Parrots can be great pets, but make sure to read up first
on January 28, 2013.
Dunwoody resident Marie Frank with one of her cockatiels
When you ring the doorbell at Marie Frank’s Dunwoody home, she barely cracks the door.
“Come in quickly,” she says, opening the door just enough for you to squeeze through.
Once inside, the reason for her caution is clear. Frank has three pet cockatiels that fly freely about her home.
Dixie perches on the handle of her oven, singing to his reflection in the stainless steel appliance. Lucky hops over to the table where Frank is sitting, curiously inspecting her coffee mug.
Frank said her birds are always entertaining her. But she said most people don’t know what they are getting into when they buy a parrot.
“These are the best pets,” Frank said. “But if you don’t treat them well, they can be your worst nightmare.”
Frank is passionate about teaching people about responsible bird ownership.
Frank said when she got her first gray and yellow cockatiel, Dixie, she assumed it would be happy living in its cage. “I had a 5-year-old son who wanted a parrot,” Frank said. “I think people think – like I did – that you can buy a big cage and look at him because he’s pretty.”
But she soon learned that her bird needed to spend time outside of his cage, flying and interacting with her family.
“Dixie is kind of the one who trained us on how he wanted to be treated,” Frank said. “To treat them properly, you have to give them little or no cage time.”
Since getting her first cockatiel, Frank has rescued three more and has traveled to Arizona to volunteer with a bird rescue sanctuary.
She said there are many things people don’t know about parrots – the family of exotic birds that includes macaws, cockatoos and Amazons.
If birds are bored or unhappy in their cage, they can be very loud and destructive, she said.
Some birds will even pick out their feathers and bite their skin with their beaks if they are confined to a cage.
“People need to know they are social creatures, they do need stimulation, they do need interaction,” Frank said.
Frank said many people give away their parrots, annoyed by the noise the birds make. There are only a few bird rescue groups around the country, and there often isn’t much space.
“The rescues are bursting at the seams. They’re so overcrowded,” Frank said.
One reason those rescues are so crowded: birds have incredibly long life spans.
Smaller parrots like cockatiels can live up to 25 years. But some larger birds, like macaws and African Grey Parrots, have a life span of up to 100 years.
Ron Johnson, owner of Feathered Friends Forever, cares for 1,400 birds at his rescue facility near Augusta.
He said birds come to the rescue from around the country for a variety of reasons. Some have owners who have died, or owners who have moved and can no longer keep them. Some people turn their birds in because they are simply tired of being bitten by the birds or hearing them chirp.
Johnson said the problem is that breeders continue to sell the birds for a large profit.
“Breeders and pet stores don’t care what people buy so long as they collect their money,” Johnson said.
Johnson said someone recently dropped off a bird that was only six months old.
“A breeder convinced this lady that this was a quiet, lovable bird,” Johnson said. “She paid $900 for the bird, $300 for the cage, and had it 48 hours because she couldn’t stand the noise that it made.”
He said it’s important to keep in mind that parrots are wild animals. They still have natural instincts that can make them unfriendly.
“They’re in a sense “domesticated” in that they will take food from your hand and they will talk to you,” Johnson said. “When it’s breeding season, you have Dr. Jekyll.”
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Avoid Pet Bird Jealousy
By Gina Cioli/BowTie Studio/Courtesy Omar’s Exotic Birds
Include your pet bird as your prepare for the newcomer’s arrival to your home.
Introducing a new family member does not have to be a traumatic experience for your existing pet bird. Following a few simple suggestions can make a profound impact on how the new individual, human or animal, is accepted by your pet bird.
1) Avoid nasty surprises. Prepare your pet bird for the new arrival by telling it that there is a new member of the family coming. Your pet bird might not understand exactly what is happening but will know that you are sharing some important information, just as you would with any other family member.
2) Allow your pet bird to participate in preparations for the newcomer. Talk to it when setting up new equipment, regardless of whether it is a new cage or a crib for a child. It’s important that your bird clearly understands that the new addition will not usurp its position in the “flock.”
3) Maintain normal conditions as much as possible. If your bird’s cage needs to be moved to make room for the new addition, do so well in advance of the arrival date, so that it does not associate the newcomer with its being disrupted.
