Umbrella cockatoo

I am not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. It feels like just another excuse to put things off till later. It seems to me that if something is important enough to warrant a resolution, it shouldn’t be forced to wait until a new year arrives.

But, if this is what it takes for people to make positive improvement in their lives, I guess it’s better late than never. So, while I don’t participate in the traditional setting of resolutions for each New Year, I do have goals for myself, and my birds.

I am not a perfect bird owner. I try very hard, but there is always something that happens during the course of the year that points out my incompetence with the clarity of a slap in the face and I struggle to understand how missed this clue or that. But I am human with nothing remotely avian in my bloodlines, so I usually have to forgive myself for my human inability to get things just right.

On the other hand are the things that don’t get done because there’s ‘not enough time’ – things that get repeatedly postponed until ‘next week’ and eventually pushed so far into the background they are forgotten.

In a busy life, schedules often need rearranging to fit in all the things that don’t fit in. In the end, I have no reasonable excuse for letting an entire year to go by without meeting certain goals.

I’d intended to do some work with my quaker, Libby, this year to help her get past some of the aggression she shows when I am around her cage. I feel that her territorialism is increasing and I believe it is an indication of a breakdown in our relationship.

But it is December 31^st, and I have done nothing. I can cite several really good reasons for doing nothing, but they are, in the end, nothing more than excuses. I have to learn to say no and lighten my load a bit so that I can give each of my birds the time and focus they deserve – WHEN THEY NEED IT.

So I guess if I have to make a resolution this year it is to not leave things for so longs that they make it onto next year’s resolution list.

Gotta go! I just made a date with a really cute quaker.

Quaker parrot

Patty Jourgensen specializes in avian health, behavior and nutrition and has been working with and caring for rescue birds since 1987.