I waited 20 years to make an impulse purchase. I got a parrot. I bring the little guy home. I almost passed out on the way home thinking that what I did was the biggest mistake of my life. But I managed to drive the rest of the way home without either losing my lunch or hurting anyone in the process.

Yes, I was upset.

But once I got home, I was okay. I had done what I had done, and chose to live with my decision. I spent the better part of a couple of hours trying to come up with a name for this little dude, or dudette. I had no idea which. Once comfortable with my decision, I said to my new little bird, “Parker, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I have a feeling my life is about to change. But no matter what, I promise I’ll try and take care of you the best I can, okay?” Parker looked up at me and replied, “Coooh?” It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life and I haven’t regretted one minute of it.

I have just returned home from the Companion Parrot Training class presented by Natural Encounters. I am now armed with a set of “training tools” given to me by Dr. Susan Friedman and Steve Martin. I know how to train a parrot now. Retrieving Parker from his stand, I set up a peg and ring prop. Within five minutes, I have Parker slamming rings on to the peg like he was Larry Byrd shooting hoops in a championship basketball game. I had tried for months to train him to do it with no success. and now, he is looking at me as if to say, “This? You wanted me to do this? Well, why didn’t you just say so!? Gawwwwd!” I am gleeful and proud and it is a gorgeous moment.

I’ve gotten it. I finally understand! The frustration, the confusion, the hell I went through to finally understand the concept of negative reinforcement. I walk around my condo tidying up and humming “I Think She’s Got It,” from the musical, My Fair Lady. Once I am through tidying up, I go to my computer, start it up  and write a long email to Susan Friedman explaining my light bulb moment. I was explaining to her the mental backflips I went through to comprehend it. When it finally sunk in, I saw it with such clarity, it was blinding. Along the way in the email, I meandered off-topic and began writing a bit about life on an airplane and finished the email with profound thanks for her patience with me while I was taking her class, “LLP: Living and learning With Parrots.” She emails back five minutes later and says something to the effect of, “If you don’t begin writing it’ll be a waste. I don’t care what you write about in the field of birds, you just have to write.” It was Susan’s kick in my keester that got me rolling in the field of writing. That moment in time gave me the confidence to step out of myself for the first time and realize that my “wishing days” were over and it was about time to put my rear on the line and do something about something I had a hunch I could do pretty well all of my life.

I have adopted a neglected plucked-out African Grey. She is older and I had worries whether or not I could get her straightened out enough to be handled. It took me two days to convince Pepper to come out of her cage. I offer her my hand. She steps up gingerly and whistles. She does not bite and accepts the almond I have offered her, delicately nibbling away. Two weeks later she is snuggling at my neck on the couch. It was a moment made of magic.

It’s September and I’m in a very cold enclosure, walls painted with icy mountains and frozen fields. Slippery, wet, uneven rocks under my feet challenge my balance and I steady myself in hopes that I will not fall into the central pool. I’ve been told that no one has ever fallen into the pool, although with the way my luck runs, I’ll be jazzing up that record in no time.

Surrounding me is a flock of penguins, carefully waddling up to me to greet, meet and hopefully con me out of a fish or two. Camera in hand, I am shooting their gorgeous faces and hoping for a clear, well framed photograph that might, just might express the breathtaking beauty I actually see. I am overwhelmed with the privilege and the honor of working with these penguins at the Cincinnati Zoo. Not many people get this opportunity and the palpable feeling of a “once in a lifetime moment” takes over. I know this is special. I smell of fish. I am dead tired and sore, but nothing, and I mean nothing will ever yank this memory away. Penguins are honking and jostling for a better position so they might get a neck scratch.  Bubba, an Ibis swoops down and joins the crowd of Rockhoppers at my feet nagging me for a fish. I don’t think I had every been happier before this moment. Ever.

I’m a little nervous. I’m following Steve Malowski into the Andean Condor enclosure with a plate of food for them containing a couple of whole rats, a mouse behind or two, some fish, a few pinkie mice and other rather unappetizing items you would retch at if you saw it, but is the main staple for these enormous birds.

