Fledging

 This week Mortimer has started to fly.  I was going to say he learned to fly but then I realized this is not a learned thing, it is an innate instinct that has now kicked in after all his feather growth and muscle development.  The kids and I were not in the house for his first flight but Carl was and since then he is flying from chair to couch, couch to table, always looking for the highest point on which to perch.  I was witness to his first big straight flight from the very front end of our house (the living room) to the very back part of our house (the kitchen) where he perched on a cross beam close to the ceiling just above the stove.  I have tried desperately to catch his flight on film to no avail (as yet).  Here he is on his high kitchen perch.

Last week Sunday (the day before his first flight) we had friends visiting as it was a big community Harvest festival.  I worked selling food all day and the kids were in and out helping where and when they could.  So after a long day Kamala and Efua sat down on the couch for a foot bath and a cucumber eye mask.  And guess who wanted to join in......

For the past two weeks we have consistently been putting his food in one spot on our front porch in the hopes that he will know he can always come there for food when he needs it.  However, to date he has never gone for himself to the porch to get the food.  He sits wherever he's perched and makes many noises that we guess are calls for food and in the end we will take him to the other side of the front porch and then he will hop to his food and eat.  After eating on Friday, he flew to the front gate and watched out into the world and then he took his first outside flight.

Perhaps you can imagine the excitement in the house as we all ran out into the street to see where he had flew.  It was Kahlil who found Mortimer perched in the top of a large bush in our front yard where he got to stay for a few hours before we finally brought him in to the house as night was approaching.

It is amazing to see the growth and development of Mortimer over the past month.  Today is four weeks since he came into our care and he has grown from a white downy 5 inch bird to a fully feathered and flying black, white and auburn underneath bird of prey.  We continue to love being part of his journey!  We look into his eyes and see his curiosity, intelligence and beauty and we wonder what else is going on inside that bird brain.  All of a sudden bird brain doesn't seem like such a negative thing at all!

Next step is trying to help him learn to survive in this big world......any and all tips and resources on how to go about this are welcomed!!