Thank goodness for the month of March and 70-something degree weather again! The birds (and us) were getting tired of freeflying indoors (although it can be super fun) we were ready for some much needed sunshine and a bit of a breeze to help the birds along!

Today we decided to take some of our birds out for some flights around the RV lot. We are pretty much on outstretched fairgrounds with rodeo-type places outdoors and around, a huge arena and tons of barns around for housing horses mainly.

Earlier in the day we took the elephants out with their trainer Ramon Esqueda, and played with them in the large open grass. It was a blast and as we were playing happily, the crew was setting up our birds’ aviary and we got to bring the flock out afterwards. We sat around in the sun soaking it up and bathing everyone who wanted it.

Later on in the day we grabbed our training bags and decided on a whim to fly! We stayed within our lot, and it seemed to create a barrier of trailers that our birds stayed within by choice.

Now that we’re finally in some nice weather we are hoping to be freeflying the flock more outdoors on our days off. So stay tuned for more pictures and videos from us and the Womach flock! And be sure to catch a show and come an hour early to meet Dave and I and some of our flock mates… and let us know you’re from BirdTricks.com and we’ll do our best to get you backstage to see the grand tour of our birds’ living quarters

Check out the links for more info! —> Tour schedule, photos, videos, birdtricks.com fans before you.

Originally Dave and I thought we would be able to free fly our birds all around the country on this tour. But we’ve started the tour in December and now that we’re into February it’s just plain cold. It was 9 degrees out here in Shelbyville, TN the other night and so flying outside just isn’t a very smart idea.

Instead, we have been free flying inside! We have finally caught onto our schedule enough to be able to take advantage of the empty arenas before anything is set up for the show.

We shared the arena with the elephants; Bonnie, Suzie and Mini.And we had their trainer, Ramon Esqueda, there just in case any of the elephants felt nervous about the birds then Ramon could calm them since they look to him for comfort.

The birds had a blast! As you will see in the video above.

And it reminded me of something SUPER important to parrot owners…

Exercise via flight for your bird makes it TIRED, which almost always is followed by cuddles. Our birds were SO cuddly during this time and especially afterwards. They wore themselves out playing hard and flying around burning tons of energy and just wanted to be close and cuddle. Comet and Tusa aren’t always the most cuddly birds, they remind me of cats in the respect that they have to be in the “mood” and come to you for cuddles. But whenever we fly them like this, they just want to snuggle up afterwards and be mellow and sweet.

If we ever notice our birds being a little more on the aggressive side, we look at their schedules and always realize that they need more exercise to burn that excess energy and this energy can ONLY be burned to the best and healthiest extent via FLYING. It’s so so so so SO so so important not to clip your bird’s wings and to let it have the freedom of flight specifically for health purposes alone.

However, I promise you will also notice behavioral changes as well. Flight training is a great way to build a strong a bond between you and your parrot as well as work in healthy exercise. Birds that go through flight training usually eat much healthier too, because their body craves the good stuff.

Enjoy the video from our recent adventure and I will be sure to continue to keep you all updated with more from our flock!

A lot of you have been asking on facebook about certain locations and why we fly at the places we do with our birds and our newest freeflight students.

I have to come out and admit, a lot of the places are random when it’s just me and Dave flying our flock. We travel A LOT and when we are, we are always looking at possible places to fly our birds.

The main reason we fly where we do it based on where our Freestyle Flyer students live. It’s always good for us to go where they live (most recently California) and find places near them. But it’s also nice to meet somewhere in the middle sometimes, too, especially if we’re on the road anyway and have to be somewhere.

Because we are on the east coast, settling for somewhere in the midwest seems to work out when our students are on the west coast. Our favorite places to fly (as of now) are Waynesboro, Virginia and Moab, Utah. Moab was the very first place we did a lot of freeflight. We began our freeflight journey in Las Vegas and Florida but Moab was where Cressi progressed the most and we had the most fun so it holds a special place in our hearts and is one of the best spots to fly birds.

Meet “Cash”. He is a 5 year old military macaw who was clipped before properly learning to fledge (fly at a young age). When we got him 4.5 years ago, he came to us at just 6 months old and we immediately let his wings grow out in the hopes to teach him to fly properly.

Letting wings grow out on a bird can take a long time, and usually takes almost an entire molt so that the feathers fall out naturally and re-grow back in. This can be anywhere from 6 months to a year long, and usually that time frame goes down the smaller the bird.

Cash stayed with a friend of ours who was interested in getting a military macaw herself. I offered to let her bird sit Cash for free instead – to see what a military macaw is really like. After 5 months, Cash came back to me from Missi’s house and Missi got over wanting a military macaw… hehe… however, he also came back clipped from Missi. She had clipped 5 primary feathers on each wing to make it so that Cash couldn’t get to her smaller birds faster than she could.

Although we joke that Cash “flies like a rock” because he can’t get any lift under his wings from lack of feathers being there, with a little help from some outside wind, Cash CAN fly!