4) If possible, don’t overwhelm your pet bird with several new experiences at the same time — even good ones. Sometimes, people purchase a new cage for their existing pet bird when they get another bird. Lower stress levels by doing so long enough in advance for the existing bird to grow comfortable with it. If the old cage is being given to the newcomer, have it repainted and install new perches and toys so that it appears different to its original owner.
5) Be the liaison with all new relationships. Always hold your existing pet bird the first time it actually sees the new arrival, even if it is a newborn child. For example, place the baby in a bassinet in another room then take your bird to see the newcomer. Adjust the baby’s blanket while holding your bird. Let the bird know that it is your first baby. Talk to the baby about how important your bird is. Tell your bird that the baby is important, too, and that you need the bird’s help taking care of it. If you do this, don’t be surprised if the bird begins to squawk when the child is fussy or if there is a problem. Many of my clients have found that their birds behaved like little “nannies” after having this talk with them! Follow similar guidelines with animal adoptions.
6) Do not expect your bird to love everyone you love. Only expect it to be well-behaved when they are around. If the newcomer is a romantic interest, hold the bird the first time it sees your human friend. If your bird accepts going to strangers, ask it to step on the person’s arm, praising it when he does. Take your bird back after stepping onto the other person’s arm, and praise it again, offering a food treat and a cuddle or scratch, whichever it prefers. The newcomer can offer treats if your bird is amenable. Never force the bird to go to someone when it does not want to. Allow your bird to grow comfortable with the new person in its own time.
7) Maintain the bird’s importance in the family. After the newcomer’s arrival, the existing bird can easily be incorporated into activities by placing it on a portable perch or gym or, the back of a metal folding chair or step stool, so that it can be part of the experience without actually needing to be handled. It is not necessary to do this every time you are interacting with the newcomer, but frequently enough to teach your little friend some social manners. Start with very short sessions, and praise your bird profusely when it remains perched. After it becomes more comfortable, brief words of praise, offered intermittently, will keep it there. Food rewards can be offered for birds that are motivated by their stomachs.
8) Consider the safety of all of your loved ones. Be realistic about the limitations of both small children and your bird. In cases where your bird is curious and climbs down to see the newcomer, keep it caged when you cannot supervise it, or place it on a perch that it cannot climb off of. Whatever the situation, remember to praise it. Include it verbally and visually while you are visiting or interacting with the newcomer.
9) Use physical barriers where necessary. When a baby becomes a curious toddler and may invade the bird’s cage, a baby fence or corral works very well when placed around the cage. They are readily available in most baby stores. If necessary, the fence may need to be used for several years until your child learns to respect the bird’s territory and well-being. That is OK. After all, it is better to keep your family intact, whenever possible.
10) Be patient and compassionate. It often takes time to incorporate all the elements of a new relationship with the old. With love, patience, compassion and consideration toward all family members, your new relationship can actually enhance everyone’s lives, including that of your beloved pet bird.
Do you have a kid-hating parrot? Find out what to do here.
Is your bird jealous or territorial? Find out here.
Couple’s parrots die from fumes created by self-cleaning oven
A Gun Barrel City couple say fumes created by a chemical released when heated during the cleaning of their new Frigidaire oven is responsible for the death of two dear pet parrots.
“It was just a very traumatic thing,” said Linda Rigo.
Tuesday morning on New Year’s day, both Rigo’s blue and gold macaws died. Her husband, John, noticed an odor. He says there were fumes coming from the oven.
“I noticed too that my eyes started burning. In fact right now they are,” said John.
The smell still lingers. We’ve learned that when their teflon-coated oven heated up, it produced a fume that is deadly to birds. The Rigos have had Mickey and Minnie for 24 and 17 years respectively.
“You make sure there are no animals nearby and no children nearby because what you may be doing is killing your loved one liked our loved ones got taken away yesterday,” said John.
There is a manufacturer’s warning for the Frigidaire oven that reads “the health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes.” John wishes that warning was louder than the small fine print.
“They did just enough to think they can get by legally,” said John.
Alan Garrison is the owner at Pet Warehouse in Mabank. He’s heard this happen before.
“They have very delicate respiratory systems. Most people just aren’t aware of it,” said Garrison.
