northwest bird club newsletter€¦ · coal miners – was to die (in most cases). believe it or...
TRANSCRIPT
Northwest Bird Club Newsletter
OCTOBER 2020
PURPOSE
To join together people who have a common interest in keeping and breeding exotic birds in captivity. To educate our members and the general public about the best care, keeping,
maintenance, and breeding of their birds. To support bird conservation. Together we can make can difference.
President’s Message
Dear Members-
This month I had a hard time writing the President‟s message! What do you say to people who have lost
everything including their beloved pets? It is just so horrific! Several of our members live in Talent and Phoenix
and escaped with their lives so we can be happy for that. There are so many people in the community
stepping up to help others it is heartwarming. Please contact me if you hear of a special need that the
members of the bird club can help with. Due to the smoke from the fires in our valley we cancelled the
September meeting. The air was hazardous and many roads were still closed and people were still on
evacuation! First we were stuck at home because of the virus and then stuck inside at home because of the
air! What a year.
On a happier note we will be having our bird mart October 4th. The building made it through the fire! Set up is
Saturday afternoon around 4 pm and anyone that wants to help, we would really appreciate it. Masks must be
worn by all and we will be following all of the social distancing rules. October is when we nominate people for
positions for the bird club. Please let me know if you can fill the position you are doing for 2021, if not, we will
try to find someone to replace you. This will be difficult because everyone does their current positions so
well!!!
President:
Sharon Holscher
Vice President:
Nancy Ingram:
Treasurer:
Ann Valencia
Secretary:
Vicki Jones:
Librarian:
Nancy Ingram
Newsletter Editor
Sabra Scotton
The last few weeks have made me think of what is important to me and all of you members and your families
are important to me. Please come and support our club and come to the bird mart if you feel comfortable.
Stayed tuned to see what November brings us, hopefully we will have a meeting!
Take care all, see you in less than two weeks at our 40th annual bird mart!!!
Your Prez,
Sharon Holscher
NWBC Monthly Meeting Bulletin
Our 40th Annual Bird Mart is being held on the first Sunday in October.
PLEASE PLAN ON ATTENDING TO SUPPORT OUR CLUB!
IMPORTANT LIBRARY INFORMATION
Our bird club library list is on the website. If a member wants a particular book or a book on a specific
topic let me know and I will be happy to bring it to the next meeting. I‟m not going to bring a suitcase
full of books until we are back in the recreation room at Rogue Valley Meadows because of the
pandemic.
Nancy Ingram
The Alameda Fire
Sadly, some of our members lost their homes in the fast moving Alameda fire as it
burned quickly through Talent and Phoenix on September 8, 2020. Some of them
were able to evacuate with their birds, while others lost their beloved birds. Our
hearts go out to all them in this time of great loss and sorrow. Please keep them in
your thoughts and prayers during this time.
Birds That Work for Money – You Won’t Believe Some of Their Jobs
The Police featuring Sting, one of my favorite artists (and groups) were singing a great little ditty the other day on satellite radio and it got me thinking. The name of the song was Canary in a Coal Mine. The theme of the song was “you live your life like a canary in a coal mine”. We’ve all had friends like
that, but I digress.
For the unindoctrinated or too young to know about this, years ago caged canaries were brought down into coal mine shafts. They acted as the first warning sign that oxygen was being depleted and replaced with dangerous gases such as methane or carbon monoxide. Their method of warning the coal miners – was to die (in most cases). Believe it or not, canaries were still used in coal mines up until December 30, 1986. On that date, a little over 200 birds were put out of work (with no benefits to draw on) and replaced with the latest and greatest carbon monoxide detectors. One company CanarySense.com makes all its detectors and canary yellow, kind of like paying homage to the canaries that gave their lives.
A dude known as the father of oxygen therapy named John Haldae was in fact his own best guinea pig in the mid-1800s. He studied oxygen rejuvenation and gas poisoning. He felt: “it could be safer using canaries or mice to detect gas in coal mines”…
Turns out that canaries need more oxygen and are more sensitive to toxic gases through their unique anatomy. Both the aforementioned gases have no color nor odor. If we were to breathe in carbon monoxide directly, it would bind to our red blood cells.Then this heinous gas will actually prevents your hemoglobin‟s ability to carry oxygen resulting in feeling fatigue, chest pain, and the inability to concentrate. (I find concentration elusive some times myself anyway).
