Corvids
So, haven't written in a while, in fact haven't written in so long that I can't even remember how far back I'd have to go in order to provide everyone with an adequate update to follow on from then, so I'm not even going to bother trying. Instead I'm just going to vent my enthusiasm about corvids - the family of birds to which (among others) crows, ravens and magpies belong.
They're so amazing!
I didn't even realise until I accidentally stumbled upon a nicely displayed book in Waterstones called Corvus that it is actually possible to keep them as "pets", although that word seems somewhat inadequate to me. But if they are rescued by humans after falling from the nest at a young age, they may become so used to human company that they will not be able to cope in the wild, or if they are injured in the wild obviously sometimes it is not possible for them to carry on fending for themselves. So sometimes they do need a good home, which is very good news for me because the more I find out about them the more I fall in love with them! I had heard that they were intelligent, but they are also extremely sociable and playful as well (especially young birds). Apparently they're quite time consuming to keep though cos they demand so much attention - if they don't get enough intellectual stimulation they sometimes self harm from boredom :-$
Hmmm, it will of course mean that we probably won't be able to have cats, which is a little disappointing since I love cats and I did invest an awful lot of energy into convincing Ilya to let us have one, but I am prepared to forsake kitties for one of these guys, they're just so damn cool! Think I can get Ilya to agree to keeping one if I keep mentioning the fact that ravens and magpies aren't going to use the leather furniture he's so adamant we're going to have as a scratching post. They might poo on it, but that's probably the worst case scenario. Oh yes, and I should try and gloss over the part where they'll try and store all kinds of food in various stages of decay wherever they can find a good nook or cranny, which I think will probably make life interesting but I'm sure Ilya will regard as an inconvenience! They'll probably be using an aviary most of the time anyway, so it shouldn't be a huge issue :-)
Still investigating different types of corvids so I can daydream about which one we'll end up having. Ravens are amazing, they are the most intelligent species of bird around I think, but the problem with keeping a raven is that they're huge! So might not be able to afford an adequately sized garden with room for a massive aviary. Crows are slightly smaller (found out that in Russian the word for raven is ворон and the word for crow ворона - almost as though they decided they are practically the same species only as the raven is bigger it's got the masculine ending and the crow got the feminine!) but there are potential problems in keeping crows re their mating habits; they mate for life, and there is a danger that a captive crow might start to view a particular human as their own mate and start getting aggressive with other people. Magpies are looking like the most affordable and non-potentially aggressive option at the moment, but I haven't looked into jays and rooks yet. More reading to do :-)
They're so amazing!
I didn't even realise until I accidentally stumbled upon a nicely displayed book in Waterstones called Corvus that it is actually possible to keep them as "pets", although that word seems somewhat inadequate to me. But if they are rescued by humans after falling from the nest at a young age, they may become so used to human company that they will not be able to cope in the wild, or if they are injured in the wild obviously sometimes it is not possible for them to carry on fending for themselves. So sometimes they do need a good home, which is very good news for me because the more I find out about them the more I fall in love with them! I had heard that they were intelligent, but they are also extremely sociable and playful as well (especially young birds). Apparently they're quite time consuming to keep though cos they demand so much attention - if they don't get enough intellectual stimulation they sometimes self harm from boredom :-$
Hmmm, it will of course mean that we probably won't be able to have cats, which is a little disappointing since I love cats and I did invest an awful lot of energy into convincing Ilya to let us have one, but I am prepared to forsake kitties for one of these guys, they're just so damn cool! Think I can get Ilya to agree to keeping one if I keep mentioning the fact that ravens and magpies aren't going to use the leather furniture he's so adamant we're going to have as a scratching post. They might poo on it, but that's probably the worst case scenario. Oh yes, and I should try and gloss over the part where they'll try and store all kinds of food in various stages of decay wherever they can find a good nook or cranny, which I think will probably make life interesting but I'm sure Ilya will regard as an inconvenience! They'll probably be using an aviary most of the time anyway, so it shouldn't be a huge issue :-)
Still investigating different types of corvids so I can daydream about which one we'll end up having. Ravens are amazing, they are the most intelligent species of bird around I think, but the problem with keeping a raven is that they're huge! So might not be able to afford an adequately sized garden with room for a massive aviary. Crows are slightly smaller (found out that in Russian the word for raven is ворон and the word for crow ворона - almost as though they decided they are practically the same species only as the raven is bigger it's got the masculine ending and the crow got the feminine!) but there are potential problems in keeping crows re their mating habits; they mate for life, and there is a danger that a captive crow might start to view a particular human as their own mate and start getting aggressive with other people. Magpies are looking like the most affordable and non-potentially aggressive option at the moment, but I haven't looked into jays and rooks yet. More reading to do :-)