Lily knew earthquake is coming!

[lquan]

Southern California just had a 5.3 earthquake at 9:10 PM. Somehow my conure knew earthquake is coming.

Around 8:50 PM I walked by Lily's sleeping cage. Her sleeping cage is in the loft where it is dark. I saw a black blob hanging on the corner of the white towel I use to cover the front of her cage. I figured it must a large moth on her cage. My children were doing their usual night time reading aloud before bed time. I proceeded to close their bedroom doors so their voices wouldn't bother Lily. After closing my children's bedroom doors, the loft was really dark. I proceeded to check out the black blob on Lily cage with my hand (in the dark). To my surprise, the dark blob was Lily. She came outside of her cage and perched quietly on the corner of the towel in the front of her cage. Normally, if she ever had to come out of her cage to tell us that we are too noisy, she would scream while flying downstairs toward the light in the kitchen. But this time she didn't make any sound. She just came outside of her cage and sit quietly looking at me. As soon as she felt my hand, she jumped on. I put her back in the cage, tucked the cage entrance with the towel. Her sleeping cage doesn't have any door (for earthquake reason). I went downstairs to the kitchen to prepare Lily's food for tomorrow. Giving the guinea pig more Timothy grass and prepare Lily's food is what I do every night before heading upstairs. Then came the earthquake. As soon as I yelled "earthquake", my family ran downstairs, followed by Lily flying and screaming in the air. We ran outside the house. Lily followed and perched tightly on my wife shoulder and wouldn't let go. A few minutes later we went back inside. Lily still wouldn't let go of my wife shoulder for 1 hour. She bit anyone who tried to remove her from my wife's shoulder.

 

[MomtoPercy]

You're so lucky that she's so attached to your wife. The fright could have make her fly away! Animals know stuff we can only imagine - I truly believe that.

Glad no one was hurt. Do you often have earthquakes? Must be so scary! I've never experienced one.

 

[Betrisher]

During the Newcastle earthquake in 1989, the first thing I noticed was the complete absence of birdsong. Not a parrot or a sparrow or a crow or a dove was in evidence anywhere. Every single bird had hidden itself from human view so there wasn't a bird to be seen or heard. This lasted for maybe twenty-four hours after the quake! For someone as attuned to birds as I've been for most of my life, it was the eeriest thing. Also, cats and dogs disappeared into 'safe' places for hours after the quake. Our cats went 'somewhere' for the rest of the day and the dog secreted herself as far up under the house as she could squish herself.

My sister was not in Newcastle when the quake struck: she was at a place about 50km away called Phoenix Park, riding her horse. As far as she can tell, it was the exact moment when the quake struck Newcastle that her horse stood up on his hindlegs and bolted with her to the far end of the paddock. All the other livestock in paddocks around did the same thing: went galloping madly around and around for no obvious reason. My sister didn't find out for a couple of hours that a major earthquake had struck, even though her horse knew perfectly well!

 

[Kiwibird]

I'm glad you and your family are ok. Animals are very sensitive to earthquakes. My family lived in Arizona, and my parents birds would freak when earthquakes happened in California. I remember as a small child when the Northridge quake happened, right at dawn, all my parents birds went bat crazy. They were still under their covers at that point, and they just all fell off their perches and started making the most awful screeches.
Some years later, there was anything bigger earthquake over in California they did the same thing, off the perches in he dead of nigh, flopping about in their cages in a frenzied panic.

Sounds like Lily (thankfully) responds much more calm and collected to earthquakes. That's a great ice to leave the cage door open so if a big one happens, she can escape.

 

[SoCalWendy]

I remember during the Northridge earthquake my cat made this horrible sound from under my bed. It woke me up. Within 20-30 sec. the earthquake happened. When it was over I went outside to check on my neighbor. I remember the stillness and no sound what so ever. It was erie. Last night I felt the earthquake here in San Diego. It was a rolling. Not sure it was an earthquake, I looked at the pull strings on my ceiling fan, they were swaying.

 

[RavensGryf]

Hmm, I felt it (not too strongly but it definitely shook, and for a while) over here in South Orange County CA. The birds were acting normal before, during, and after. :52: ??

 

[lquan]

You're so lucky that she's so attached to your wife. The fright could have make her fly away! Animals know stuff we can only imagine - I truly believe that.

Glad no one was hurt. Do you often have earthquakes? Must be so scary! I've never experienced one.

Thank you, we're alright. A 5.3 is a medium earthquake. Most residential houses in CA are built to sustain no structural damage under 5.5 earthquake. Most of the fragile items are puttied down in our house. We get earthquakes often here. The majority are small. We'd rather have many small ones than a big one. Many small ones reduce the tension so the big one doesn't come. If we don't get small earthquakes once in a while, then we are really worry. We just had a 4.5 two weeks ago.

Lily flew outside but it was dark. She saw no other place to hide except for my wife's shoulder under her long hair. Lily always flock with us. Wherever we go, she goes with us on her own. She never wants to be in a room alone.