Turns out canaries were a great choice because they reacted quickly to the gas. Some humane miners would even go as far as carrying small oxygen vials to revive the birds before returning with them to the surface. Better a canary than a miner, and so it went. The next time you see a lovely little canary singing his heart out you‟ll remember what it‟s ancestors withstood.
The canary thing then begged the question, what other birds have been put to use for tasks other than for our own enjoyment? Surely these amazing winged creatures must have a higher purpose in life other than spreading seed husks and bird poop all over your living room floor.
With carrier pigeons being used as far back as Julius Caesar I figured there had to be some other birds that could help pay the rent. So I did a little drilling and came up with some interesting profiles of working birds.
One of the most notable working birds is the Cormorant. Cormorant fishing has been around since approximately 960 A.D. in both Japan and China. Raised from chicks these birds grow to be absolutely trained and to be subservient to a single fisherman.
First a little about their anatomy. Unlike other waterfowl like ducks, Cormorant‟s feathers contain no preening oil making them less buoyant. This allows them to dive rapidly which is handy if you chase fish for a living.
Now here‟s where it gets interesting in a weird sort of way. The fishermen tie a line around the bird‟s throat so it can‟t swallow the fish it captures. Once the fish is captured the bird is pulled back to the boat with a tether (we are currently out of Cormorant tethers :-). The fisherman pulls the fish from the bird and returns the bird back to the water. Mind you Cormorant fishermen do this with several birds and how they keep the lines from getting tangled is beyond me.
Cormorants are also known to be able to count! During the course of a night‟s work they are rewarded with a fish or two – the tether is loosened to allow them to swallow at this point.Because of their counting abilities, they have literally been known to strike until they get their fair share of “fish pay” for a days work.
No discussion about working birds is complete without talking about pigeons. Homing pigeons are renowned for their ability to return to their home as quickly as possible even a thousand miles away!
In World War II a pigeon named G.I. Joe was the only bird or animal in the United States to be awarded the Dicken Medal for bravery for saving more than 100 British soldiers.
Today racing pigeons are a worldwide hobby. Pigeon racing is accomplished by taking a flock of pigeons to a point that has been precisely measured from their home. Distances can be from 100 to 1000 miles. Traditionally, the birds wear rubber rings with unique serial numbers on their legs which are installed prior to a race. When the pigeon arrives home the trainer removes the ring and places it in a slot in a special pigeon racing clock. Today pigeon‟s speeds are clocked electronically with no need to install or remove any apparatus. Although their speeds are tracked in yards per minute it‟s remarkable to note that they can average speeds upwards of 100 mph. And if they don‟t get attacked by a bird of prey they had a great day racing.
Years ago I had a friend who raced pigeons. It was an incredible site, his backyard in Gurnee, Illinois had a coop with about 100 pigeons. On that balmy summer day, the pigeons were let loose and spent the day just circling his backyard.
In case you were wondering, racing pigeons can cost from less than $30 to more than $400,000.
So how you turn an ability to find your way home at 100 miles an hour flying through the clouds into a paying gig? Let‟s rewind to a couple of years ago – me – taking a phone call from somebody looking for “a bunch of doves”. The response to my query was what I expected, they needed them for a wedding. I politely pleaded ignorance hung up but I was totally indignant.
How dare they want to take these innocent birds, release them in front of a bunch of people into unknown territory where they can crash into buildings, trees, and God knows what?
I immediately wrote a blog post about and then I got an e-mail from someone who ran a company that “rented doves”. Turns out my indignation was for naught! The organization http://www.white-dove-releases.com/ specializes in dove releases for ceremonies. If you check out any of their members you‟ll learn that the birds aren‟t “just” white Doves – they are pure white “Rock Doves” a.k.a. homing pigeons! The companies that release the birds are very particular in terms of not releasing them at night or in foul weather and so forth. They normally put a release distance of no more than 50 miles within a certain geographical area. Now you know.
Oh and by the way, if you‟re interested in knowing how homing pigeons find a way back home, here‟s some science that sheds light on this mysterious subject.
I have 16mm footage (which makes me feel old) of me holding parrots at Parrot Jungle now called Jungle Island when I was 5 making the place really old – it was actually founded in 1935. It‟s one of the few places in the United States that you cannot only look at the animals but you can hold the animals.
