cheek. Within a week, Lena’s wounded skin looked pink and her appetite was normal. I put both birds back in their flight.
There’s so much luck in bird keeping.
With Casper indoors the flight door was left ajar. James Luck made an unplanned visit to check the traps. We weren’t at home. Dreadful shrieks were coming from the Amazons’
flight.Rushing into the aviary, James found the cockerel Don Juan, our cock Mujitu’s year-old son, had flown to Lena’s table - presumably to filch from her bowl. He’d jumped on top of Lena and was ripping feathers from her neck. Little Archie, 400 grams of whirling green feathers, was valiantly but ineffectually trying to drive him off. The cockerel ignored him. James swiped at the cockerel that didn’t
38 BIRD SCENE
budge. He tried again, knocked him onto to the ground, yanked him off Lena and received a nasty bite on his fingernail for his trouble. Lena crawled back to her table. When I got home and examined her, I found no wounds - only missing feathers? The wide rat bite was probably Don Juan’s doing as well. He had a lucky break. Not the pot which he richly deserved but a friend with a free range flock in Suffolk offered him a home. By evening he was gone. Missed by me for his beauty and by one of his wives, who’s roosting in the shelter where they used to sleep together. This has been the only serious problem we have ever had between parrots and poultry. Contrary to some expert opinion, we have had no illness from one species to another.
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