Steve has a broom which he brings into the enclosure for my peace of mind, but mainly he simply uses it to lean on while he surveys the enclosure and his two enormous condors. I shake a little bit. With a twelve foot wing-span, these relatively huge dudes sit not too far away and seem to observe us with amusement, and curiosity. Getting taloned in the back by one of these guys wouldn’t be fun and would leave one hell of a mark. Despite my nervousness, it’s a great place to be. I am seeing one of the most magnificent birds in the world close up. I am getting beautiful video. I am present and alive in this moment of clarity. These birds are monstrously big and they are looking me in the eye. It simply takes my breath away.

I am at my mailbox. Among the bills, the junk mail advertising low insurance rates and 60 % off at Michael’s Crafts on picture framing, is a manilla envelope.  It is February of of 2009 and I have no idea who sent this to me. I open it and two magazines slip out. They are advanced copies of the 2009, March issue of BIRD TALK Magazine. I turn to page 38 and see the first column of “Memo to Parker and Pepper.” I let go with a little squeal, do a a “happy dance” right then and there and reread the words I know all too well. To me, there is nothing better in the world. Nothing.

I have flown up to Chicago having been asked to cover the Midwest Bird Expo. I enter the Kane County Fairgrounds building where it is being held and make my way through what seems like miles of aisles of bird toys, food, cages, t-shirts and swings. I finally meet Irena Schulz. It was like we knew each other all our lives. She introduces me to Sy Montgomery, who just released her amazing book, Birdology. I feel like I have known her forever. I’ve just made two friends. It was a great day and my post about the Expo pleased so many people. The experience went off without a hitch and I had a wonderful time. I leave wishing it would have lasted just one more day.

I am on a plane yet again, headed to Houston. I’m excited because I will be seeing old friends, meeting new ones and having a very good time. I’m off to the Houston Parrot Festival for the fourth time and I have brought four feather scarves to donate to the live auction. It makes me feel good to be able to donate something that I have created that will raise some money for the National Parrot Rescue and Preservation Foundation, otherwise known as the N.P.R.P.F. I procure my scarf models. We work those scarves. We raise about six hundred dollars for them. It makes me happy.

After a quick drive in the dark at 5:30 in the morning, I arrive at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with Piggy Paradise employee Patti Platia. I have had three and a half hours of sleep. We drop off our bags in the office and set to work setting up the day for the Best Friends volunteer arrivals. I wash some pig plates and clean the bathroom. Patti calls me over and takes me outside. The sun is coming up and is making its way up the side of the sharp cliffs just on the other side of a horse pasture. The scenery is phenomenal. I have never seen such gorgeous rusts and pinks and copper colors. It is an amazing moment and it makes me want to cry. I can’t wait to write about it.

These are but a few moments in my life where I saw with perfect clarity, what life is all about for me. It’s about writing, birds, writing, traveling, writing and experiencing what other people do. When I work these experiences, my life takes a back burner and the work is about the work of other people, other organizations, other projects, other lives. I can step out of myself and learn what other people do so well, although I usually don’t do it with the speed or precision they do, I can certainly write about their expertise with accuracy. Irena Schulz once referred to me as “The Indiana Jones” of the Bird World. I could probably be more accurately described as the “Lucy in the Candy Factory” of the bird world. Nevertheless, I keep plugging away, working to seek out new adventures, great people and yet another post about this life with birds.

I don’t know what 2011 will bring, but it will probably involve luggage. However, as I said on the last day of High School during the last lunch period with my classmates when we were all exchanging thoughts about what we thought we’d all end up doing: “I don’t know what I’ll end up doing, but I hope it’s interesting.” So far it has, and I hope it continues.

My wish for the New year for you is that you learn new things, make new friends, and raise the bar of parrot care, not only for your birds, but for the lives of others.

Have a Happy (and interesting) New Year!

Patricia

35000 Feet: Somewhere between Guayaquil, Ecuador and Miami



You might be aware of some of my travels in the animal world. The Houston Parrot Festival, The Cincinnati Zoo, the Midwest Bird Expo, Natural Encounters, the BEST Parrot Conference, The Avian Encounters Trilogy Video Premiere and most recently, Best Friends Animal Society are just a few of the places I’ve visited and some of the experiences I’ve had. I do it for several reasons. The main reason is that I am working on a manuscript that will hopefully be a book.

