its about time, now that I ve got a tiny bit of down time, that I share this pretty incredible story that happened about a month ago.
So I am sure alot may know me by know and know that I have three Cockatoos, Larry, Charlie and Max. (Pretty Fitting names) Anyway about a month ago, I had a day off both work and school (a rare occurrence). It was a Monday, and so, since I was working extra over that weekend missed out on cleaning my birds cages, and used that bit of down time to give them a good clean out. Bluey my Budgie is simple, I just let him roam my room whilst I clean his cage. Whereas with the others I put them on one of their stands so they don't get in my way. Now Larry, My Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, is the most nervous out of the lot (Despite being the oldest). Charlie and Max are real showoffs. Larry is a rescue bird that I rescued when he was about 6 months. He's come through so well yet is still quite a nervous bird. Also, Larry's wings were never clipped properly, The secondary flight feathers were clipped way back past the coverts, and his primaries were fully grown out. I made the decision to let his secondaries grow back out before I clip his primaries, however to this day they are still not growing back out.
Anyway, so I was at the section of cleaning their cages where I had to go outside and scrub and hose down the trays and grills. Whilst I was doing this I had the door to my birdroom shut. My dog, a 9 month old Labrador, was tied up so he couldn't get in my way while I was cleaning. Unfortunately, somehow, buddy (My Labrador), Broke out of his Lead and ran straight for the bird room. Somehow he figured how to open the door (fixed this problem now), busted in and gave Larry a huge spook. My birds are fine around dogs, however as I said earlier, Larry is a little nervous and so the sudden bang of the door opening gave him a scare. His natural instincts kicked in and he flew, out the door up, up and away really high. Got to a point where he couldn't fly anymore, turned around came back down however flew out behind the tree line, and I just couldn't see him anymore.
The first thing I did was a massive search of the area, walked around the block, knocked on peoples doors etc. Nothing. My initial reaction, since he flew behind the tree line and I never saw him land was that he actually never landed. This thought and feeling haunted me for the whole week. I left his cage outside and seed, hoping he would come back. On the Tuesday I posted out over 500 flyers across in the neighbourhood with the small hope someone may have seen him. Took me nearly 4 hours and sent me in a radius of 5 km, but I was so determined to find him. On the Wednesday I finally got news back from a lady who called me while I was at school. She said that she saw a SC2 in her backyard at around the time I had advertised on the flyer. She said the bird was climbing on her pool fence, then climbed on her veranda and started climbing on her sliding door trying to get in side. She said she got freaked out and closed the blinds thinking it was a wild bird. 3 hours later she opened them back up and he was gone. I went to her house to talk to her, inspected the area. Turns out the house was very close to mine and infact in the area where Larry flew behind the tree line.
On Thursday I intensified my search. I went knocking on many doors in the surrounding area, and entered into backyards in pitch black dark hoping I could find Larry roosted up in a near by tree. I was just hoping by now Larry had not flown off far. It was Thursday night, and the last know sighting was on Monday Afternoon. By this time my hopes had reached rock bottom, and I had pretty much given up. I needed to accept that Larry was gone. I had done everything, been everywhere. He was gone.
On Friday, I was walking back from gym. I got to a T intersection point on my street where I was crossing over the road. As I reached the halfway point of the road, I heard an unusual Cockatoo screech. To be honest, when I heard it, not a single thought of Larry came to my mind. But I am the type of person who always investigates when I hear a bird. So interested, not thinking of Larry at all, I turned around and looked up to where I heard the noise. There I saw perched on top of the electricity pole, stretching right down looking at me at SC2. I stepped closer, as the bird began to make his way down to the lowest wires. It was not until this point that finally the thought of Larry reached my mind. I continued to Look up, and carefully whispered the name, "Larry." All of sudden, hanging off the lowest wire trying to get to me, the bird replied, "Hello Larry." It was him, I knew it. I had found him, or should I say, he found me. I don't know if any of you could begin to imagine the feeling I felt at this point. Then began the hard task of getting Larry down. But I guess thats a story for another day.
The important thing was he was home. Finally, safe and sound, not too late, not too early.Well thankyou to anyone who made it this far. Sorry it was a long story, but that was the best I could do. Just thought I d get this out and share it. Now everytime I see Larry, we always give each other a wink, and think back to the crazy week long adventure, that was Larry's vacation.