There are two perches sitting empty in the Rigo home. But they’re coming out to warn everyone of the risk, not just for animals but for young ones and the elderly.
The experts at the North Texas Poison Center say “….people with asthma and respiratory issues should leave the house during the cleaning. Although Teflon is safe under ordinary circumstances, when it is heated to 600 degrees F, breathing the fumes can cause chills, fever, profuse sweating, cough, flu-like symptoms and chest tightness.”
“I just hope nobody has to go through this tragedy because it is a tragedy for us,” said Linda.
The Rigos have no plans to get any other birds.
Couple’s 2 beloved parrots die from fumes created by self-cleaning oven
A Gun Barrel City couple say fumes created by a chemical released when heated during the cleaning of their new Frigidaire oven is responsible for the death of two dear pet parrots.
“It was just a very traumatic thing,” said Linda Rigo.
Tuesday morning on New Year’s day, both Rigo’s blue and gold macaws died. Her husband, John, noticed an odor. He says there were fumes coming from the oven.
“I noticed too that my eyes started burning. In fact right now they are,” said John.
The smell still lingers. We’ve learned that when their teflon-coated oven heated up, it produced a fume that is deadly to birds. The Rigos have had Mickey and Minnie for 24 and 17 years respectively.
“You make sure there are no animals nearby and no children nearby because what you may be doing is killing your loved one liked our loved ones got taken away yesterday,” said John.
There is a manufacturer’s warning for the Frigidaire oven that reads “the health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes.” John wishes that warning was louder than the small fine print.
“They did just enough to think they can get by legally,” said John.
Alan Garrison is the owner at Pet Warehouse in Mabank. He’s heard this happen before.
“They have very delicate respiratory systems. Most people just aren’t aware of it,” said Garrison.
There are two perches sitting empty in the Rigo home. But they’re coming out to warn everyone of the risk, not just for animals but for young ones and the elderly.
The experts at the North Texas Poison Center say “….people with asthma and respiratory issues should leave the house during the cleaning. Although Teflon is safe under ordinary circumstances, when it is heated to 600 degrees F, breathing the fumes can cause chills, fever, profuse sweating, cough, flu-like symptoms and chest tightness.”
“I just hope nobody has to go through this tragedy because it is a tragedy for us,” said Linda.
The Rigos have no plans to get any other birds.
Rescue gives abandoned, neglected birds a home (SLIDESHOW)
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — John and Pamela Bussert’s yard is scattered with sunflower seeds. Perches are set up around their house and 55 birds screech around the clock.
The couple keeps what they call a parrot rescue in their yard north of DeFuniak Springs. They take in birds from across the country that are improperly cared for, abandoned or are in need of training and love.
“I take bad birds, birds no one can handle, and I give them a life,” John said while walking through his bird sanctuary, a small building overflowing with cages.
The Busserts’ rescue is filled with parrots of all shapes and sizes — each with a back story and a personality that John and Pamela happily share with anyone who visits.
View more photos of the couple’s feathered friends
One bird greets them every morning with “How’s your coffee?” and an “Mmmm.” Another pecks at its cage until it gets a taste of whatever John or Pamela is eating.
John started off looking for a way to make good money in the early 1980s, and thought breeding exotic birds would be an exciting career. Not long into it, though, he saw the side of the business in which birds are not cared for and are abandoned long before their time is up.
“The average bird lives less than five years when they should be living 80 or 90 years,” John said. “I decided I wanted to change that about 18 years ago. I’ve been keeping birds ever since.”
The couple said most of their birds come through word of mouth from people who know of one that needs a home. Some have been purchased and others were found.
“They need it,” Pamela said of caring for the birds. “I married into this and it was really challenging melding into the parrot world, but once you start something like this you see that there’s a huge need for it.”
On an average day, the couple is awakened by a handful of birds living in their house. Hours are spent preparing food, which consists of just about every fruit and vegetable except avocados. Pamela said avocados are just too hard for the birds to eat.
The Busserts also train the birds to be used as photo props and shown at festivals, trade shows and company gatherings.
“John is like the bird whisperer,” Pamela said. “He can interpret their body language and sense what they’ll do. He has had to learn; if you look at his arms he’s been bitten a lot. It’s a lot of dedication, but this is his passion.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.
