My name is Patricia Sund and  I live in Florida. My family consists of 3 African Greys: Parker, Pepper and Nyla.  I’m a Flight Attendant and I write. I also like to cook. When I got my first Grey, Parker years ago, I decided that if I was going to do this “Parrot” thing right, I was going to have to learn a few things. So I sat down and read absolutely everything I could find on the Internet. I bought every book, even the outdated ones, and purchased every training video available. I enrolled in and  completed the Natural Encounters Inc. “Companion Parrot Training Seminars” I and II. After completing these, I  enrolled in, completed and earned a Certificate of  Excellence in Dr. Susan Friedman’s online course,  LLP: Living and Learning with Parrots. These courses are life-changing and I recommend them highly. They will change the way you view your birds, as well as the way you view the world.

I started writing for BIRD TALK Magazine in 2007.  In March of 2009, I began writing a column for BIRD TALK titled “Memo to Parker and Pepper” which is apparently making an impact and is now into its fourth year of publication.  I have written articles for Barbara Heidenreich’s Magazine, “Good Bird,” internal articles for the Company I fly for, American Federation of Aviculture’s Bird Watch Magazine, Phoenix Landing’s, Phoenix Beakin’ and the Alamo Exhibition Bird Club Newsletter. I have done presentations in Positive Reinforcement Training for bird clubs as well as doing children’s presentations for the Boys and Girls Club and several schools. I also spoke at The Long Island Parrot Society, the Raleigh Durham Caged Bird Society, the Midwest Bird Expo, Phoenix Landing and the Rocky Mountain Society of Aviculture Expo.

I worked for three weeks at the Cincinnati Zoo after meeting the Bird House Manager, Steve Malowski at the Houston Parrot Fesitval. He knew good free labor when he saw it! So in September of 2008, I packed up my stuff, entrusted my birds and dog to my good friends Shari Mirojnick, and Beverly Shwartz and took off for Cincinnati. Three weeks later I came home sore, tired and smelling like a Mackerel but man, I had fun!

I began this blog in 2008, not long before I left for the Zoo, and it became my journal of the time I spent there. Now it’s a journal of, as Barbara Heidenreich calls them, my “Adventures in the Bird World”.  You’ll find posts about the Houston Parrot Festival,  and my work with Shari Mirojnick: rehabilitating relinquished African Greys and our efforts to place them.  I write about saving money in these difficult economic times, living with parrots, and managing to thrive and even enjoy life with my Greys. I returned to the Zoo in September of 2009 armed with a video camera for another three weeks to try my hand at using it to expand my blog a bit to include video.

I recently returned from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah with great video and a hell of a story! I’ll be returning to Best Friends soon to work on a video project with them.

I hope you find my blog interesting and come away from reading it feeling entertained, and perhaps learning a bit of something from reading it. Thanks for stopping by.