Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice......

williep · Post by **williep** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:46 pm

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Well what should the idiom say after that? Fool my thrice.... Spend the whole afternoon building a trap cage cause I'm an idiot!!

I managed to lose 3 birds in the last week and a half and managed to get all 3 back!

Bird 1- Fawn Shaftail
I recently bought 9 fawn shaftails from a guy who had them mixed with his breeding flock of Goulds - I know, that's why he sold them! NO babies for the season compared to an average 40 - 50 a year, ouch. When I banded them in my closed birdroom before releasing them into their new aviary 1 managed to slip out through a small gap in the roof. Anyway I re-homed the remaining 8 with no further problems only to find the escapee on top of the aviary later the day, I recaptured him by using the, at that time unused, partitioned cage next door by rigging a rope to the door, took me about 20 minutes to recapture.

Bird 2- Singing Quail
The very same day I was re-homing singing quail as I had quite a few babies that were successfully raised. I purchased 2 more pairs to enable me to introduce new bloodlines and the one slipped passed me as I was opening the door, he was caught with the same method as the shaftail also took about 20 minutes

Bird 3- Fawn Shaftail (not the same one)

Today I noticed another bird on top of the aviary (were the other 9 are) and saw it was a shaftail, I thought it somehow escaped out of the aviary but then realised it was from my other aviary which only had one fawn pair (sitting on eggs due to hatch in the next few days BTW). Now I had a problem, I couldn't capture him with my old method, as the entire aviary was now full of my young birds. He escaped as the idiot (me) feeding the birds forgot to clip in the swivel feeder and luckily one 1 bird escaped through the 4"x4" gap!

I then proceeded to construct a very efficient bird trap with the help of my B-Day present from my wife (A DC Inverter welder) and some spare welded mesh and caught "Michael Schofield" (his new name) using my trap just before dark.

I was really amazed that all 3 birds returned to the aviary especially since 2 of them got lost the very first day I had them.
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L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:11 pm

That's incredible luck - times 3! You better buy a lottery ticket today.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:42 am

"if you love something set it free, if it comes back it's yours" there's a saying something like that.
3 out and 3 back is pretty good Willie, you going to keep pushing your luck????

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:22 pm

A bird in the hand is worth 3 in the bush. That's incredible Williep.

I think the fool me 3 times is 'you can fool me forever'.

Your not an idiot. Have you looked at how they escaped and what you can change in your aviary to prevent that in the future? We all make mistakes and learn from them.

Finches tend to flock together. That's probably why they stayed close to your aviary. I'm glad you were able to return them to the home you provide.

Post by **Hilary** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:20 pm

Yikes - I live in dread that I'll accidently let one out. Mine are all indoors, but that doesn't mean they can't get outside if I leave a door open (which I do all the time in the summer. Congrats on getting everybody back before they became hawk food!

williep · Post by **williep** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:23 pm

BillD, most of it was just being hasty and not careful enough, but I'm not taking chances, I'm building a safety area (there is some fancy name for it, just can't remember it now, but I'm sure Featherharp can assist me there

) over the weekend. Not that I'm not fond of my shaftails and quail but I would cry myself to sleep if one of my grenadiers or twinspots escape. I've already plugged the hole in the roof were finch 1 escaped through.

Here is a pic of the trap I built, wasn't a complete waste of time as I now use it to catch birds in my large aviary with little to no stress to my breeding birds. It still needs a good covering of paint but it works great!

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:24 pm

We all learn from experience and there are a lot of people in this forum with more experience than me and they all help. I'm glad Featherharp will offer advice on building a safety area.

On the bright side, you got to use your birthday present to build that great trap (i'm sure you had fun doing it) and your birds are back home.

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:05 am

Huh?.....What?

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:57 pm

FeatherHarp wrote:Huh?.....What?

Awe geez.. did I post on the wrong forum? You were mentioned here by name. You aren't helping williep?

williep · Post by **williep** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:00 pm

Featherharp, I thought you could help me with the name for a safty area in an aviary to prevent birds from escaping.

I am building it this weekend, will post some pics soon.

franny · Post by **franny** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:40 pm

I've heard them referred to as a safety catch.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:22 pm

Are you asking about an entry 'safe' room? where you walk in a door, close it, then go into your aviary? Prevents the possibility of them escaping?

here is a link from the FIC if that's what you are looking for:

http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/panel_ ... uction.php

scroll down a little and you'll see a moving door. That's the concept.

Hope that helps. Disregard this post if that's not what you were looking for.

williep · Post by **williep** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:28 pm

Thanks Bill and Franny, that is what I was referring to. Just thought there was some fancy name for it. I constructed one over the weekend. Will post some pics under my new aviary post.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:14 am

No worries..
A lot of people in here know a lot more than I do.
Happy that you found an answer. I call it a 'safe' room, but others may have another name for it.
Look forward to your pics.
I need suggestions for my own.