‘God’s little ambassadors’: Birds and the people who love them
Let’s get a parrot, Sherryl Cox told her husband.
Ernie Cox had bought a parrot before, for his daughter during his first marriage.
It was a Quaker, a medium-sized green parrot that never won over his ex-wife or son.
But Ernie kind of liked that bird.
So yeah, let’s get a parrot, he replied to Sherryl.
This is their second marriage, after all. Their kids from the previous marriages are grown, so they do what they want this go-round: travel, dress up for Renaissance fairs, buy parrots.
Except the first one died. Then they saw an ad for a parrot in need of a good home: a 4-year-old green-cheeked conure they named Jasper. They drove across several states to pick up the bird and bring it home.
Now Jasper snuggles in Ernie’s shirt at night. She dances. She squeezes Ernie’s hand when she needs to use the bathroom (in the toilet). She rules the roost.
But she’s not the only one.
After Jasper came Kasha, a sassy cinnamon-cheeked conure who will snuggle anyone (even giggling, nervous newspaper reporters).
“Two is our limit,” they said.
It wasn’t.
Then came Sweet P, a Quaker parrot. And Juno, a parakeet. (Bird people call them budgies.)
Their birds’ massive cages consume much of the space in Ernie and Sherryl’s tidy apartment living room. The parrots have perches high in the living room, on the front porch, in the shower.
Sherryl Cox’s daughter-in-law called her “a bird lady” in a Facebook post.
“I said, ‘It’s OK you called me that. It’s better than an old cat lady.’ ”
Bird bonding
There are dog people, there are cat people – and then there are bird people.
Twice a year, Tulsa’s bird people gather for the Oklahoma Avicultural Society’s exotic bird fair.
License plates in the parking lot revealed folks came from as far as Colorado for this fall’s show, to peek at the pink parakeets, hunt for bargains on banana chips and possibly splurge on a $600 cage.
In the corner of the former Church of Christ-turned event center hosting this year’s fair, an alpha cockatoo shrieked. He was mad. Some gawkers had gotten a little too close for comfort with their iPhones.
Across the room, a calmer cockatoo canoodled with a prospective buyer while the breeder shared this selling point: You can shower with it.
“Would you like a shower?” She asks the bird as it nuzzled her.
In an adjacent room where merchants sold gourmet treats, homemade toys and denim applique shirts featuring prints of feathered friends, a lady dressed in leggings and a purple T-shirt cut right to the chase. Her shirt read: “crazy bird lady.”
A progression
Maureen Horton and Joyce Legere had a table of conures perched at the Avicultural Society fair, but it was nothing compared to the booth they run Friday through Sunday at the Great American Flea Market on Admiral Boulevard.
There, the two women support their Gifted Wings Ministry pet-assisted therapy and bird rescue by selling bird supplies and finding proper homes for birds in need.
People are typically drawn in by the sight of Callie, their “spokesbird.” Callie is a calico macaw, a hybrid, who does tricks and has an impressive vocabulary. She is not for sale.
“We don’t allow impulse buys,” Horton said. “We’re not going to sell a cockatoo to somebody if it’s their first bird.”
The bigger the bird, generally, the more expensive, time-consuming and challenging it is to care for, Horton said.
A good first bird for someone, depending on the age of the caretaker and time they can devote, might be a cockatiel or a budgie.
You do not start with a Callie.
“They go on YouTube and see these phenomenal birds, and then they come in and expect to get a bird to walk, talk and buy groceries,” Horton said. “There’s training involved.”
Horton and Legere started with two English budgies, and the passion for feathered friends grew from there.
Their flock now includes 80 birds and a $3,000 food bill.
“Once somebody becomes a bird person, there’s a natural progression,” Horton said. Which usually leads to more birds, bigger cages, and bigger bills for food and veterinary care.
Through Gifted Wings, they take their friendliest birds to visit seniors at assisted living centers, disabled people in group homes and women living at domestic violence shelters.
“We consider the birds to be God’s little ambassadors,” Horton said. “We wanted to reach those marginalized people. The birds, they’ve drawn people out of themselves.”
Even those who may not have known they were bird people.