Also, I don’t do “lying around vacations” very well. And these are all things I’ve always wanted to do and places I’ve wanted to see.

Every time I go somewhere that involves working with animals, there is this little haunting going on in my head: “You know, I could live here. I could do this. I think this might make me happy.” And then I come home; exhausted and beat up, but very pleased with the information I was able to share and the things that I had learned. Sanity returns and I’m back to my life. You know the one: Flying, writing and repeatedly washing the floor. Oh, I also have fun and get to hang out with friends; I mean it’s not that bad.

(Michael Popora. Cute, isn’t he?)

I went to the Cincinnati Zoo for two years in a row and immersed myself in all things “zoo.”  It was a crazy thing to do. I mean really, how many people get up at 4:45 in the morning day after day on their vacation to go get crapped on by a penguin, gassed by a sea lion and charged by a pissed-off sandhill crane? Well, me. But as my best friend, Lynne says, “You are just so, so…not right.”

But it wasn’t just the experience of the work. It was the people and their willingness to share a part of their lives, their expertise and take the time to teach me:

Ricky Kinley and Henry

I came home from Best Friends with incredible memories having made many friends and a belief that you can make a difference in the world by making a dream come true. As a matter of fact, every time I come home from somewhere, I think, “You know, this might be a nice place to live.”

And it just might be. I thought, “Working at the Cincinnati Zoo might be fun despite how hard it is. Maybe I should change direction and do that.”

And then I get home and realize that the life I have so isn’t bad after all. While I don’t have an ocean-front home in Florida, I sometimes have a “water-front home:

So it’s really about going out into the world and experiencing it. I come home having been touched by that part of the world, that place, those people. And then, I share what it was like to see those places, do those things and learn that stuff with the people who have the same interests.

When I was at Best Friends, the subject of people moving to Kanab to work there as a way of “healing” came up. Something not right with your life? Hey, move to Kanab, work with the animals and maybe, miraculously, all will be right with the world! Umm, it doesn’t happen that way. Because wherever you go, there you are. And going out to work at BF as a way of working through personal issues and making everything better in your life doesn’t work. I mean, it’s not Lourdes for cripes sake. And it’s still incedibly tough work. You must be equipped and willing to have something to offer Best Friends. If you have that and look to BF to offer you employment and the opportunity to do great work in a challenging field, then you’re good to go. But don’t look to BF to make everything in your life right with the world.

So as I move on, writing and shooting and describing what people, places, events and jobs are all about, I keep learning. Not just about where I’ve been, but where I am now, and where I intend to go. It’s the process of learning and using these opportunities to write about the knowledge I’ve gained from an amazing group of people. These people have so generously given of themselves to help me inform, educate, and edify those who are interested in taking a peek at what these incredible people do:

Steve Malowski and Kim Klosterman

Val

“The Major Dude” at the Cincinnati Zoo

Gary Denzler

Dr. Susan Friedman

Dr. Irene Pepperberg

Jason Crean

Irena Schulz and Sy Montgomery

Jacque and Wendy at Best Friends Parrot Garden

There are so many people that have made this an incredible learning experience. And I’m sorry to say that I haven’t even scratched the surface thanking all of the people who have helped me tell the tale. The people who opened their homes, their lives, their work, and their souls have made my world a better place and my job is to pay it forward by writing about the amazing work that they do. I hope I do it justice.

But the point is, I am a conduit that brings their expertise to you. I can tell a story. It’s my story about my experience with their work. And I hope it has made a difference to you and your animals. My travels, my fatigue, my sweat, work,  long days, airport food and jet lag is worth it.  I see the tide changing as a result. People have become aware of good animal care and nutrition as a result of my work. If I can get just one bird off of a diet of seed, then I will be happy.

As I write this, I keep thinking about Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz.” In the last scene, she realizes something she learned about home:

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

I will always have my home to return to. But my “True North” is the people who show me what they do, how they do it, and take the time to teach me what they know.  I may have to leave home to accomplish this, but when I return, I have brought home their knowledge with me. And because of this, the journey is always worth it.

