The newest member of the flock

 Meet Mahalo.

On my birthday I had to work for about an hour. The birds live in our living room/office. Meli, Malaki and MokoTu had been on top of the cage facing the window and conversing. A few moments later, Meli ran to the front of the cage and started looking around and chirping...and I knew he was searching for Moko. It broke my heart.

The next morning we brought home Mahalo from a non-big box pet store. That was a great experience.

He is still a bit skittish but he is getting along well with the others.

He’s missing some tail feathers, but they will grow back.

He’s the prettiest color of blue-violet. 

It is interesting to observe the dynamics in the group. Meli believes he is the alpha and tends to stand off to the side while the rest play around, but slowly, oh so slowly, he is interacting in a more playful fashion, and that is wonderful to see. Last night the Hubs and I observed that he appears to be pairing up with MokoTu, but we'll see what develops over the next few days.

In the photo above, Mahalo is in the back of the group; this photo was taken the day after we brought Mahalo home. Meli is off to the right; Malaki and MokoTu are near the front. This is the top of the cage where they come to have their daily meetings.

Every evening we observe their bedtime routine. It took less than a week to see them all roosting together on the top perch, but we are also beginning to see the “can we stay up later” behavior. I sing to them every night before we go to bed (and every morning when they wake up) and of late they are coming to the front of the cage to listen. Meli has been sung to every day for 4 months; he is the most attentive when I sing and will sing with me during the day. Malaki and MokoTu face plant at the front of the cage now. I expect Mahalo will soon follow suit.

You know I now want to make a quilt portrait of all of them.

I’m signed up for a class on pet portraits.

In other quilting updates, I have pieced the 4 quadrants for the main portion of the Pecking Order baby quilt:

My apologies for the crappy lighting. I should not take photos in the studio after 4:00 p.m.

I'm happy with this quilt that I'm also nicknaming "Palate Cleanser." I hope that I get to quilt it this weekend.

Thanks for reading--have a great rest of your week, and go make!