Although last year we were fairly new to having Harley investigate our dinner plates, these days it's quite normal to have a bird explore what we're eating. This is not altogether a good practice, but it encourages flock behavior, and Harley is truly more likely to try new foods if they're on our plates than on his own. In fact, this behavior has gotten so familiar that now he's even eating off our guests' plates. I think it helps that Harley is a 10-ounce bird. If a 90-pound drooling dog did the same thing, I don't think it would be quite so adorable:

This years' menu was very similar to last years', although we left out the salad and succotash, and substituted my brother-in-law’s famous bourbon sweet potato puree for sweet potatoes and cranberries. Harley's favorite this year was the pecans from the brussels sprouts. Our guest thinks he probably ate some of her sprouts, as well, although I'm not convinced.

After his foray onto D's plate, Harley sat on his chair, tucked his foot up, and dozed a little.

But he perked up when it was time to put the food away — that's when he discovered the almonds in the green beans.

Well, maybe we do spoil him, just a little. He's worth it, though.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Harley was in the mood for a bath today, so he set about taking one in his water dish.

I've described these water-dish-baths before. The thing to remember is that the dish is TOO SMALL for a proper bath. Here he is, spreading his wings anyway:

These photos are a few months old, but give a pretty good idea of all the water that gets splashed around. If I'm home, and not watching, he'll splatter water everywhere until the dish is about half empty. Then he'll climb to his cholla perch and use his latest go-to phrase: "you ready?" Usually, this means he either wants to go somewhere, or he's ready for snacks. In this case, it means he's ready for me to fill up his water dish, so he can take more bath.

We did that about four times today. He's such a clean, handsome bird!

Lately, Harley has been mostly subsisting on peas (lots of peas), pomegranate arils, apple, toast, and snacks. Yeah, let's not mention all the other foods I try to get him to eat. But one thing I do is make him work for his snacks. I wrap everything in tiny squares of paper, like a Christmas cracker (without the bang, of course), and I can "hide" these in lots of places. Harley will work pretty hard for a snack.

I usually only make enough for a day or two, and am more likely — considering there are three different kinds of snacks — to make them as I need them. The only exception has been the few times I've gone out of town. But this morning, while I was waiting for the Cable Guy to show up, I made a whole butt-load of snacks.

Click for an even bigger photo (picture pops).

The paper is another item recycled from the numerous official updates that pilots have to keep with them when they go flying. I cut the thin paper into rectangles about 2 1/4" by 2 1/2". Then, for one kind of snack, I cut nuts into tiny pieces, wrap a rectangle of paper around each piece, and twist the ends around it. Harley's favorites are almonds (cut into 2-3 pieces, depending on the size), cashews (usually 6 pieces) and pistachios (2 pieces). I also wrap up bits of walnut, but Harley doesn't really like them. (Sometimes I'll simply "hide" a pistachio-in-the shell somewhere, too.)

While waiting for the Cable Guy, I cut up a bunch of nuts and wrapped them into 75 cracker snacks.

For the other two kinds of snacks, I wrap the paper around a Bic Round Stic pen, twist the end, fill partway with snacks, and twist the other end closed.

While waiting for the Cable Guy, I made 5 crackers with Harrison's Adult Fine pellets (sometimes Harley will eat these), 4 crackers with a dry seed mix similar to TOP All-In-One seed mix but with safflower seeds added (Harley mostly eats the safflower seeds), and 60 empty tubes, just waiting to be filled with snacky goodness.

While waiting for the Cable Guy, I made and hid about another 4 additional snacks, took some pictures of snacks, counted all the snacks, vacuumed up some snack debris in the living room, and thawed out some peas and pomegranate arils. You know, for Harley's lunch.