#vocalising

The purple frog only spends two weeks of the year above ground, and those two weeks are when it breeds.  The male spends most of its time calling to attract a mate, a bizarre vocalisation that has been compared to a chicken’s clucking!

Open your throat. Just really make sure to open. As wide as you can. This will really make you feel more relaxed and comfortable. Make sure you don’t feel tension but make sure you make it ooooopen. If you don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, yawn and then really really stretch the back of your mouth. Like if you were yawning for two people. That much stretch and openness. This shouldn’t feel tense like you might expect and in fact helps you reach for those high notes. How else are you gonna expand your range? It’s actually super natural and great for you. If you have a sore throat afterwards from practicing this, don’t be surprised. It just means you need to practice more. 

Even on good days, when I can speak with my mouth, it feels like making sounds with my voice is really difficult, like I have a sore throat. It takes a lot of effort to make sounds, and my voice is really quiet and rough. 

My Bestie sent me this vid. it's worth a watch! She made so many good points

Other concerns took over for a while and distracted me from this blog. I've made Earhart a new perch with a build in litter tray and his choice of a pumice perch or a tree branch to sit on along with an attached food dish and two attached water dishes (one for dipping food in). He usually stands half on one perch and half on the other. I really recommend these pumice perches, it's almost totally eliminated the need to trim his claws and has really helped his mobility on the floor. I made him a walking harness so I can take him to the park, but he still tries to kill it everytime I put it on him. I'm told this is normal for hand reared parrots, let alone wild rooks, so at some point I'll leave him in the harness for a few hours until he eventually accepts it. He's getting friendlier with people now. He'll perch for people other than me and accepts affection from pretty much anybody. I had been worried about the fact that he has been almost entirely silent since he first came to live here (apart from the occasional squawk), I did some research and found that's normal for injured birds. They don't vocalise for fear of attracting predators. However a permanently injured bird might start vocalising again if they feel safe and secure enough and this what prompted me to post this catch up. He's just spent the past three hours croaking and cawing and I'm so happy! I'm glad he's finally feeling safe enough.