Avicultural meetings
The Oklahoma Avicultural Society meets the fourth Sunday of each month at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The group hosts bird fairs every spring and fall. Learn more at tulsaworld.com/OAS
Original Print Headline: Bird people
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Bird people follow annual fairs
Let’s get a parrot, Sherryl Cox told her husband.
Ernie Cox had bought a parrot before, for his daughter during his first marriage.
It was a Quaker, a medium-sized green parrot that never won over his ex-wife or son.
But Ernie kind of liked that bird.
So yeah, let’s get a parrot, he replied to Sherryl.
This is their second marriage, after all. Their kids from the previous marriages are grown, so they do what they want this go-round: travel, dress up for Renaissance fairs, buy parrots.
Except the first one died. Then they saw an ad for a parrot in need of a good home: a 4-year-old green-cheeked conure they named Jasper. They drove across several states to pick up the bird and bring it home.
Now Jasper snuggles in Ernie’s shirt at night. She dances. She squeezes Ernie’s hand when she needs to use the bathroom (in the toilet). She rules the roost.
But she’s not the only one.
After Jasper came Kasha, a sassy cinnamon-cheeked conure who will snuggle anyone (even giggling, nervous newspaper reporters).
“Two is our limit,” they said.
It wasn’t.
Then came Sweet P, a Quaker parrot. And Juno, a parakeet. (Bird people call them budgies.)
Their birds’ massive cages consume much of the space in Ernie and Sherryl’s tidy apartment living room. The parrots have perches high in the living room, on the front porch, in the shower.
Sherryl Cox’s daughter-in-law called her “a bird lady” in a Facebook post.
“I said, ‘It’s OK you called me that. It’s better than an old cat lady.’ ”
Bird bonding
There are dog people, there are cat people – and then there are bird people.
Twice a year, Tulsa’s bird people gather for the Oklahoma Avicultural Society’s exotic bird fair.
License plates in the parking lot revealed folks came from as far as Colorado for this fall’s show, to peek at the pink parakeets, hunt for bargains on banana chips and possibly splurge on a $600 cage.
In the corner of the former Church of Christ-turned event center hosting this year’s fair, an alpha cockatoo shrieked. He was mad. Some gawkers had gotten a little too close for comfort with their iPhones.
Across the room, a calmer cockatoo canoodled with a prospective buyer while the breeder shared this selling point: You can shower with it.
“Would you like a shower?” She asks the bird as it nuzzled her.
In an adjacent room where merchants sold gourmet treats, homemade toys and denim applique shirts featuring prints of feathered friends, a lady dressed in leggings and a purple T-shirt cut right to the chase. Her shirt read: “crazy bird lady.”
A progression
Maureen Horton and Joyce Legere had a table of conures perched at the Avicultural Society fair, but it was nothing compared to the booth they run Friday through Sunday at the Great American Flea Market on Admiral Boulevard.
There, the two women support their Gifted Wings Ministry pet-assisted therapy and bird rescue by selling bird supplies and finding proper homes for birds in need.
People are typically drawn in by the sight of Callie, their “spokesbird.” Callie is a calico macaw, a hybrid, who does tricks and has an impressive vocabulary. She is not for sale.
“We don’t allow impulse buys,” Horton said. “We’re not going to sell a cockatoo to somebody if it’s their first bird.”
The bigger the bird, generally, the more expensive, time-consuming and challenging it is to care for, Horton said.
A good first bird for someone, depending on the age of the caretaker and time they can devote, might be a cockatiel or a budgie.
You do not start with a Callie.
“They go on YouTube and see these phenomenal birds, and then they come in and expect to get a bird to walk, talk and buy groceries,” Horton said. “There’s training involved.”
Horton and Legere started with two English budgies, and the passion for feathered friends grew from there.
Their flock now includes 80 birds and a $3,000 food bill.
“Once somebody becomes a bird person, there’s a natural progression,” Horton said. Which usually leads to more birds, bigger cages, and bigger bills for food and veterinary care.
Through Gifted Wings, they take their friendliest birds to visit seniors at assisted living centers, disabled people in group homes and women living at domestic violence shelters.
“We consider the birds to be God’s little ambassadors,” Horton said. “We wanted to reach those marginalized people. The birds, they’ve drawn people out of themselves.”
Even those who may not have known they were bird people.
