Yahoo News Couple take parrots for pub lunches - and one 'loves trouble'
A Birmingham couple who walk about with two parrots perched on their shoulders have people all in a flap. Spider and Anne Spider-McKeown, from Bartley Green, go about their daily routine with Charlie, a green-winged Macaw and Chester, a blue-and-gold Macaw, saying 'hello' and 'bye'.
When the retired couple rehomed the pair in 2021, they were determined that the Macaws would live alongside them and not be "stuck at home or in the garden". Several times a week, they are taken out to the shops, appointments, B&Q, and even to the pub.
The public's reaction is priceless with some first wondering if they are actually real. Spider, who changed his first and last name to Spider by deed poll because of his love for animals, said: "It's comical, they think is it a stuffed parrot on my shoulder. I am not a pirate either, I don't have a cutlass or a wooden leg."
Spider, 66, and Anne, 64, took on Charlie, Chester and Elwood from the Safe Haven Parrot Refuge in Tewkesbury. Spider, a former National Express bus driver said: "Charlie had a bonded partner called Elwood and he was a green-winged Macaw. Elwood was disabled and Charlie would look after him.
"Elwood died last June and we started taking Charlie out in public last July with Chester at the beginning of this year. Chester wears a harness because he can fly but Charlie doesn't fly and just sits on my shoulder. They both weigh around a kilo each."
"They say 'hello' and 'bye' and when the phone rings Chester says 'hello'. They don't say anything rude but Chester blows a kiss to Anne by making a kiss sound."
Three times a week, the parrots go out with their owners for up to three hours. They are also known to the punters at the New Inn, Yardley and the Sun Inn, Romsley, Halesowen, where Spider and Anne pop in for a pub lunch.
Spider said: "They go to Weoley Castle library, B&Q, Screwfix, garden centres, opticians, in the foyer of Sainsbury's, a care home etc. They love the attention and Charlie likes people stroking his beak.
"They accept treats and I keep some pine nuts in my pocket because they are not fattening. They don't mind dogs, trucks, traffic - when they are perched on our shoulders they are just in their own world.
"We go to pubs and the comical side is people ask if they are real- they think it's a stuffed parrot on my shoulder. The last thing they expect when they go to the pub is see a man with a parrot on his shoulder ordering a pint.
"In pubs, we have to order chicken because they like it. We roll out a towel and place it on the ground and then set up two perches on camera tripods and put them on them.
"That way if they drop something or poop, it goes on the towel and we take it away. We do consider the venues."
The couple were originally told taking on Macaws would be like taking on a couple of toddlers and Chester can be a naughty boy as well as a pretty one. Spider said: "They have their own routine.
"They both have their breakfast at 8.20am, I clean out the cage and they are free to come and go in the living room. In better weather, they are in the garden which is netted so they don't fly away. Chester will fly from A to B but he just likes walking and will follow Anne like sheep.
"When she puts the washing out, he perches on the basket and chucks the washing out onto the stones. When we are potting the plants, he will pick up the plant pot up in his beak and throw it.
"When Anne says 'no', Chester will answer 'no' back to her. He likes disorder!"
