There is a Bandit in our home! This week we were given a little green and grey bird, named Bandit, a Dusky Conure. He is small and very sweet. He has been cared for by a delightful couple for 12 years. It shows how much they loved him in his no biting acceptance of me. He is a welcome addition to the flock.

I am so excited to be getting an old cage of mine for a pair of Blue and Gold Macaws.It arrived yesterday. Today the welder has fixed the loose spots, hung a great dane dog igloo from an iron rod, added food dish holder where I can easily reach them and cut out the rusted old floor. My job is to give it a coat of rust preventer and fill the floor with gravel. The final touch will be to add 2 very large birds. Their new home is in a grove of live oak trees. These moments make it all worthwhile.
Jean

Jean, I am so happy to be involved with Birdlink Sanctuary, Inc. Whether one is in a position to care for the crippled and broken within humanity, or care for those in the animal kingdom, it is a privledge to be there. Naturally, living with, and loving a Pionus (named Poco), makes me partial to birds. You are doing a wonderful and selfless thing! Thank you for letting me be part of it.
~Jackie

The paper work is back from the Texas Secretary of State and Birdlink Sanctuary Inc., is officially a Not For Profit organization. We will do as we have been doing, taking in pet birds that can no longer stay with their owners. We will be writing grant requests and having small fund raisers to cover our cost of operation.

Donations are welcome, bird toys, cages, food, labor or cash. We can use it all. If you have any fund raising ideas, please contact me. If you have a bird that needs to be placed, contact me.

Can you tell what I am holding? This is an example of what was brought to me to raise. These babies birds can be fed and care for successfully, by people that know what to do. This little guy survived and bit me before flying away as a beautiful bluejay.

August 1-5, 2010 "Association of Avian Veterinarians Conference". Barbara Heidenreich will be participating in this event. Visit http://www.aav.org/ for more information.

August 28-29, 2010 "Parrot Training Workshop" Finland. Barbara Heidenreich will be returning to Finland for another weekend of parrot training Visit http://kaijuli.papukaijat.net for more information and articles by Barbara translated into Finnish.

I have a parrot that talks up a storm and I love it! I have also enjoyed working with amazing talking parrots like "Groucho" back in my days at Natural Encounters. (You can see a video clip of us both on the Tonight Show at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfDFa2sQj1s )

I recently sent out a survey about talking parrots and all I can say is "Wow! What a response." There were tons of people who participated. Thanks! My hope is to put those responses together into some useful resources to share with parrot owners, especially those interested in talking parrots.

The temperature is to drop into the "teens" tonight and not go about freezing for several days. This is actually an infrequent even in north Texas. We tend to focus on the heat rather than cold, which is just as deadly to our outside aviary residents.

Yesterday I frantically searched my aviary for "missing" love birds. I climbed up the tree to look into corners, and fell. I counted my love birds over and over, and two were missing. The aviary is secure, concrete walls, heavy wire, redwood and oak rafters, concrete waterfall with shallow ponds, surrounded by large rocks. Finally my husband came in to help me gentle lift the rocks looking for bird bodies. :-(