Avicultural meetings
The Oklahoma Avicultural Society meets the fourth Sunday of each month at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The group hosts bird fairs every spring and fall. Learn more at tulsaworld.com/OAS
Original Print Headline: Bird people
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Quaker Parakeets can be delight, handful
The photo is what attracted my attention.
A little green Quaker Parakeet graced the cover of a brochure, leaning in towards the camera.
It’s the pose Simon, my Quaker, often adopts in photographs. It’s the expression of curiosity, of listening to the mechanical movement of the lens inside the camera and wondering just what it would take to dismantle it.
The photo is the cover shot of a brochure entitled “Medium Parrots,” which aims to provide information about Quakers, Eclectus Parrots and Bare Eyes Cockatoos to potential owners.
Experience level: Advanced, the brochure proclaims.
That line made me chuckle. Simon can be a handful — more than I expected when I chose to adopt him but I’m a sucker for a cute fuzzy face.
The brochure outlines the minimum cage size, placement of perches and food bowls, bedding, diet and traits and behaviors.
The “Play” section is the smallest of all. I guess it falls in line with the bird toy section at this particular pet store — miniscule.
The toy recommendation reads: “Provide at least 2-3 toys (at all times) to keep your pet busy. Foraging toys provide a food reward for task completion and may reduce boredom and/or feather picking behaviors.”
Two to three toys? I don’t know about the Eclectus and the Cockatoos, but Simon plays with more toys than that in any given day.
I’m ashamed to admit Simon has a few cat toys. You know the ones — the balls with the little bell inside that perpetually get lost under the sofa. Some days I come home from work to find all three balls floating in his water bowl.
I bought him a basketball hoop, complete with a ball hanging from a chain in hopes he would learn to dunk the ball. Simon did learn to dunk it — he took the ball off the chain, dunked it in his water bowl and proceeded to shoot some hoops using his Cheerios.
Simon has preening toys of chew on, thinking toys to dismantle and toy that are simply fun to swing from. He even has a toy cell phone that I kind of broke in a cleaning frenzy. Now, when no one is around to mash its buttons, the eerie childlike voice yells “I love you.”
Simon seems happiest when he has a lot of things to attract his attention.
His favorite play thing? Me.
The brochure addresses that a little. It tells prospective medium parrot owners their birds will “want to interact with their Pet Parent as much as possible. They require at least two hours or more of daily interaction.”
I wonder how many people take that to heart.
It’s not always easy to give Simon the attention he craves. Life gets in the way. Sometimes, he is OK with it and other times he lets me know he’s feeling neglected.
That may be why many birds find themselves up for sale or in shelters. Their “Pet Parent” didn’t want to or have the time to play. Then the bird acts out and yells, much like a child who will do anything for the attention of his mother.
Simon, I think, would be happiest if he could perch on my shoulder and be my little pirate parrot all day, every day.
But the world is not ready for that, so I do the best I can to make sure Simon feels loved.
I think he does. After all, he won’t let anyone else kiss his wings.
Parrots & People
Many years ago, through odd circumstances, I broke up with one young woman who had a parrot only to take up with another young woman who had a parrot. You might assume I worked in an exotic bird store, but it was just one of those coincidences that sometimes happen even to people who don’t put much stock in such things.
The thing that confused me at the time was why anyone would ever want to share their home with one of those creatures. I am referring to the parrots, not the young women. Even though I didn’t live with the ladies, on various occasions, when they had to go out of town, it became my responsibility to feed the birds and change their water. And every time I did, I came under attack.
As I say, that was a long time ago, but I only recently figured out what purpose the parrots served. It was to prepare these women to one day be the mothers of teenagers. After all, parrots are notorious for their lousy personalities and their general lack of hygiene. When you factor in their lack of gratitude, which they displayed by attacking me, the person commissioned to provide them with food and water, you can see how closely they resemble an ordinary American teenager.
Another group they very much remind me of are liberals. Just consider a typical group of Occupy Wall Streeters with their screeching, their filth and their repetitious parroting of inane slogans. Stick them on their perches, glue a few colorful feathers on them, and you could fool a team of ornithologists.