Then there‟s Parrot Mountain and Gardens which of all places is in Parrot Forge, Tennessee. Here you can visit the bird garden with more than 70 birds of mixed species, a Lory aviary where you can have Lories sip nectar from your hand then visit a baby bird nursery where you can pet the babies and watch them being hand-fed.
If your budget doesn‟t allow you to travel to these bird-filled parks you could always stay home and watch videos on YouTube for free.
Written by Mitch Rezman Approved by Catherine Tobsing
TO SEE VIDEOS THAT GO WITH THIS STORY: https://www.windycityparrot.com/blog/2017/08/31/birds-work-money/#ixzz6XNXrlN5i
Should You Give Citrus to Your Birds?
Do you know what a motorcycle rider and a bird in the wild have in common? They both rely on a
360-degree view of their environment for survival.
FREE Digital Subscription to World Wide Birds Magazine
On Google just type in “World Wide Bird Magazine and it will come up on that page. Click on their site and subscribe! Yes, it’s THAT easy!
You can also find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WWBMagazine/
Full transparency.
It‟s important to understand where we get the information we pass on to you from “Command Central” at Windy City Parrot which today is from any of our PCs, tablets, or smartphones we interact with daily, tens of thousands of pet bird keepers as well as vets, manufacturers, and rescues, monthly (for the past 20 years) between our website, Facebook, Pinterest, email and other social media platforms.
We listen, we read, we chat and we draw our conclusions. Should you take what we say as gospel? Not necessarily, but it‟s not in our best interest to provide bad pet bird care information.
As little as 20 years ago zookeepers thought red and green Eclectus were two different parrot species
and would try to breed a green with the green or red with a red.
Just yesterday in the Facebook post titled Eclectus are sexually dimorphic – you can tell the sex by
the color – males are green a Facebook fan-related how she walked out of her vet‟s office in disgust
after the vet felt they needed to perform a DNA sexing test on her four-month-old female Eclectus –
Duh.
That said, let‟s get to the heart of the matter. According to the FDA, fruits like tangerines, oranges,
grapefruits, tomatoes and such, are „acidic”. We define acidic using something called a pH factor.
Pure water as well as most human beings have a pH very close to seven which is neutral.
Anything less than seven is considered acidic, a Florida orange has a pH of four.
Humans have a buffering system called acid-based homeostasis which compensates for acidic foods
immediately in the mouth which we need so the food doesn‟t simply burn our esophagus on the way
down.
We‟re not advocating a total elimination of citrus in a bird‟s diet but with a simple understanding that a
bird‟s digestive system does not work like a human‟s you begin to realize how citrus “may” be
harmful.
Birds have no teeth so the food is not masticated (chewed) and where digestion literally begins, in the
mouth of humans, food, in parrots travels first into something called the “crop” (directly from the
mouth) where food is stored, for hours and then softened for a while before it enters the two-part
stomach.
When food enters the first part of the bird‟s stomach, hydrochloric acid, mucus, and a digestive
enzyme called pepsin is secreted where chemical digestion begins.
Food is then passed into the second stomach or gizzard where the food is crushed and ground
mechanically before it‟s passed on to the small intestine which is the primary site of digestion via
chemicals and where nutrients are absorbed.
If you‟ve followed the flow of food from the last two paragraphs please note that the first stop of the
food is in the crop where the food sits – undigested – for hours.
Birds don‟t have an acid-based homeostasis buffering system like humans, so with a few large
chunks of a Florida orange sitting in their crop, isn‟t it possible your bird may develop what we
humans call “heartburn”?
With acid in their crop and no way for them to communicate about their pain or irritation (or ask for a
Tums), they begin pecking at the chest area where they feel the pain is coming from.
We actually first heard of this from veterinarians recommending the removal of citrus from the diet of
self-mutilating parrots.
Further, while the undigested acidic food is sitting in the crop, it is lowering the pH of the rest of the
food in the crop before passing through the rest of the digestive system thus introducing a batch of
acidic food for the stomach to deal with.
So for those of you who say “citrus may be harmful to your bird” is coming as a surprise, I‟ll just let
you draw your own conclusions.
But wait there‟s more.
Some experienced pet bird keepers might ask “How is my bird able to eat hot chili peppers that many
bird owners call „bird peppers?'”
