Lenore Flew!

Lenore flew for the first time yesterday!

When I got him almost a year ago, his wings were already clipped, and he was never fledged. His clip was very severe, and he didn't know how to land properly. As a result, his landings were crashes, and he broke all of his tail feathers.

A few months ago, he finally got all of his flight feathers in, but he still couldn't fly. He was able to glide down much, much better, but he wasn't getting any lift. Sometimes he'd get a little lift when he first took off, but no more than a couple of feet. And sometimes he'd fly like a helicopter, up a little bit, and then down in a circle. It made me really worry and I wondered if he'd ever figure it out. It made me sad when Digby would fly across the room and he'd want to follow her, but he knew he couldn't. The past couple of weeks, I've been working with him more, trying to build up his muscles, but I wasn't seeing any improvement.

But yesterday morning I brought him upstairs with me to get the birds' breakfast ready, and I sat down on the couch in the living room to wait for their mash to cool enough to give it to them. While I was sitting on the couch, Lenore was happily sitting on my hand while I gave him scritches, and then Sydney started making a fuss. All of the sudden, Lenore took off and up. I thought he'd land on the coffee table right in front of the couch or on the floor in front of the table, but he didn't. He flew all the way to Sydney's cage! It was about 15 feet, and he flew up about four or five feet. I was so happy!

Then, Sydney started showing off her toys, and when he didn't respond how she wanted him to, she got mad at him. So he flew off her cage and this time went all the way through the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen, and landed on the far end of the kitchen on the stove (which was NOT on). This second flight was at least twice as long as his first flight, and required him to go around a turn.

I'm so proud of my little boy. Now, if only his tail feathers would regrow.