Roadwolf's Blog

This post is about Beryl, my new pet Budgerigar.  A Budgerigar is a small parrot, more commonly known as a Budgie, or Parakeet.

Our decision to get a parakeet was based on the fact that it was a small animal, which could socialize a lot more then most animals, and was generally fairly cheap to purchase and maintain.

I picked Beryl because his colors were more vibrant then the other birds.  I wanted to get a young bird so it would be easier to train.  But I have since learned that younger parakeets (younger then 3 months or so) are all very pale in color, and their colors do not really stand out until after their first molting, at about 4 months old.

So I think Beryl is about 4 or 5 months old.  I also believe he is a male, as his cere (the ‘nose’ above a parakeet’s beak) is violet/bluish in color.  Often males will have pink/violet/blue cere’s, and females will have more of a brown cere.  I got him for about $22 dollars at PetSmart.  We considered going to a breeder, however we could not afford the $60 pricetag for specifically hand raised parakeets.

We ended up buying a small cage for him, as per the pet stores (Pet Supplies “Plus”), however that cage ended up being way too small…  I will get to that later.

Upon bringing Beryl home, once he got into his cage, it did not take him long (maybe an hour) before he felt comfortable enough to explore his cage.  And before 2 hours he was happily chirping and eating some food.  I have read that it sometimes takes a budgie upwards of 2 days to get used to their new home sometimes, so I considered this an excellent first step.

The problem was however that whenever he tried flying from perch to perch in his original cage, his wings would hit the toys we put in there for him.  So he ended up spending most of his time at the bottom of the cage – and as time passed, we could tell he wasn’t happy.  On Day 3 we went out and purchased a larger cage, which measures 16×16x16.  This is a huge step up from his 14×12x14 cage.  We really thought he would be freaked out and stressed out with moving to a new cage so soon after being introduced to his original cage, but the move went very well, and the second he was in his new cage he began to chirp happily, while perched up high, and for the first real time, he puffed out his feathers (a sign of a comfortable and relaxed bird), and began to prune himself.  He then began to play with all his toys.

Because of that, I recommend a 16×16x16 cage as a minimum.  The parakeet needs space to fly around without hitting his wings on items.  Considering the wingspan is about 8 inches, a 12 inch wide cage, is not wide enough.

I have been Beryls ‘tamer’.  He has chosen me to connect with, and he feels comfortable with me petting him (very softly behind his ear – otherwise budgies generally don’t like to be pet) and feeding him.  He also is comfortable with my hand in his cage.  On Day 5, I was able to use Millet to get him to step onto my hand.  I then walked him over to my computer desk where he enjoyed a snack of millet while sitting on my hand.

On Day 6 I was able to repeat this process.  So I would say that training is going well so far.  I will keep updating as things progress.

Tags: Beryl by Roadwolf
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A few weeks ago I got into a discussion with a friend about urban planning.  The topic at hand was related to mass transit, and the concept of Subways vs Commuter Train service.

The idea of Subways of course is to easily move from one part of a high density city to another part without impacting surface transportation or requiring a lot of land, which is likely expensive to purchase.  Where as the idea of Commuter Train Service is to bring daily commuters in from the suburbs in order to work and do business in the city.

The conversation came about as my friend had asked my opinion on a graphic of the TTC subway system with a proposed expansion he was working on for a college project.

At some point it was suggested that suburban commuters were not needed in the city, and thus services like the commuter train server were not as desired as subway services.  He went on to claim that a city such as Toronto should be completely self sustaining.

Okay, I may not have gone to college for urban planning, however studying urban sprawl and such aspects of how cities develop has been a hobby of mine since grade school.  So I do have some knowledge on how cities function.

Cities do not develop because people ‘like the location’ or because a town wants to ‘become a city’.  They develop based on several factors including transportation, access to resources, climate, and the overall need for such a development.  Cities don’t develop because of the attraction of the city, with the possible exception of Los Angeles.   Nor can a city sustain itself with the resources found within that city.   No city is self sufficient.  All cities rely on outside resources in some form.

For example.; Calgary, Alberta is a city which was formed as a Railway town by the CP Railway.  It was chosen as a main yard and maintance location on CP’s Main line west through the Rockies.  The farming and cattle industries, combined with the nearby tourist and resort industries helped contribute to its growth from a simple railway town into a city.  Without the railroad, Without the cattle ranches, and wheat fields, and without the nearby resorts in the wilderness, Calgary would not be the city it is today, and it would dwindle and fail quickly if those were suddenly removed from the city.

Most cities develop as central marketplaces and gathering places.  In my opinion there are 2 major types of cities.  The first type is the Industrial City.  Focused on production and industries, these cities function through the support and population encouraged by large factories and processing plants.   Hamilton, Ontario, or Detroit, MI would be good examples of such a cities.  The weak point for these cities is that, if a plant closes, half your population is now unemployed and the need for the services that a large city demands, diminishes as people move away in search of better jobs.

The other type of city is the Financial City.   Toronto, Ontario,  or New York, NY or Chicago, IL are good examples of such.   These cities started out as industrial cities, but quickly became centers of finance.  While some people would like to elieve that such centers of finance are immune to outside influences, and can survive without them, they would be vastly mistaken.  Such cities are often more dependent on outside influences then industrial cities, in that financial cities aralso effected by situations in industrial cities.  A strike as a major plant in an industrial city, will likely cause millions or billions of dollars in lost revenue at that plants headquarters in a financial city.  Not to mention financial cities usually have a more well established commercial and service industry to serve its more affluent citizens.  All of these shops and services depend on goods shipped in from outside the city.

I think a lot of the mindset here is that city dwellers get tired of paying taxes toward the city in order to improve infrastructure for commuters to use to come into the city to do business.   What a lot of people may not understand however, is that the city also taxes businesses and industries just as it taxes residents.  So while a 400 million dollar project to revamp the highways heading into the city may seem like a lot to taxpayers, chances are that money is mostly coming from the industrial and commercial sector.

But as usual, city dwellers will think they are the most important people in the world, and they will bitch and complain like they always have.  The job of a good urban planner is not to try to trap people in the city, but to encourage growth in the city in all forms, be it residential, commercial, or industrial.  As well as ensuring the infrastructure is capable of handling the traffic in and out of the city.

Some cities will never develop into high density cities like New York City.  New York is a special case in that Manhattan is on an Island, and thus that encouraged high density as everyone wanted to avoid ferries and bridge tolls.  Cities like Toronto and Chicago will develop away from their financial centers.   Usually remaining fairly high in density along major transportation corridors, but as you move further away, the density will decrease.   The cheap land that suburbia provides within an hours commute from major cities, often prevents density from creeping too high in most cities.

So in most cases the dream of creating super dense cities is a pipe dream.  It will likely not happen.  And if urban planners are blindly working towards such a pipe dream without taking into consideration the infrastructure and ability for people to commute in and out of their city, then they are doing more harm them good.

Tags: General, Roadwolf's Rants by Roadwolf
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