New findings

Guess what Mortimer has found in the past few days......his feet and his voice!!  Every day I take Mortimer out of his "playpen" home and put him on the floor to change the sheet and tidy up for him.  On Sunday when I did this Mortimer started to walk all around the house with such strength, confidence and curiosity that we left him out for the whole day.  Kamala and I spent hours watching (and videoing) him in the gallery (front porch) as he walked and hopped and searched for places to go up, to get higher.  All the while, he was making his distinct hawk call which is very different from the smaller squeaks he has been making over the past few weeks.  It's as if he's saying, "watch out world, here I come"!!  And, after several tries, he made it to his first perch - the side of the box in which he first came to us.

So we decided to set up a little practice area for him with perches at different heights.  

He checked it out a bit but never got higher than that first box side perch (yet).

And like a true independent toddler he kept going to the places that most interested him.  His favorite corner was by the front gate where he must be seeing the sky and outside and he tried to jump up several times.  Luckily the gate is higher that his jump and he isn't flying yet but we know it won't be too long!!  We are wondering what would be happening for Mortimer if he was still in his nest in the wild.  Even though he is not flying at all as yet he is strong and mobile and obviously wanting to move about a lot.  Would he be hopping out of his nest and moving along branches?  He definitely wouldn't have as much space and room to move as he does in this house so we are certain we are raising this hawk to be highly advanced coming from such an enriched environment :)!!!  

And when we went into the kitchen to cook, guess who came and followed us and found his own perch for himself......not sure if the plastic bags and blender should count as part of that enriched environment.....

And now it's time to go and "bird child proof" this house to minimize the things he can get into and the things that can get sliced on.....oh the joys of motherhood :)!!!