How can a 250g bird eat enough these peppers to blow my head apart without showing any signs of
discomfort?
Human taste buds can only sense sweet, salt, bitter, sour, and as only recently discovered.
Capsaicin is tasteless and odorless and what we feel when we “taste” the hot is really “pain.”
Birds on the other hand have total insensitivity to Capsaicin which is the biggest difference between
taste receptors in birds and humans.
One of the reasons that mother nature puts capsaicin into chili peppers is to make sure that birds
spread chili peppers seeds throughout the world.
Once birds in the wild eat the fruits of wild peppers, the undigested seeds pass out via poop and
based upon how far away the bird flies the seeds are able to develop with less competition.
Science has actually discovered that the seeds of wild peppers are spread throughout nature almost
exclusively by birds.
On the flipside to all of this, one might think that the capsaicin could build up and be retained in the
compound of their flesh and feathers to help guard themselves against predators.
Although this is pretty common in insects, but not common in birds.
When farmers experimented with putting capsaicin compound in chickens they found it to be not
detectable by human beings.
This means you‟ll still have to put hot sauce on your chicken tacos from a bottle for the foreseeable
future.
MitchR
Windy City Parrot
BIRD CLUB CLASSIFIED ADS Classified
Ad Pricing
(Your Ad will be in the monthly newsletter and on our club website)
( Line Ads are free for members )
Line Ads for non-members: $5.00 per month ~ $27.00 for 6 months ~ $55.00 for 1 yr
BOX AD - Includes a box outline to make your ad stand out from the rest – $7.00 per month
DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING ADS for newsletter: 16th of each month.
________________________________________________________________________________
**TO PLACE AN AD E-MAIL: SABRA: [email protected]
(In subject line put “NWBC”) or call (541)941-7844 PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOUR ITEM SELLS
SO I CAN REMOVE IT FROM THE NEWSLETTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DISCLAIMER:
The Northwest Bird Club makes no warrantee as to the health, condition, or
availability of any birds advertised in this newsletter or on our website. ________________________________________________________________________________
FOR SALE: Chocolate society finches. 15.00 each. Diamond Doves 25.00 each.
All birds are 6 to 8 months old, raised outside and very healthy! Contact Sharon Holscher (541)826-8687.
Coming up, beautiful Lady Gouldian finches! **
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOR SALE: Strawberry Finches for Sale: domestically bred.
Contact Nancy Ingram @ (541)535-1416 or [email protected]
Medford, Oregon ***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COCKTAIL NEEDS HOME!!
My name is Rebecca Meade and I live in Bend, OR, but we will travel to get this bird into a GOOD home! We have a 13 year old cockatiel named Calvin. We've had him since he was 8 weeks old. He started out as my son's bird and then my daughter adopted him. My children have gone off to college and I have become Calvin's new owner. (not ideal as I work and have to travel). I think Calvin needs a home with responsible kids or adult who will give him the love and attention he needs and deserves. He's beautiful and is not your typical cockatiel plumage. He is mostly light grey and white patterned somewhat like a bald eagle. He's been a great pet and member of the family, but he needs an owner who can give him the attention and love he deserves. I would be happy to donate him, his cage, toys, and food to a young person or adult interested in having a bird. He's talks some, can mimic voices and tunes, is super interested in people, and loves attention. I don't take him out of his cage, but my kids did and with a little patience I think he will learn to come out of his cage again and sit on your shoulder or finger. Please feel free to pass on this email to anyone who might be interested in Calvin. I'm happy to talk further about him. He's a great bird.
We want the best for Calvin and traveling to Southern Oregon for the right home is totally doable for us. As I mentioned he's been part of our family since he was 8 weeks old. Please feel free to pass on my contact information and I am happy to talk more about our cockatiel. Again, we are happy for a new family to adopt him for free and he will come with a nice large cage, toys, and his favorite food.
Thank you, Rebecca Meade 541-749-9980 [email protected]
True Bird Tales
Making Friends
I just got a one-year-old senegal parrot named Riley; the previous owner told me he likes to eat toast and peanut butter for breakfast. Hudson our 1 1/2year old golden retriever was still not sure of this new creature in the house, until Riley thought it would be nice to share his food with the dog below... Riley and Hudson are now best friends. Whenever Riley eats Hudson is surely there under the cage begging for his share. And Riley always obliges him with a little tasty morsel of what ever it is he's eating!