I’ve been thinking about the culture of aviculture. Not just about what it is that we do to keep birds in our homes and our lives, but how it effects us as a community. It is a specialized world, probably not unlike people who are interested in religion, or insects or  trains.

We have a commonality, and a particular set of attributes that bind us. We have become a “Tribe” of sorts, not unlike the growing community of  “Mac Heads”  who are loyal to the products of Apple. A definition of tribe:

tribe (trīb) n.

1. A unit of sociopolitical organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent.

2. A political, ethnic, or ancestral division of ancient states and cultures, especially:

a. Any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, namely, the Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.

b. Any of the 12 divisions of ancient Israel.

c. A phyle of ancient Greece.

3. A group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit: a tribe of graduate students.

4. Informal A large family.

And not only are we similar in many ways, we have managed to find each other and connect through the internet. This has had a profound effect on our “Tribe.” No longer are we as dependent on any “High Priests” as a source of information. Social media has leveled the playing field and useful information is shared freely while total crap is shot down and questioned. The information has become liquid and elastic, changing and bending as it is updated and improved.

In other words, more and more people are getting more solid information, and our birds have become healthier and happier as a result. For instance, my “Chop Recipe” posts alone have had close to 10,000 views. And that’s not counting how many people who have copied, pasted and sent on the blog posts to other people or printed it. This is just one useful bit of information on how to better feed your parrot. Just one concept!

So what are we all doing? What does this all mean?

We’re all connecting with each other, sharing ideas and helping each other through this one weirdly binding similarity: We have birds in our homes. I’m sure we all have other things in our lives that we share, but that’s not what brought us together.

This tribe of ours, the one I call “The Parrot Nation,” is powerful. There are offshoots, subsets, and special interest sub-tribes, such as people who have Quakers, or pluckers or allow their parrots to live cage-free. There are subsets who support a particular parrot  rescue or believe in a certain way of doing things. There are people who love parakeets, canaries, or train their birds using applied behavior analysis. Their are raptor groups, bird clubs, budgie societies and people who breed birds.

But there is one thing that is unshakable, irrevocable and binds us to each other. And that is our birds and our love for them.

This is  very powerful and gives us an immense amount of leverage. Together we can change things. Together we can enlighten, educate and edify. In a sense, we have all become leaders of our own sub-tribes by being able to find good information and passing it on.

Before the internet, the best that existed in finding good information about birds and their care were books, magazines and bird clubs. In other words, “someone else” was deciding if any piece of information was worthy of being passed on. This limited the sources to a specific group of people. Publishers released books that someone wrote based on their reputation of selling books before. This was how some really awful information became cemented in the minds of so many people and became urban legends. Aghhh!  I’ve read so much egregious stuff about birds that it makes my head spin. Like this little gem:

“I am getting married in September and I’d like to have birdseed thrown instead of rice. Hard, dry rice is harmful to birds. According to ecologists, it absorbs the moisture in their stomachs and kills them.”

If this were true, there wouldn’t be a bird alive in China.

“Never shoulder your bird.”

“Never let a bird get higher then your head because he will “dominate” you.”

This is all a load of bird doo-doo. Regarding shouldering your bird: It should read, “Never shoulder an untrained bird or a bird you don’t know.”  And there is no such thing as height domination.

The internet is changing this “Information From On High” concept. Are are there people who know more than others about keeping birds? Of course!  But no longer are they sitting by themselves and hoping beyond hope that someone who needs their skills and knowledge will get the information somehow. Now there are weirdly indirect, yet more effective ways for good information to be passed along.

This blog is just one example. My posts about the “Chop” recipe for instance, have been translated into some languages I didn’t even recognize. I didn’t send these people the posts. Someone else did. Or they wanted the information, googled it and found it. Or they “read about it somewhere” which led them to my original posts. Someone or something led them to the information.

Writing a post about the “Chop Concept”changed many people’s ideas on how to feed their birds. I have tracked the concept down to bird forums, other blogs, even an online newspaper in Texas. It’s making a change. An impact. And it has bettered many birds lives due to it.

And you know why I even wrote about it in the first place? I couldn’t think of anything else to write about that day. I didn’t think it would matter. Writing about “Chop” was originally a “placeholder.” That post was a fluke. I wrote about making “Chop” because it was what I did that day that was about my parrots.  I wrote about it because I just didn’t have anything more pertinent to say.

