Jacque

STORY OF JACQUE

It was early 1997, and we had been away on holiday in Cornwall and had a bit of cash left over. As we were passing a house in the farming area of Hadlow displaying a "Birds For Sale" sign, we decided to stop in and see what they had. We were struck by three baby GMR's from two clutches. They had just got all their feathers and were lovely birds, so decided on two that we liked. The lady selling them knew that they were unrelated as she said that the single baby of the other pair was not as brightly coloured as the two from the second pair. She asked whether we did not want the other brightly coloured bird, and we declined as we liked the nature of the small bird. As luck would have it, they were of the opposite sex.

They soon settled into their new home. It was a cage inherited from our old Percy who had died some time back from old age. It was large enough to allow them freedom of movement, and they were also let out to fly around the house. We had a very large kitchen, and all the birds were housed at the one end. Our home was an old house , over 100 years old on two acres of land, so all the rooms were extremely spacious, allowing the birds plenty of space to fly. Normally we would not keep the birds in the kitchen, but the size of this kitchen, coupled with the two large windows and two doors allowed plenty of ventilation.

Jacque is a very placid bird and responds well to stimulation by whistle and touch. He has proved capable of copying a few tunes and always responds to my "special" whistle to him. He is happy for me, or even a stranger to stroke him just below his head. He won't let a stranger near unless I am around, and avoids contact in those situations. This is good. He displays with his tail out when any birds are near. There is a photo of him like this on the photos page.

He and Rogue get on very well, and occasionally he goes on a mating chase. It took him about three years before doing this, so assume that this is how long it took for him to mature. We will have to see as time progresses if the two are well matched and able to produce young.

We will add to this story as time goes by.

Thanks for taking the time to read the story of Jacque. We hope that you will read all the other stories of our birds.

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