Caesar Sings Lullabies.
Caesar and Octavia are my cockatiels; they're my pets, but are also a breeding pair. Caesar is a very devoted dad; he guards his nestbox diligently and anytime Octavia comes out for a bite to eat he climbs in. Their clutches hatch at 17 days instead of the normal 19-21 because they sit on them like glue. With this clutch, Caesar seemed even more excited than he was last summer. Tavi had laid a soft-shelled egg and I was concerned about egg binding--so there followed calcium supplements and full-spectrum lighting. I think Caesar knew something was up, and he definitely wanted eggs to be in the box. He kept popping in and looking for them. There are now two eggs in there, and Caesar has developed a new habit. He sings to them. He goes into the box and very, very quietly whistles all his prettiest songs (which are generally made up of wolf whistles, charge whistles, and "Heeeeere, kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty pretty pretty pretty bird"). I can't believe my bird is singing to the eggs. He was a great dad last year; it looks like he'll do even better this time.
OK Dear
My budgie Tweets has learned a new phrase. He has learned to say OK dear, just like I do. The other day my husband was getting ready to go somewhere and he called out "I'm ready to go." I heard a perfect reply "OK dear", only it wasn't from me it was from my feathered friend sitting perched atop my shoulder. He's used the phrase several times in the last few days. When my daughter asked if she could use the CD player, Tweets answered OK dear. I asked him who made him boss. I think I know the answer to that one. My sister's beagle was here over the Christmas holiday. When the dog was being fed and making gross sounds, Tweets looked at me, snorted and said in total disgust "That's NOT a pretty bird." I had
SLEEK AND SASSY
Sleek and Sassy is a fairly local Oregon company who sells seeds and toys.
One of the perks of your NWBC membership is getting their products at
WHOLESALE with NO HANDLING FEE.
Contact Elanah @ (541)535-4700.
to agree. But Tweets liked having the dog here for one reason. He goes swimming in the dog's water dish!
Charlie the Parakeet Says it All
My parakeet Charlie was always making me laugh with his mixed up jabbering. He learned to speak people months before learning to chirp. The first thing he said, running down his cage top when I walked into the room and putting his beak to my nose, was, "Hi there!" Soon after, he was saying, "Happy Birthday!", "Birds don't talk!", "What do you want?", "Rock-n-Roll", "let's Party!", "To be or not to be, that is the question", "Super Bird!", the superman charge tune, "Love You!", kiss sounds, and his favorite, his own name. First he learned to rhyme: "Hi Charlie! let's Party!" which got shortened to "Charlie Party," then remixed to "Charlie Harley Party," and finally extended to "Charlie Harley knarley Party." Next in the line of rhyming was "Derry Sterry Ferry Kerry Larry Berry Sterry Ferry Berry." He informed me one day, "My name's Deke." Another time he told me, "Birds don't talk--aw, so what." While doing the dishes one night he stated, "Mom sure can cook." The all time best was on a particularly bad day when he commiserated, "You know, sometimes ya just wanna shoot someone."
CurleyJo (a Quaker) thinks he is king of the hill but what about his roomy a Sun Conure
named Belle My Quaker CurleyJo thinks he's king of the hill. There's no doubt about it! He lets my sun conure
Belle know that, but in a very unique way. Belle likes to cuddle at night, which drives Curley wild. He'll
pretend not to notice, and when I'm not paying attention he'll sneak up and try to jump on her. She
screams and flies to her cage, while he sits on my shoulder and laughs. However, a few months ago
he added a little something to his pouncing just to let Belle know what he thinks of her. I couldn't
figure out the sound he was making as he stretched out his neck at her when she flew off--it was a
sort of a rolling "hhhrrrrauf". I was puzzled until he made the sound WHEN HE DID A DOODY. My
question as to the exact meaning was answered quite clearly, as the next time he chased her off and
made the sound I said, "Curley, Belle is NOT a doody!" A long volley of "hhhrauf, hrrrrauf hhhhrrrauf"
ensued, with an added "eeeeYUCK!" for emphasis and hysterical Quaker laughter. Yes, my little
Quaker dude was calling poor Belle a DOODY. Yes, indeed. I'm sure he wondered why it took old
dimwitted mom so long to figure it out.
WEBSITE: northwestbirdclub.org