Then the poop hit the fan. Somehow, the post about “Chop” began getting hits. A lot of hits. Because of this, I wrote a better and more detailed post with photos. Wham! Questions, emails and posts on Facebook about it. It took on a life of its own. I did a podcast about it. And the hits just keep on coming. Is that important? Apparently it is to the people who want the information.

I use the “Chop Concept” as an example only because I know the backstory to it. I know the timeline of it and I know where it’s been.

But other people have done the same thing: Robin Shewokis with her information on enrichment and Barbara Heidenreich’s information on training are just two examples of information on aviculture getting out to the world.

Good information is no longer difficult to find. But of course, neither is bad information.

But with our “Tribe,” we can ferret out the good stuff and discard the crap. We can become leaders, traffic directors, and policemen in our own tribe. We can bond together, support the good ideas, and squelch the bad information.

It is that bond, that structure, that sense of belonging to our culture that can raise the bar of how we keep our birds. We know where we are. We know that we belong. It’s up to us to make our tribe, the “Parrot Nation,”  a smarter, healthier and better informed global community.

These are Egyptian Geese. The only reason I know this is because I spotted them on the golf course around Christmas when I was working on another post. I snapped this photo and sent it to Steve Malowski, “Lead Cheese in Charge” at the Cincinnati Zoo Bird House:

Naturally he knew right off what they were; Egyptian Geese. There was a pair out at the golf course that had flocked up with some muscovy ducks and some egrets. It got REALLY cold down here in Florida in December and January, so I bought a 50 pound bag of cracked corn for some extra calories to help them through the cold snap. They seemed appreciative.

Yesterday, I was messing around with some dishes and getting a list together to make bean mix for my Greys when I heard this God-awful commotion coming from outside my porch. There they were: five floors up hanging out on the railing directly outside of my porch screen door. I grabbed my camera, some bread and seed and started feeding and shooting:

You wouldn’t believe the honking and fussing going on. Good God! Such a ruckus! And they certainly weren’t very afraid of me. I actually hand fed them a few morsels.

It was so much fun having them visit.

I hope they come back. I love their colors and the fuss they were kicking up. They were fun!

"Shall We Gather at the Chop Pot..."

I am many things, but “Parrot Expert” I’m not. I’m a Flight Attendant, a Writer, a human companion to two parrots and foster family to another. I write, I fly, I clean up parrot crap and rake up toy pieces left in the wake of my African Grey, Parker. If Parker was a human being, he would most likely belong to a motorcycle gang, or at the very least be hanging around street corners and stealing hub caps. Parker isn’t shy, delicate or quiet. He is one of the most confident parrots I’ve ever seen. He also has a tendency to make me nuts.

Be that as it may, and being a writer, I have a tendency to alleviate this frustration by writing about it. This is the “fun” in my dysfunction, so to speak.

Having parrots in my life has not led me to consider group therapy, (yet) nor has it sent me into the comforting arms of antidepressants (yet). Rather than consider these two options, I have decided that for me, writing about my frustration and keeping up a blog is the healthier option.

This is what led me to launching a new area of my writing career. I’d written extensively about Flight Attendants including a One-Act Play, titled “Loves People-Loves to Travel” and I’d written for my esteemed employer: the major airline I fly for.

Now that you all know what my other career is, and if we ever get a chance to meet, allow me to straighten something out for the record right here: I have absolutely no idea what they did with your luggage.

Yes, people do ask me questions like this at bird functions. This is where my eyes glaze over like frosted doughnuts. I get what my friend Shari refers to as “the look.”  She’s referring to the vacant expression and slight smile I get when people begin a sentence with, “I was on a flight once and…”

On the other end, I have seen this look on the Professionals in Aviculture where talking about anything but birds is high entertainment, at least for a little while. For instance, I went to dinner with two Avian Vets at the Houston Parrot Festival and the subject of birds never came up. They seemed almost relieved. Of course the Airline Business did come up of course, but at that point I was a little fatigued from talking about birds as well, having done so for three days straight. So, it was a nice break for all of us. I can’t imagine talking about birds and nothing but birds all the time, every day like they must have to. I mean, I love birds, but  I like to mix it up a little…

The Houston Parrot Festival is like the Parrot World on steroids. Yakking about your birds on Facebook or on a chat group online is one thing; but the Festival? The Festival is like tuning in to a fictitious “ Bird Channel,”  turning it up to full-blast and watching it non-stop for three days.

