Nearly fledged

About 3 weeks old

Wong Dai or 17 year old Orange Winged Amazon.  
Greedily mops up the left over baby bird formula 

Falling asleep on my hand after being fed

Our cockatiels have bravely tried to raise three broods this year.   The first batch of eggs were patiently sat on for four weeks but none hatched so we removed them.   Yet three weeks later they were busy brooding a second clutch.    This time three of the eggs hatched but all three only survived a week or so.   After that we removed the nest box as we did not want them to keep laying and laying but they found a way and a third set of eggs were duly laid.   This time three hatched but only one has survived.   We suspect the nest box they have used was too small and cramped and only the strongest was getting noticed in the scrum inside.   Anyhow, this little chap (or chappess)  is all but ready to leave the nest box.  

What Wood Yew Do?

Loaded into the truck

What does over 1000 square feet of rescued teak planking look like? At first glance, not much we thought but it certainly seemed to get bigger and heavier as the day wore on.

The plan is to clean it all up then cut it into small lengths and make a rustic kind of parquet flooring for the three bedrooms and if any of it is left over then maybe make some sort of wood floor for the bathroom too.

My DIY prowess is dismal to say the least so thus could either be a massive surprise or a complete disaster...

High tide but boatman refused to go
to let us off load there 

The first sampan load on the pier

Off to fetch the next load

The stack just seemed to grow and grow

Up On The Roof

Our trusty summer bell tenet awning is about to explode.    After five years of sun, sun and more sun, plus rain and wind it is nearing the end of its safe life.   The search is now on for a replacement before a good blast of wind rips this one apart and makes a right old mess for us to sort out.  

The Beauty Queens

So far this year our cockatiel pair have laid three clutches of eggs.   The first clutch resulted in all the eggs being infertile.   The second clutch resulted in three hatchlings but one by one they all died.   We suspect the birds just did not know what to do.   Possibly, as the first hatched out a couple of days before the others it got all the attention from its parents but who knows.   Unfortunately, this one too died.   When we discovered it in the morning, its seemed to have a full crop of food so we are not sure what went wrong.   We removed the nest box for a few weeks to give them a break and then put it back in their flight.   This last clutch of five eggs resulted in three hatching out and two being infertile.   The youngest only lasted a few days before it died, again we think it was not big enough to compete for its parents attention.    So now we have only two chicks remaining.    To give the youngest one a better chance of surviving we left it in the nest box but hand fed it for a few days a through a syringe. It is still quite a bit smaller than its companion but seems to be holding its own and growing steadily.

Its now four days later and look at the difference!   We are little concerned about the smaller one as he seems to be growing a little slowly compared to his nest mate.    But for sure he is growing...