For instance, Obama’s people invented a fictional woman they chose to call Julia. They used her to point out how Julia advances from the age of three to 67 by constantly depending on the largesse of Obama and the American taxpayer to survive. I suppose the subliminal message is that Obama not only has to be re-elected this November, but a lot of additional Novembers to get Julia through to her 67th birthday. At that point, I assume that Obama’s death panel will decide that Julia has lived long enough and is not entitled to undergo heart surgery.
Eric Holder defended the Department of Justice spending millions of dollars prosecuting Roger Clemens for a second time because lying to Congress about his alleged use of human growth hormones was such a serious offense. It just happened to be on the same day that a congressional committee considered citing Holder for contempt for refusing to release documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious.
Apparently we are saddled with an attorney general who thinks getting to the bottom of whether or not Clemens was juiced when he shut out the Minnesota Twins 10 years ago is more important than a gun-running operation that resulted in a U.S. border guard being murdered with one of those guns.
Obama, who quite naturally refuses to run on his record, is, instead, insisting that he needs another four years to finish the job. But because of the near-universal disapproval of ObamaCare, the trillion dollar stimulus, the additional six trillion dollars of debt and his anti-Israel position, he’s in the weird position of not being able to tell us exactly what this job is that he wishes to keep doing.
Perhaps he’s alluding to the greater flexibility he promised Medvedev he’d have after the election. Still, after refusing to provide Poland and the Czech Republic with an anti-missile defense system and promising to decimate our nuclear arsenal, I bet even Putin is scratching his head, trying to figure out what Santa Obama could possibly have in mind. The blue prints for a drone? The green light to roll Russian tanks back into Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine? Or perhaps just the deed to Alaska?
Although Obama and his flunkies keep referring to the economy he inherited as the worst since the Great Depression, the fact is that the economy that Reagan inherited from Jimmy Carter was pretty awful. In 1980, the rate of inflation was 13.58% and unemployment was 7.18%, which translated to 20.76 on the misery index.
In 2012, inflation is around 3% and although, according to the feds, unemployment is hovering around 8.1%, we all know that underemployment combined with the people who have simply stopped looking for work would raise the actual number to about 15%, making for a miserable, Carter-like, 18% on the misery index.
If Romney poses the question Reagan posed in 1980, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago,” just about everyone who’s not on Obama’s payroll would have to answer with a resounding “No!”
Finally, because I am a frequent viewer of Fox, it’s my curse in life to see Juan Williams nearly every time I tune in to Bret Baier’s “Special Report,” Bill O’Reilly’s “The Factor” and Chris Wallace’s “Fox News Sunday.” I can only assume that he possesses incriminating photos of Roger Ailes.
His singular role on Fox seems to be to spin like a top for the Obama administration and parrot excuses for the man’s endless string of failures.
The fact is, Juan Williams expends so much effort carrying Barack Obama’s water, I just hope for his sake that he never leaves home without his truss.
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Where have all the birds gone?
It is April and another Vishu came and is gone. It is the New Year festival of Kerala, and closely related to the beginning of agricultural activities. In the past, immediately after Vishu paddy would be sown, and agricultural activities would start anew. Farmers believed in the rain god and the rains never failed them. But even if the rains played truant, there was one bird — vishupakshi — which never failed to wake up farmers with its vitthum kaikkottum (seed and spade) song. Every year starting in the first week of March, the bird was heard singing its never-ending vitthum kaikkottum. It was a reminder to the farmers and background music to the beginning of farming activities. I have never heard any other bird, except the cuckoo, that sings so beautifully as vishupakshi. And this song would be heard only in March and April.
This summer, the bird might have watched that even if it urges the people to take to the seed and shovel, nobody has seeds to take and it might also have observed that in the district which was once called the granary of Kerala, there is no place for sowing the seeds and it might have decided not to sing or even visit us (I think it is a migratory bird. It sings even at midnight. It perches only on the top of very big trees and their felling may be the reason why the bird did not turn up). Not only are the song and sound of vishupakshi missing today; there are many other birds which won’t be seen and heard again.