It’s parrot toys, parrot stuff, parrot health, parrots diets, parrot rescues, parrot training, cages, bells, balls, and swings. It’s as if you’ve turned a corner in the Twilight Zone and found yourself in this big parrot-themed carnival. Baby, it’s parrots everywhere you look!

But the information you get and the people you meet is unreal. Never heard Dr. Irene Pepperberg speak? Well, save your car fare because if you go this year, because she’ll be on hand to give a presentation. and so will Robin Shewokis, Jean Pattison, Chris Biro, and Barbara Heidenreich, among others.

And then there are the regular people like me. I really like running into my friends at the Festival and it’s so fun to see people year after year. There are also the vendors that I see that I enjoy talking to about their products, many of whom I’ve forgotten their names, and some I do remember. Bonnie Jay and Ronny will be there with their array of toys and gear from Star Bird Toys, (Ummm…I can highly recommend one of their toys…)

Laney Rickman and her Organization, “The Bird Endowment” is usually there with her classy shirts, blouses and donated artwork that support her incredible Blue Throat Macaw conservation project. If you haven’t met Laney, you must. Laney is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and has this simply wonderful non-profit conservation project.

Laney introduced me to Steve Malowski from the Cincinnati Zoo who got me approved for my writing, photo and video project on the Cincinnati Zoo for “Parrot Nation.” He is also responsible for making sure my Boney butt was up and out of bed at five in the morning every day during my vacation, which I did happily of course. It’s one thing to get up at that hour, which normally blows, but it’s quite another to do it knowing you’re going to feed penguins, dodge bat guano, and get VERY close to a pair of Andean Condors that day. Steve is responsible for a massive amount of my “Avian Education.” And if it wasn’t for Laney, I never would have gotten that opportunity.

Laney also introduced me to Donald Brightsmith of the Tambopata Macaw Project who, I found out later is an amazing dancer. Yes, I actually danced with “The Donald!”

I met Robin Shewokis at the festival. Robin’s company, “The Leather Elves,” has some downright incredible toys for birds as well as other creatures. She is also one hell of a speaker and released a wonderful video about Enrichment. That’s how I got to know Barbara Heidenreich who will be speaking again this year and has her phenomenal magazine, “Good Bird.” Barbara speaks all over the world and has a more vicious travel schedule than I do.

I was sitting in the ballroom listening to a speaker and a gentleman was sitting at the same table and we started chatting. We introduced ourselves and it was Dr. Lorenzo Crosta ,an Avian Vet who, at one time worked at Loro Parque. He in turn, introduced me to Dr. Brian Speer. That evening after I won a “Major Award” for “Best Chicken Dance,” Dr. Patricia McWhirter asked me if I’d do the chicken dance for her presentation the next day. I accepted happily knowing I’d look like an ass, but what the hell. And it was Lorenzo and Pat who I went to dinner with and ended up talking about airline travel, accents and it was hilarious sitting at a restaurant with an Australian and a couple of Italians sucking down oysters and getting away from birds for a while.

Chris Biro, who teaches free-flight training to people, was having a little trouble during the “Men’s Hula Dance” fundraiser, so I grabbed his hand and steered him around to people who were madly waving money. Chris is a little shy, so I just jumped in to help him. Chris did okay, and I’m sure he’s been practicing for this year!

I don’t remember who introduced me to Sid Price, another free-flight trainer, but he was there as well. He has a wonderful blog and works with “Avian Ambassadors.”

I got to know Melanie Allen of the Hagen Pet Food Company. I have never laughed so hard as I once did with Melanie. I had just begun writing the “Memos” and didn’t know if they would be of interest to anyone. Melanie took the time to read them and steered me in the right direction. Melanie was my first “reader” so to speak.

