Quite the flyer

Today was very windy during Manzi's flight session. He made all the short and mid-length flights. At a distance of 60 feet though he panicked. He got going too fast and the wind blew him off to the side and he missed me again. This time he flew very far up and over the two story apartment buildings and out of sight. I called for him and I could hear him screaming in panic. He circled around and was back in view in just a few seconds. Because there are such high trees around he was flying very high (about 100 feet up) and couldn't get down to me. He circled around three times each time trying to descend to me and only making it partway down before he ran out of room and had to circle again. Finally he got within 10 feet above my head, but couldn't make it the rest of the way so he landed in a nearby tree hanging upside-down on flimsy branches. He then calmed down for a few minutes and flew down to me.
While in the tree, many children took notice of him and came around calling to him, "Come here Manzi." They were copying me calling to him. Afterwards I let some of the children hold Manzi, but he was quite shaken up. Even after getting back inside he wouldn't take the walnut which he loves and just hung out on his cage for a few minutes to calm down. Poor thing. Well, I know that he is trying to come back to me, he just needs to get better and maneuvering. He's learning very fast. Right now he is taking a nap (which is rare) on his cage. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so windy.

Flights and badness

We did flight training again today and Manzi is doing incredible. He is focused and very eager.

On the other hand, he is getting pretty bad in the house. Jen told me that instead of saying "no" I should give him something he can chew instead. So, I kept giving him a toy to chew on everytime he went after an "off limits" item. That just meant that I had to get up every couple of minutes to give him a toy and set him on his cage. I must have done that at least 20 times just during the afternoon. Today after he couldn't just watch while I made candy coated pecans I had to put him back in his cage. He didn't think it was fair for me to be mixing stuff and him not allowed to attack one of the measuring cups.

Flying Free

Today flight training went very smoothly. I didn't make him fly from me to something (i.e. tree, grass, etc.) and he was comfortable and not showing any hesitation or signs of stress.

Flight training continued

Today, although a little windy, I decided to continue with outdoor free flight training. Manzi was getting very distracted at first, then he focused and did his flights. He wasn't flying back to the tree on command though. It was probably because the last time while going back to the tree, he missed the main branch and when he tried to land on smaller ones they collapsed leaving him hanging upside down. So, today he was very hesitant to fly back to the branch. I finally moved my hand to make him fly and he chickened out of landing on the branch and took off. That was my main fear, that he would take off and not know how to get back. I called out to him as he was flying away which caused him to do a turn around. He was pretty high up though and couldn't get down to me fast enough and landed on top of the tree (about 20 feet up). I took out the walnut, just for this situation, and called him. He didn't come right away. After a few minutes I called again and he flew right down to me. I then gave him the walnut and he was happy to let me leg clip him again. This made me feel much better because now I know that he will come back to me even if he flies away at first. I took a video of the entire session, but afterwards realized I had it on the wrong setting. I'll try with the video again next time.

Death of a Rubber Duck

This post came about by popular opinion. Manzi does in fact kill rubber ducks. Here's the damage done so far.
On flight training, the wind has picked up so we have had to limit it to indoors. It should be better in a day or so and then we will resume.