Article by Chris Biro, all rights reserved.
The Walkabout that Chris Shank organized was a tremendous experience!!!! The Walkabout was held at her home in Grass Valley California on Saturday 6 May 2000. Several wonderful speakers discussed various aspects of the interesting world of Cockatoos. Thank you Chris Shank, for letting me be part of this.
This first Walkabout also had some rather chilling adventures for my birds, those attending, and for myself. We had a chance not only to demonstrate and talk about a little freeflight but also demonstrate some serious recovery efforts of loose birds – most of my visiting freeflying crew. I have learned much from this experiences and I will here tell the story of what happened, what I could have done better (and could have avoided), and what I will do differently in the future to be better prepared.
We arrived late on Thursday night so that the birds would have chance to get the feel for the place and the other birds – I was uncertain how my birds would react to flying with other parrots in the area, caged or flying, and in a unfamiliar location (I don’t know what my birds would do with other parrots flying at my home either). Upon arriving we discovered Chris Shank lives on the top of a beautiful hill with lots of trees everywhere. I was a bit concerned by this but felt the guys have done this flying often enough away from home that they should do ok. We set up a holding cage for them, provided by Chris Shank – this was a wonderful idea and I wound up leaving most of the birds in this cage instead on the perches they were normally on. We let them fly a few at a time at first and all went very well. The four little guys made several high-speed flights about the property, in and out of the trees and around the house, and returned to the cage, perches and other birds just perfectly. I was uncomfortable enough with the lack of obvious land marks and the seemingly far off hills visible in the distance that I left Janis (GW) and Cosmo (B&G) in the cage most of the time – they are not so reliable and experienced with area flying as are the little guys at this point. There were also frequent sightings of Turkey Vultures over head, which, though not a physical threat, could easily spook the birds into unpredictable behavior.
The day was going well and we had all four of the conures out and they seemed to be doing just fine, so much so that I decided not to set up the PA system as a back up precaution.
I was having a wonderful time watching Emily’s Gucci (Rose Breasted Cockatoo) and Chris Shank’s various cockatoos flying about in the trees – I had not seen a Rosy, Moluccan, Red Vent, or Sulfur Crusted flying freely before and I was really excited by watching all this. Leroy the Yellow Collar Macaw was also a fantastic sight as she flew about the property and interacted with Chris Shank. People were arriving and the birds were flying and the energy high and it all was awesome!!
Then one of my little troopers sounded off with an alarm signal and they all took off, conures and cockatoos. There were birds everywhere, including Turkey Vultures gliding silently above us. Chris Shank’s cockatoos took it all in stride and seemed to be just having a wonderful time. My conures though at first seemed ok, soon started sounding calls that sent me racing to set the PA system up – they were in alert mode and were not coming back down, they were flying higher and higher and in larger and larger circles. They were making contact calls that had the sound of them being disoriented. I remember this sound so well of Obee (Patagonian Conure) when he was lost (and gone for five days). They were all four soon lost from sight and earshot. As soon as the PA system was set up, I began calling to them, hoping to reach out to the ridges and valleys visible through the trees off in the distance, calling them to come to me. At one point I clearly heard Obee calling and we pointed our efforts in that direction.
Jackie Cotrell and Dan McGuire had gone down to the Walkabout with me. They both have helped me at fairs and have been here on my property many times. The birds are familiar with them both, but it is my voice that they would return to. I decided that it was better that I stay and continue calling them over the PA system while Dan went searching (holding him back I think would have been very tough). This searching would normally have been my job (prior to my ex and I separating) and I found it very difficult to remain immobile at the
PA while they were out there somewhere in the unknown. Dan had a hand held CB radio, as did I, and we stayed in touch via radio – though the range was somewhat limited to line of sight (good on ridge tops and not in valleys).