These are just a few of the people I met at the Festival. I could go on and on but it’s better if you go yourself and just see what it is that I’m talking about. If you see me there, please stop to talk and I’ll introduce you around to a few people I’ve met…

(The Houston Parrot Festival begins on Friday, January 22nd. Please see the link “Houston Parrot Festival” in the post for more information and a registration form. See you there!)

Ten years ago, when the Millennium rolled around, I didn’t have birds. My life was entirely different really. I was still on my first of the four total vacuum cleaners I’ve had since then, I had clean carpeting as opposed to the slate tile I have now and it wasn’t cluttered up with crud. I used to happily do three-day trips for work, ramming around the world like it was my back yard. I could take off to see my friend Lynn in Port St. Lucie. I used to go out at night and when I cleaned, it usually stayed clean for a while.

But life goes on with or without your realizing that changes are bound to happen. And God knows they do. My decision to bring Parker into my life was one of those changes that at the time I didn’t think would be that completely earth-shaking. I mean really, how tough could this be? I was trained to evacuate a 757 in 90 seconds flat, and feed 251 people in high heels, a skirt and some guy trying to take whiz in a ginger ale can in my galley!  Man, was I ever wrong! Getting Parker was the toughest thing I ever took on. But I took it very seriously. The guy whizzing in the ginger ale can? All I said was, “Hey! Put that thing AWAY!”

Parker at the controls of a 757

The birds are just one more thing to do, (Well, actually it’s a BUNCH of other things to do.) but it’s a fun thing. Cleaning cages isn’t too bad for me because I put newspaper on the top of the bottom grates as a substrate.  This keeps their “rooms” much cleaner. It’s easier to just roll up the newspaper, throw it out and replace it than to have to take out the grate and wash it. The cage lasts longer. I’ve had Parker in the same “room” since he was very young, almost seven years now and his room still looks almost brand new. Parker and Pepper don’t eat in their cages, they eat on their Wayne’s bottle brush play gyms.

So my life has changed “slightly”; rather it was changed by bring Parker home one fine April Fool’s Day. It changed again when I trained at Natural Encounters, again when I met Dr. Susan Friedman and completed her course: LLP,(Living and Learning With Parrots) and yet again when I began writing about my birds and about Aviculture.

And the hits just keep on coming! My weeks at the Cincinnati Zoo courtesy of Steve Malowski of the Zoo Bird House, and “Major Dude,” Dave Oehler completely rocked my whole comprehension of birds and bird care because my experience now includes looking after some pretty interesting species like penguins, Condors, Sea Eagles, Keas, Hornbills and Flamingos.

This Kea Just had a bath. But I was wet as well from the cleaning her enclosure.

So as you can imagine, it’s been an amazing ride so far. The people I’ve met and the things I’ve had the privilege of doing, (and planning to do!) keep me happy about my decision to turn my tidy life upside-down by bringing Parker home followed by Pepper a few years later.  I do so love them and moreover, I have really enjoyed meeting people I’ve met who feel the same way.

I’ve had the opportunity to share what I’ve learned by speaking at bird clubs and schools, and I’ve been a little shocked at the growing interest in my posts here at “PN.”

Usually when I take something on, I have a tendency to “do it up brown,” and I guess this “bird thing” was one of them. It led me and my writing skills to “BIRD TALK” magazine and the column, “Memo to Parker & Pepper.” The “Memos” are a trifle, a fun thing in the magazine. I suppose it’s a little like getting the dessert after a good meal. Although from what many readers report, they prefer desert first, which makes me very happy!

I’m thrilled about the growing interest in my “Chop” feeding concept. You can read a popular post about it here: “The Chop Blog.” It got people so interested, I was flabbergasted to find THIS on Amazon. Suffice it to say 2009 was a pretty good year for me.

So as I enter the new decade with my birds in tow, I’m probably not going to try and change things too much with a bunch of resolutions and promises to myself. I like my life too much as it is. But I still intend to pursue my adventures in order to complete my manuscript which includes a trip to “Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.” I’ll get on those flights even if it’s something I hate to do on my time off. And as for Parker and Pepper? Well, let’s just say I’m going to try and give them a little more training time, more outings and a little more time to bask in the sun. After all, they deserve it! Here’s to 2010!