Petri the sun conure selected Sandy Lender 13 years ago when he was hatched in Kansas City, Kan. Now the two live in Southwest Florida.
Sandy Lender had an idea. She wanted to start a magazine. That’s all well and good, but how do you do that? Personally, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. But Sandy knows how. She has one hell of a set of skills that are right up this magazine startup alley. With the unfortunate and sad demise of BIRD TALK, there is room for a magazine in the field of aviculture. The time is right, and the need is there. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and I was approached to write for In Your Flock. Naturally I leapt at the chance and hopefully, I will be writing for In Your Flock on a regular basis. I have invited Sandy as Guest Blogger here to write about her vision of her new magazine. I also invite you to subscribe.
In Your Flock Takes Wing
By Guest Blogger Sandy Lender
When given a second chance at life, career and love, a person like me is also given to musing on her blessings. I’m incredibly blessed to have had a sun conure (Aratinga solstitialis) named Petri with me through my health, work and end-of-marriage struggles. It’s our bond and his personality that took my musings toward avian conservation this summer. I learned that Petri’s distant cousins in South America and the Indies are endangered; the news shook me.
What do I have to give?
I’m not a wealthy woman. My fiancé is not a wealthy man. This means I’m not in a position to breed dozens of conures a year to then head start with their parents in a mock palm grove or on a mock Amazon riverbank to then transport to Central Guyana or deep into Venezuela to then release into the wild while the process continues back “at the ranch.”
Ernie the Vos. eclectus left one loving home for another in January of 2012 under stressful circumstances. Now he gets extra attention and tons of Chop that Sandy makes for him.
You can see by the seven-bird flock in my home that I’m a sucker for a cute feathered tail. Or, in the case of my Vosmaeri eclectus, a non-tail. Ernie typically pulls out the only two tail feathers he can grow. Yes, I’m talking about re-homing and rescuing parrots as well as saving the ones in the wild. I know that I can’t take on the responsibility—emotionally, financially or time-wise—of building a rescue or sanctuary for abandoned or special-needs parrots.
I am, however, skilled as a journalist, editor, and art and editorial director. I’m a card-carrying member of the Naples Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. I have experience starting up companies under umbrella companies and I have experience starting up publications. That skill set could be useful to Petri’s cousins. In fact, as I mused on the topic and researched the facts behind the “ideas” Petri and I have been living for 13 years together, I saw how my skill set could be useful to any parrot living in a domesticated situation or flying free in the wild. I could publish a magazine called In Your Flock.
Love it? Save it.
The Senegalese naturalist, Baba Diome once said, “We save what we love; we love what we understand; we understand what we are taught.” In Your Flock aims to conserve not just the parrots and habitats in the wild, but especially to help the precious companion parrots in our homes and in our hearts through education. Petri has taught me unconditional love and has opened my eyes to the plight of companion parrots, the worries of wild parrots and the need to get good education out there for pet bird owners.
I hope many readers and bloggers in Parrot Nation™ will join in the task of teaching so more people understand, love and save the precious parrots around us. You can subscribe to the print or digital versions of In Your Flock at www.InYourFlock.com, where a Flock Members only section will be set aside to complement the digital edition shortly after the Nov. 1, 2012, launch. It’s an exciting time to be owned by a parrot!
About Sandy Lender:
Sandy Lender is a published fantasy author, a magazine editor, a sea turtle conservationist, a two-time cancer survivor and a guardian to seven companion parrots who keep her hopping with their demands. She launches the new print and digital magazine In Your Flock with her fiance and partner Joe Dougherty this Nov. 1.
Links:
Patricia Sund
Parrot Nation 
October 8, 2012 at 10:31 am
Subscribed and looking forward to this magazine!
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October 8, 2012 at 10:53 am
Sure will subscribe, and thanks to both of you for continuing the magazine tradition. I’m sure there’s a whole group of people who still love seeing stuff in print, in spite of the internet-driven world we live in! Much success to you!
Sher
On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 7:03 AM, Parrot Nati
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October 8, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Hi, Marcia!
Welcome to the madness, Sher! I’m in this unique spot in the publishing industry right now where both of the magazines I work on have this loyal-to-print following. And that’s fine by me. I can cater to all audiences right now. 🙂
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October 16, 2012 at 10:52 am
Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.
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October 16, 2012 at 4:19 pm
A lesson from the movie “Paulie”… Of course, both Paulie and his janitor friend learned to open their “beaks” and speak their souls.
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