After a couple very long hours Dan called and reported that he had located Red Claw (Mitred Conure), Frisbee (Mitred Conure) and Scooter (Sun Conure) in a tree but had no idea where he was at, except for being somewhere near the top of the ridge visible across from the back porch of Chris Shank house. We set out to find them. Chris Shank dropped Bill, a local friend of hers, and myself off on the ridge top and she circled around in her car to find an approach from the other side of the ridge. Some minutes later Dan calls me on the radio and tells me Bill has found him. I headed for the drop off point where Bill departed from. I begin sounding my whistle and yelling to help Dan direct me in to his location. It seems the birds heard this before Dan did and up in the air they went. I could hear and see them and attempted to follow and call them down to my location. They were headed back in the direction of the house! I ran to follow them, up this hill down that draw, over this creek, up that hill, etc.. It did not take me long to slow way down, as my body could not keep up with my desire to reach the house and PA system to call them down before they few out of sight again. I was at the bottom of the hill and headed up toward the house and I could still see and hear them in the trees near the house when I heard Jackie calling to them on the PA system. They seemed to respond. I finally made it to the house and called them down one at a time and put them each back into the cage with the other birds. Three down, and one to go – Obee was still out there.
When Dan and Bill returned to the house, we regrouped and Dan went back out looking for Obee. It was well after dark and we had not seen or heard from Obee or Dan. Finally a thoroughly exhausted Dan walks into the yard grumbling about darkness, no radio contact, being a bit lost, meeting a bear, and no Obee. With all the preparations for the next days Walkabout finished everyone went to bed. It was a clear and star studded night so I let the birds stay the night in the cage – rather than in the motor home cages – and I slept in a sleeping bag next to the cage. I was hoping that maybe Obee would be heard by one of us either during the night or in the morning.
Chris Shank and her crew were up before the sun and were busy getting everything in place for the arrival of the people attending the Walkabout. I waited until the sun was well up before I arose and began calling Obee over the PA system. I also set up a microphone to broadcast the sound of the other birds in the cage – the day before I had plugged video recorded sounds of the birds flying into the PA. I did not continue doing this for fear we might miss the real calls or that hearing their own calls might confuse the birds.
I had been schedule to present demonstrations of freeflight and my talk about freeflying parrots as the last speaker but due to the time of day this was expected I requested that this be done earlier in the schedule – I wished to avoid doing our flights so close to the sky changing color for sunset. The birds’ reactions are very different as sunset approaches. With the troubles we had already encountered I felt this would not be a wise move. I was rescheduled to give my talk after lunch.
Again, I remained to occasionally call out to Obee over the PA system and Dan McGuire went searching for Obee. This time he took Red Claw (Mitred) in a small cage as an additional “audio beacon” to Obee. The plan was for Dan to return to the area that Red Claw and the other two were located and then cover the areas that the PA system could not reach, the other sides of the ridges and hills opposite Chris Shanks home – hoping that Red Claw’s voice would carry farther into these areas and attract Obee’s attention. Dan would then circle south were Dan had a feeling he should look and where I had twice maybe heard a call from Obee – neither of us had really heard anything from Obee but twice I had thought I had heard something that sent me to the fence in that direction to listen, but still hearing nothing.
It was getting close to11:00 AM and there was still no sign of Obee. I felt certain that if Obee could hear my voice over the PA system, he would have returned by now. Wishing to give Red Claw a chance to calm after his morning search adventures, I instructed Dan, via radio, to return to the house – I did still have a talk and flight demonstrations to give, and hopefully without any further complications.
Several minutes passed as I waited for Dan to return. Then Dan announced over the radio that he had spotted Obee in a tree. I had him repeat this to be sure I had heard him correctly and then enquired about his location. Again he was uncertain to where he was actually located. He told me where he had gone so I set out to retrace his steps, starting at where we found the birds before. Off down the hill I ran. As I reached my “starting point” location, I found I had a very weak signal and as I headed back toward the house and south, the signal became stronger - I at least knew that I was headed in the right direction. My radio batteries were getting low and this actually helped me tune my direction of travel – over this hill looses signal and that hill gives me stronger signal – but still I was concerned my radio would cut out before I found them. I attempted to run as much as my legs would let me. It seemed I was getting pretty close when Dan asked what he should do – Obee had flown down and landed on the cage with Red Claw. My answer was to pick him up and put him in the cage. Obee had not previously let Dan handle him much so Dan was a bit skeptical. Shortly Dan reported that Obee had gladly complied and was in the cage with Red Claw. We both headed back to the house.