We were an agrarian people. And my main hobby in my early teens was to wander through paddyfields to see the different kinds of birds and how they nest. On the outskirts of the paddyfields, there had been many coconut trees and black palm trees. Beautifully crafted nests of the weaver-birds — thookkanaam kuruvikal — would be seen dangling from the ends of palm leaves. Hundreds of these little birds would land on the paddy to squeeze the milk from the tender rice. They would come to the fields when the young stalks come out of the rice-plants. At this stage of the paddy, my father would send me to our field with a tin-drum to scare these birds away. But often I have enjoyed the sight of these little birds balancing on the tender stalks and squeezing the milk out of the green rice. When the paddy is ripe enough to harvest, flocks of parrots would land there and cut the ripe stalks with their sharp beaks and fly away with the stalks dangling in their beaks. I have always liked to see this sight also.
The nests of parrots were neatly crafted holes in the trunks of palm trees. I continued to wonder how they made these holes on the hard trunks until I saw the patient work of the woodpeckers. They were the carpenters and their long, sharp and strong beaks, chisels. They make the holes (in search of worms inside the weak spots of the trunks) and the parrots occupy them. If I heard the sound tak, tak, tak, I knew it was a woodpecker chiselling a hard trunk. I would go after him. It seems that the woodpecker is the only bird which can walk perpendicularly on the tree trunks! How beautiful the sight was! Its strong legs, red crest, the dark red stripe on the face and black beak and the tak, tak, tak sound used to captivate me.
One of the coconut trees near the pond was thunderstruck. It was a headless trunk for a long time and there were at least three parrot nests on its top. I have seen many parrots entering the holes and coming out to bring food to their little ones. One day, I saw the tree was being cut. I rushed to the site and begged the tree cutters to spare the trunk as it was the home of many a parrot. But I was laughed at and the tree fell with a great thud. I ran to the top end to see two just hatched chicks thrown out of their nest and smashed to death. I looked into all the nests and saw smashed eggs in two of them and one little chick in the other one. Fortunately, the little one survived the fall. I brought it home. The chick can be identified as a parrot only by the shape and colour of its beak. No feathers had come out. I carefully fed it with milk and within two weeks it began to eat bananas; and two months later, it started to fly and I let him fly away. But he wouldn’t fly long. He used to linger on the coconut trees in our compound and when I reached home from school, he would fly down and land on my head!
I would show him my finger and he would jump on to it from my head and drink the milk I offered him in a little plate. By putting the sharp end of the upper beak stationary in the plate, he would drink the milk by moving his tongue and lower beak to and fro. Then he would fly on to my shoulder and eat paddy from my palm. He put each grain between his upper and lower beaks and deftly removed the chaff, pressing the lower beak against the upper beak; and swallowed the rice. After filling his little stomach he would go into his cage and sleep putting his head inside his right wing. I will close the cage and put it near my pillow. At 6 sharp in the morning, he would start to be restless and the moment I opened the cage, he would fly on to my head and from there to my hand and then would drink some milk in haste and fly away like an arrow.
When he became a fully grown up one, he began to go far and wide. I didn’t know where he went, but after six o’ clock in the evening he would be waiting for me on the coconut tree. If I was not home someday, he would not come down. He would roost on the coconut tree and fly away in the morning. The most interesting fact was that all fellow parrots would be there on the coconut tree to take him with them in the morning and all of them accompanied him to the coconut tree in the evening.
They would be wonderstruck at the sight of his landing on my head and fly away together, making musical sounds in a chorus. For more than three years he had been my intimate friend whom I had given all the freedom he was born to. At last, he stopped coming. His family bonds might have become stronger than his friendship with me. Still I miss him, but I am happy that he was not denied the joys and ecstasy of the arboreal life to which he was born.
Today, this real story is the one my five-year-old younger daughter wants to hear again and again. I have recounted the story umpteen times. And every time after hearing it, she asks me to show her a woodpecker which makes nests for parrots.
Alas, they are not seen nowadays! Not only woodpeckers, even the parrots are not seen in our locality. And what happened to the weaver-birds? Not even a single nest is seen today. How can they be seen? Paddy cultivation is disappearing from my village and can these birds, who feed mainly on paddy, survive the man-made ‘climate change’ or rather the ‘cultivation change’? But where have all the woodpeckers gone? What happened to them? In the yesteryear, the bird was spotted in pairs almost everyday, but now I have not been able to show my five-year old younger child even a single woodpecker! I have been listening long since to hear the sound — tak, tak, tak…tak, tak, tak…
(lscvsuku@gmail.com)
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