Almost every evening, Peanut sits on my shoulder while I wash up the dishes. Usually we make kissy noises to each other, or sing. But tonight, he was doing something...different. He was very...enthusiastic.

Parrots sometimes fall in love with their primary owners. I know Peanut loves me, since he's come close to regurgitating for me a couple of times. I usually tell him I love him, and then walk away, since I don't want to encourage an obviously doomed relationship. I don't know for sure what a Parrotlet Hunka Hunka Burning Love song and/or dance are like, but I think they have both songs and dances. When Peanut regurgitates, he gets up on his tippy toes, stretches his neck, and paces back and forth on his perch, chirping loudly the whole time.

Now, I can't say for sure what Peanut was doing while I washed dishes tonight, since he's very small and I don't have eyes in the back of my head (and the Finsters never tell me anything). But I wouldn't be surprised if he were stretching up on his tippy toes, stretching his neck, and pacing back and forth on the collar of my shirt. He was certainly chirping loudly the whole time. I'll leave the rest to imagination.

Jen and Bug gave me the idea of eating pistachios, cleaning the shells, and using them as toys. Peanut likes them! I took a few movies using my digital camera; the quality is pretty low, but gives a glimpse of the fun Peanut had. In the first clip, you can see the fun of flicking the shells around. In the second clip, Peanut has hopped off the cup onto the table, only to realize he isn't quite big enough to climb back on the cup. After a hand up, the third clip shows the fun of picking up the shells and dropping them, and — about three quarters of the way through — how much he LOVES them.

Yes, that's Peanut regurgitating to the cup of pistachio shells.

But, it is that time of the year, after all. Despite the cold and snow in some parts of the world, it's almost Spring, and time to think about procreation. Nance from Florida reports one of her finches laid an egg yesterday, the red-tailed hawks in Manhattan appear to be sitting on eggs, and Peanut thinks that pistachio shells are really, really HOT.

Don't think I'm jealous of pistachio shells, Peanut regurgitates for me, too. Mmmmm, bird puke!

Harley had his annual vet check-up today. He was very well-behaved, apart from regurgitating lunch like crazy! He sat on Bruce's shoulder at every opportunity — but considering where we were, that wasn't a problem. He stepped up very well for me (except when it was time to get back into the travel cage, but then he stepped up nicely onto a couple of tongue depressors), and he even stepped up for the vet! Of course, the minute he saw the towel he flew away and started barking like a dog. (Bruce hadn't heard that before, and was quite impressed with both the volume and the dog-like qualities!)

The vet confirmed that he's gained 7 grams since his last check-up, but she checked him carefully and decided he didn't feel overweight. As long as he doesn't gain another 7 grams by next years' visit, he should be fine. Otherwise, she declared him fit and healthy. And very handsome, of course!

Then, since it's been two years, we decided to draw blood for a few tests. Last time, they whisked Harley away for the blood draw, but we decided to watch this time. The less stress for a bird, the better, so even the minute or so it might take to transport him to another room was worth saving.

"You know we use the jugular?" the vet asked before she began. Yes, well, the right jugular vein is the biggest, and therefore the easiest to use for drawing blood in companion parrot-type birds. Not all vets use the jugular vein, but I'd heard about it before. You can click here for a bigger version of this photo — but don't worry, you can't see much. Unfortunately, the vet wasn't able to get too much blood. She jiggled the needle around quite a bit, but for some unknown reason the liquid just stopped coming, and after what felt like minutes but was probably just a second or two, she decided to stop. Hopefully we'll have enough for tests on liver and kidney functions. Since he looks fine otherwise, we should be safe with that.

Poor bird has to go back again for a toenail trim on Saturday, but hey — a dremel tool is nothing compared to a needle stuck in your neck!