My location was down the hill from the house and I quickly arrived and let people know that Obee was safe again and that Dan was on his way with them both, right behind me. Several long minutes passed and I had no radio contact with Dan, the idea that maybe the three were still lost began to solidify. After a short time Dan contacted me via radio and asked that I call him via PA system to help orient him. Finally, Dan did arrive and Obee and Red Claw were returned to the cage. And within minutes of their return everyone broke for lunch.
My presentation was on right after lunch and I did my best to calm my mind and my body and to collect my thoughts on freeflight. I rearranged the PA system so that it would be useful during my outdoor talk, ate a few bites from the great food provided by Chris Shank and crew and before I knew it, it was show time. After the running through the woods after Obee and Dan, I looked like I had been on safari and with the sweating I had done, I am sure that I smelled like it too. My presentation covered most of the main points I wished to cover but certainly was not as smooth or as organized as I am capable of. I kept Obee and Cosmo (B&G) in the cage and only brought Janis (GW) out for one short flight – normally Janis is out all the time with the other birds and does several flights, but I was too tired to risk another recovery adventure so quickly. The Mitreds’ did a little flying about with Frisbee and Scooter (Sun Conure) hanging out in a tree above everyone. Red Claw seemed to have a stronger than normal attraction to the cage with Obee, Janis and Cosmo and did little flying about as he usually does. When a Turkey Vulture flew overhead, the group did get to witness the guys giving the “soft alarm signal”. Near the end of the presentation, the three conures did take off for a good demonstration of their speed and agility as they responded to some alarm call, wildly flying about the group and high up in the trees. This time though, all three did return to immediately rejoin us.
The group seemed very interested in the issue of freeflight. In my own mind the delightful flights of Chris Shank’s several varieties of Cockatoos, obviously having great fun flying from tree to tree or to her shoulder – one even flew down to land on the perches with my Macaws during the presentation – and my own Conures hanging out playing in the trees could only be inspiring to such a group of dedicated bird people. Actually, watching Chris Shank’s cockatoos flying about was the highlight of the entire event for me. In what seemed to me like only a few minutes after starting (really a little more than an hour), Chris Shank was giving me strong “end it” signals. Soon I was relaxing and enjoying the other speakers’ indoor presentations and listening to the sounds of home as it started to rain.
Now that I am at home and in looking back there are several things that I feel contributed to help cause us to go searching for loose birds during this event. The most prominent issues to me were 1) the presence of too many unfamiliar new environmental conditions, i.e. a wooded location on a hill top with no obvious land marks for orientation and lots of unfamiliar parrots, some caged some flying, 2) my over confidence in their abilities as a group, i.e. my misreading their demonstrated flights on location as being adequate, my flying too many of the weaker skilled birds together too quickly, my failure to set up precautionary PA equipment for better contact calls, 3) my letting the overall introduction of so many new, unknown and known factors combine at one time, i.e. all the previously mentioned combined with the frequent presence of large hawk like birds overhead, and my non flying birds being in a new cage rather than on the perches they normally occupy.
My first reaction to my birds flying off and being gone was to lay much of the blame on the location. This I now think was incorrect. Though a wooded hill top location was not ideal, it is certainly a flyable location as Chris Shank’s birds adequately demonstrated and my own birds demonstrate by flying here at home in a similar wooded “saddle” location (between two hills with long valleys down either side). This issue is easily dealt with by flying the birds away from home more often and at varying locations – fairgrounds where we frequently fly are tough places to fly but are totally different than the wooded area where Chris Shank lives. We obviously need a broader exposure. The location was certainly a contributing factor but by no means THE contributing factor.
