Mrs. McClure was doing the right thing by asking that her budgies get their wings clipped. We don't like to hear that birds are free flying in a house as we see too many birds get injured when they do. We have had birds brought to us that have flown into windows or mirrors, landed on hot stove elements or in boiling water and others caught by the household cat.
The idea is to clip the primary wing feathers enough so they can glide down but not gain altitude. When Mrs. McClure called she explained she was a senior and couldn't drive or bring in her budgies so we arranged a housecall.
When I arrived I was impressed with the size of the house. Walking into the home was even more impressive with the 30 ft high ceilings. Mrs. McClure approached me with a stilted gait and shuffled around the stair case. She looked over the brim of her glasses and shook my hand and asked if I wanted to see her cantelopes.
I wasn't quite sure what I was in store for but I didn't want to disappoint her so I agreed and I slowly followed her down the hall and into a large green house room in her home with many exotic plants and a large garden. The cantelopes were ready to be picked and she plucked one and handed it to me.
We then shuffled back into the main part of the house and she said she had the two budgies locked in her bedroom so I could catch them. The staff had instructed her to have them in a small cage or a box so I could perform the wing clip without chasing and catching the birds but she thought confined to her bedroom would suffice.
Mrs. McClure's shuffle slowed even more as she was becoming winded and as we got to the bedroom she slowly opened the door and we both walked in. The birds were quick and I moved from one side of the room to the other trying to catch either budgie. We darkened the room as best we could to try and slow them down to no avail. I took a flashlight next to her bed and flashed it at their eyes to try and startle them so I could catch them but they always managed to fly just as I tried to through a light towel on them. Mrs. McClure was getting more worked up and decided to leave the room. She was too slow to be of assistance so I didn't object when she said she would wait outside for me. As she slowly shuffled out of the door the birds took off and I felt a flutter of wings beat next to my ear as the two budgies made a break for it. I couldn't stop them before Mrs. McClure closed the door and they quickly escaped and circled around the stair case and landed on a small ledge on the perimeter of the ceiling thirty feet up. By the looks of the chew marks on the high ledge this was a favorite place for them.
I hadn't brought a net with me and I certainly didn't have one with a thirty foot handle. "Oh dear," Mrs. McClure commented, "you are really going to have trouble getting them down from there."
"I'm afraid I can't ….. I will have to come back when you have them contained," I explained not sure of how she would take the news.
"Well, then off you go," Mrs. McClure said with a Scottish accent in a bit of a huff. She reached forward and took back the cantelope I had cradled in my arms and showed me the door, "… and there better not be an extra charge for that!"