Most people take their clipped birds outside because they THINK they can’t fly because they’re clipped. They may not be able to get very far inside the house, but outside with outside elements, they can go as far as the wind will take them.

It’s MUCH more dangerous to take a clipped bird outside (free of a harness or any restraint) than a fully flighted bird. The reason being, a clipped bird can’t maneuver as well and has an immediate handicap against predators in your area. A fully flighted bird can at least get away and have a better chance at using predator avoidance skills because it’s feathers are fully intact.

Most pet parrots have a problem going outside because they aren’t desensitized to outside things like noises, wind, people, cars, and everything else you encounter outside that could spook a bird unused to it. Once spooked, that pet bird will immediately ascend higher… and higher… and HIGHER. And because it never learned how to descend (the hardest skill to learn) and it knows nothing about flying in wind, it ends up far, far away from the owner which it probably never intended. It just didn’t know how to COME BACK TO YOU. It was never taught!

Check out this video of Zoey, a blue throated macaw, taking her very first exploratory flight and notice how high she goes!

Because Zoey was taught how to descend and all the other necessary skills for a good and solid recall, she was able to figure out the wind (it’s windier the higher you go up) and come back down to Jeanne, her owner. Think about the disadvantage an untrained, clipped bird is at in this situation.

If you want to take your bird outside untethered, you CAN, by joining the Freestyle Flyer’s Club and getting one on one personal coaching from professional bird trainer Dave Womach. To find out more about this elite club and how you can learn to train your own bird for freeflight, simply email info@birdtricks.com to find out more.

Now I do want to point out that Cash was trained at this location among others when he was fully flighted. Here is a picture of him flying at this exact location months ago with us:

You can see more of his freeflight photos here.

While Jamie and Dave are freeflying with their students in Moab, Utah, I am packing up my apartment so I can hitch a ride to Orlando with them on their way back.  They are going to be on the road for two years starting in December, and I am going to be staying at their house while they’re gone.  This is going to be the start of some big changes for me and the flock.

For the past five years, following my divorce, I have been living in a very small apartment – one small bedroom, a bath, and a living room/dining room/kitchen combo, about 550 sq. ft of space.  Joining me was my 14 year old cat, Chaz, (who just recently died from complications following minor dental surgery-I am heart sick over his loss), and my five parrots.

I had been looking for a larger place in November of 2008, just about when retailers were starting to panic about the downturn in the economy, and my position at my job was cut.  Since taking on more expense, including the military macaw that I was preparing to rehome, was no longer feasible or practical when I had no income, I decided to stay put.  I found another job at a  lower rate of pay and felt lucky to have a job at all.

Several months ago, Jamie emailed me about their plans and asked me if I was interested in moving to Orlando.  I thought about it for a couple of days, and decided it was the perfect opportunity to make some much needed changes.  With a bird room and outdoor aviaries at my disposal for two years, not to mention a LOT more space, I will be able to work with my birds in ways that have been impossible over the past five years.  Most importantly, I will be able to separate them and dote on them individually without another species being nearby to voice their objections.  The cockatoos have no patience for the wants of the smaller birds.  The smaller birds think that the cockatoos are too needy.  They don’t see eye to eye on many issues.

So I’m packing, packing, packing – throwing away anything that is not absolutely necessary or that has no serious sentimental value.  I have moved enough times to know that I have three stages in my packing process.  I am currently in stage 2.  Stage 1 is the when I throw out all of the things that I should never have been keeping in the first place.  This is the stage that has me wondering why I have been saving that box of unused checks for a bank account that was closed over ten years ago.  In stage 2, I separate the absolutely must keep items from  the I kinda still want this pile.  A lot of talking to myself goes on in this stage.  Stage 3 is when the actual packing takes place.  It is also when I inevitably throw out everything in the I kinda still want this pile that I didn’t have the courage to throw out in stage 2.

I suspect that in the end, I will be taking many more birds belongings than human ones.  It is hard to imagine how these tiny little creatures have accumulated so much.  I’m wondering if they have been ordering things on line while I’m at work.  I am getting so excited for moving day!

Our first day out here in Moab, Utah was super windy! We had guests Connie and Vic with their blue throated macaw, Tika (who is on a harness in this photo above) and the only bird that got to fly in the 35mph winds at Fisher Towers was our galah, Bandit.

He had a pretty good time but it was A LOT of work to fight against that wind! We stayed out a little while and showed Connie and Vic the sites, took some video time lapses of the area so the whole day didn’t go to waste since we chose not to fly any of the other birds. The gusts were up to 45 mph and it was just way too much for everyone’s first day out!

However, the rest of the week is supposed to be great and more friends will be joining us this Wednesday with their own freeflight birds as well, so many more birds in the air to see and anyone is still welcome to join us and watch the birds fly outside!

We will be spending our first few days at Fisher Towers so hopefully we see you there, and if we do, plan on seeing yourself possibly on the blog!