Amigo, fly away home!

[Mare Miller]

I left for town today, gone for a couple hours and coming down the dirt road to our place I could hear a cockatoo yell, I knew it was Amigo, but had never heard him so far from home.

I rolled down my window and started calling back to him. He was several hundred yards from home, and followed me in. My husband said that when I took off, so did Amigo. Tim was afraid that this bird would continue to follow me but thankfully didn't go as far as he could have.

My husband walked up the road to try and coax Amigo back but he wouldn't budge. He waited for my return and Tim said that Amigo called out almost the whole time I was gone.

This is a first, I think I might have to lock him up when I leave.

 

[roxynoodle]

There is an older guy who met a goose at the park that fell in love with him. He rides his scooter there and the goose would fly along behind his scooter down the road every day when he left. The park employees had to start locking it up each afternoon so he could go home.

The youtube videos of it flying behind his scooter are pretty funny though.

 

[Mare Miller]

I think I've seen that one, Roxy. Precious but sad in a semi-sorta way. I'm just hoping that Amigo moves through this phase of amore rather quickly. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[ann]

That was a close one, thank goodness he loves you so much that he came back ! I think I also saw the goose video, my grammar friend had a corvid of some sort follow her to school and back every day

 

[KatherineI]

Wow, that could have been bad! Glad he didn't keep going and returned when you called to him. I think locking him up when you leave is a good idea even if someone else is home I'd hate for you to lose him!

 

[luvmytooo]

Yes , maybe locking him up when you leave would be a good idea , just to keep him safe

 

[lene1949]

I'm so glad he came back... I've noticed cats keep on widening their territory, but only so much they can find their way home...

BTW I don't have cats, and if I'm ever going to get one, it would be an indoor cat only...

 

[roxynoodle]

Yes, you may have to lock him up when you leave. But, don't you have a very large property? Are you sure he's never gone that far before? He may very well know his way around. I don't know how good parrots are at it, but homing pigeons can go many miles even when taken to a strange place. And there is one little woodpecker who returns to my house every spring. I always think that's funny that it goes somewhere south for the winter, but comes back to MY house every year, not just the vicinity. The bats did this, too. They would leave in November and return in March, and we are talking about like 1000 bats.

 

[Mare Miller]

We do live in the middle of nowhere on a lot of acres and you're right Roxy, Amigo does get around. Once in beginning free flight days, he flew across the valley to the next ridge. The first time that he had gone that far, scared me. I could see him, tiny white dot, and hear him. I called and called and he finally came home but normally he stays close.

 

[roxynoodle]

I wish I could tell you whether or not parrots are good at it, but I can't. I just know many birds have this insane ability to navigate and to remember stuff. There is some kind of bird out west that hides hundreds of nuts every fall in the ground, all in different spots, to get it through the winter. And they can remember the location of every single one of those nuts they hid. We sure can't do anything like that; I'm lucky if I remember where I put my keys.

To me, the area the nuts were hidden all looked exactly alike. I wouldn't even find one, lol!

 

[antoinette]

Boy oh boy, it all could have ended so differently and tragically.
Glad he did not go far off, and waited.

 

[Mare Miller]

I wish I could tell you whether or not parrots are good at it, but I can't. I just know many birds have this insane ability to navigate and to remember stuff. There is some kind of bird out west that hides hundreds of nuts every fall in the ground, all in different spots, to get it through the winter. And they can remember the location of every single one of those nuts they hid. We sure can't do anything like that; I'm lucky if I remember where I put my keys.

To me, the area the nuts were hidden all looked exactly alike. I wouldn't even find one, lol!

Ravens will hide food in the ground. Could that be the bird your thinking of? I read a book called, "Mind of the Raven", highly intelligent birds. I was surprised that they eat so much meat. They're also called wolf-birds because they are always hanging with wolf packs in the wild. They would eat right along with the wolves at a kill and a lot of the meat they pulled off was tucked into ground for later when food was scarce.

 

[roxynoodle]

No, they weren't ravens. It was something that lives in the desert, and then hides these nuts when they are in season to get it by for all the months that food is scarce. It was some documentary I watched, and I bird I had never heard of or seen before. I thought it was all quite amazing.