Currently it would be tough to get my birds accustomed to visiting flyers since there are very few flyers available to come visit. However, after watching Chris Shank’s birds and my own birds react to each other, I don’t see this as a serious issue since the birds seemed to do well together and fairly quickly too.
As to my overconfidence, this will continuously be an issue and warrants constant vigilance. It is so easy to overlook important details due to past performances having gone smoothly. A good example here is how Obee’s flight skills are getting better all the time (since his loss and wing clipping) but is not really there yet and Scooter and Frisbee have flown at locations away from home only a couple times previous to this event. This was big step for these three, as presented, obviously too big a step. Red Claw has demonstrated a remarkable ability to stay oriented and to bring Obee back home on several occasions but it is unrealistic to expect him to do this if the birds split up into two groups of new flyers – Obee as one group and Frisbee and Scooter as the other. Actually it is not a good idea to “expect” Red Claw to bring them back at all, but it is certainly nice when he does it.
As a side note, I find it interesting that in this particular instance, Red Claw was with Frisbee and Scooter AND was located at a place where he could still hear the other birds and the PA system. When at the Memphis Mid South fair last year, after him and Obee had flown around to the point of Obee exhaustedly landing on a vendor, Red Claw stayed in a tree in the area with me right below and refused to come down until I later brought Obee to where he could hear Obee’s call. He then immediately flew straight down to us. I suspect that at the Walkabout Red Claw was not actually lost, but was instead waiting and listening for Obee. It is possible that when the other two heard my voice or whistle that one of these two took flight and then Red Claw was forced to also take flight, then all three stayed together as Red Claw (on his own or with the help of one of the others) then took them back to the Walkabout area. This is of course pure speculation and we will never know one way or the other, but it is an interesting possibility and they DID fly back to the area on their own and without me at the PA system.
I was aware that there was little to orient them back to the exact location of my other birds. And just because the guys had made several nice flights down low and around the house and through the trees in the immediate area was not reason for me to feel confident that they could also make flights high above the trees without getting disoriented. This was a really important issue and I recognized it as such and should have been more careful in judging their preparedness. It is easy to be having so much fun with the flying that we overlook important details in the excitement of the moment.
My recognizing that conditions were not ideal and then my not setting up the PA system to help counter this threat was careless on my part. I could have possibly prevented this entire recovery scene by having set up the PA system as a precaution. This is an error I will not likely repeat soon.
For one thing I will be assembling a better “Recovery Kit”. I currently have obtained 2 each hand held CB radios and a few sports whistles. I will add a third hand held radio, fix my CB in the Motor home – it is much stronger and can reach much farther to remain in contact with each hand held radio even when the individual hand held radios cannot talk between each other. To each kit I will add extra batteries, water jug, and a compasses for better orientation and will make sure my assistants know how to use a compass to determine a back azimuth and triangulation from observable points - topographical maps of the area would likely be impractical for changing locations but would be helpful especially for fixed routine locations of flying.
Another thing I will work on is having more people the birds will respond to. Jackie and Dan are with me often enough that the birds should by now have been made familiar enough with them to come to their voice. Had I made stronger efforts in this direction prior to this event, I could have been out there helping with the searching, thus covering a larger area more quickly.
The first thing should be concluded here is that Dan McGuire’s persistence, determination, and faith in his “little voice” were invaluable in this instance. I cannot stress my appreciation enough.
All things considered, I certainly could have been more cautious. However, it is difficult to always react to all conditions properly and certainly hindsight is 20-20 by comparison. This in itself is an issue one who free flies parrots must learn to live with. As free flyers, we do not always make the right calls, but we usually can learn from the wrong calls and make better calls the next time, as well as learn about new options/techniques not previously encountered.
Chris Biro