We made it home safely with Charlie at about 8 last night.

Charlie is not quite the rider Lucy was at that age. She just hunkered down and drowsed. Charlie hung from his/her beak. (We're fixing this his/her problem next week with a submission of a blood sample to a laboratory for DNA sexing. I can't refer to an animal in my house as an it. I wouldn't do that to an iguana.)

We are slowly acclimating them to each other and Charlie to all of us and his new surroundings.

The different characteristics of the two species are already evident. Greys are more active and clownish than Eclectus, and more vocal. When anyone speaks to Charlie, he mutters and chatters away. He frequently flaps his wings. Lucy is quieter and less rambunctious.

We didn't aim to have a Schultz strip, any more than we aimed to have a Lucy and Desi. We chose Lucy as a name because it's fun to say and lends itself to all sorts of variations. Charlie is named after Lyman's friend who died several years back.

Given all her dancing this spring, Lucy might have preferred that we brought her a male Eclectus. That's a road we just don't want to go down. There's no end to it.

UPDATE: Charlie was hatched on my birthday. He is fourteen weeks old.