I asked Melissa, my new assistant to tell readers about herself and how she got into parrots. I met Melissa when I came up to Loveland to visit Susanne Cochran at Avalon Aviaries after I gave a program in Denver in 2004. I loved the way she interacted with the parrots there. Even though she loves working at the aviary, she was ready for a change. After considering a move to several places, I made the decision to move to Loveland and Melissa didn’t have to relocate. At the time of this writing she is still working on Saturdays at the aviary but is working full time for the CPQ but once the shop opens, she will work full time here on Saturdays. During the move from California, Melissa saved my sanity and continues to be an excellent assistant.

My Life with Birds    
By Melissa Meadows

        
    Since I was a little girl, I have always loved birds. I have had birds as pets for most of my life, staring with a canary named Chee Chee who we had when I was in elementary school.  My mother is allergic to anything with hair, so we couldn’t have dogs or cats as pets, so we had birds and fish. The summer before I went into 6th grade we got a budgie that we named Allegro, and so my fascination with parrots began. Up until I was in college I only had budgies as pets, (one of which I had with me for 16 years, and who was one of my best friends,) though I longed for a larger parrot.  I read what I could find, and loved to watch PBS and Discovery programs about parrots and other birds.  I began doing rehabilitation work with birds of prey at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program while I was in college, and loved the one on one interaction that I got working with those majestic birds.  Most of the birds that I was working with were permanently disabled, and so were in our education program, and I loved to talk to people and teach them about the various hawks, falcons and owls and their natural history.

     A couple of years later I purchased a Red-lored Amazon out of the newspaper.  She had been living in a travel agency and spent most of her time coved with a blanket to keep her quiet.  She was on an all seed diet, and had never had a bath.  She didn’t even have a name, and the only person who ever talked to her was the mailman when he came to deliver the mail. I had always thought that I would get a hand fed bappy from a good aviary, but I was a poor college student and the bird was in good health, though malnourished (I did have the sense to have her checked by a good avian vet in town before I committed to bringing her home).  The vet told me, because of her open band, that she was a wild caught Amazon, and the people at the travel agency said they had had her for about six years and that she had been a bappy when they got her.  When I got her home, she decided that my brother Eric was the best thing in the whole world, and she would do anything for him.  She also really liked Eric’s identical twin brother Nathan, but she definitely preferred Eric.  All she did was bite me.  After going through several names, I settled on calling her Lucy.  I was determined to get her to like me, and patiently worked with her, mostly to no avail.  I did manage to get her eating a better diet and bathed her on a regular basis, though she really hated being showered.  

    The next summer I started working at Avalon Aviary part time while I finished school.  I learned more about nutrition, bird care, and handling which really helped me with Lucy and I didn’t get bit as often, though she still preferred my brothers.  I also learned how to hand feed baby birds, which I loved (and still love) to do.  Not long after I began working at Avalon, we got back an 18 month old Green winged Macaw named Phoenix whom Susanne, the owner of Avalon Aviary, had raised - the people had gotten tired of him already and decided that they didn’t want him any more.  He had not had a bath the whole nine months that they had had him, and he looked terrible!  He looked much better after having a couple of really good baths and as I began to get to know him fell head over heals for him and soon brought him home, much to the chagrin of my family.  I continued to learn from Susanne and to read everything I could find about birds. 


    After I graduated from college with a degree in Biology, I got an internship in Hawaii working with the Hawaiian Endangered Bird Conservation Program, where I had the opportunity to work with breeding pairs and chicks of many highly endangered Hawaiian birds like the Alala (Hawaiian) Crow, of which there were only 26 individuals living anywhere in the world at the time (the numbers were up to 49 last summer)  and the Nene goose, which has recovered remarkably over the last several years, as well as many small Hawaiian honeycreepers.  While I was in Hawaii for 3 months my sister took care of my birds. I missed them terribly, and asked about them first when I would call home, but loved the work I was doing.  I was offered a full time position there, but was told that I would not be allowed to have any pet birds- there was too much risk of disease transfer to the highly endangered Hawaiian birds.

    I couldn’t give up my birds, so I came back to Colorado and started working at Avalon Aviary again. I also did some volunteer work at the Denver Zoo in Bird World where I had the opportunity to work with a huge variety of birds from songbirds to pheasants to penguins to a couple of Double Wattled Cassowaries and even a baby Black Palm Cockatoo.  I learned a lot there, but still preferred the one on one interaction I got to have with parrots, and so devoted my time and became the Aviary Manager at Avalon Aviary.  I taught classes to people before they would take their birds home, worked with our veterinarians to keep our flock healthy and helped to hand raise and train many species of parrot so that they could be wonderful companions for some very lucky people. 

    Soon after I settled back in Colorado, I bought a house and was finally able to get out of my parents house, much to their relief.  Once away from the male influence of my brothers and dad, Lucy settled down really quickly and I became an acceptable person for her to interact with (mostly because there were no boys around).  Just recently I added another bird to my little flock- a delicate 3 year old Double Yellow Headed Amazon named Dory- her person passed away this past March, and I fell in love with her while I fostered her at my house.  She is a sweet, gentle bird, and it is good for Lucy to have another Amazon that she can interact with. My birds are wonderful companions - they are my best friends.  I don’t know what I would do without them - I think I would be very lonely.