Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A life with birds
Is it possible to be a bird person but not own a bird?
When I started off working with the BIRD TALK team as an intern, I couldn’t tell you much about birds. I could tell a cockatiel from a cockatoo, and perhaps a toucan. But that was about it.
I’ve learned a lot, and am still not a bird expert, but I like to think that I’ve become more knowledgeable when it comes to the world of birds.
I was greatly amused this weekend when I went down to San Diego for my birthday weekend. I pulled out the key to my hotel room, and there on the card where three birds. Three lovebirds to be exact, yellow in color with peachy colored faces. I guessed out load that they were lutino peach-faced love birds. (I found out today that they are actually called orange-faced lovebirds.) My friends, as usual, looked at me as if I had grown wings and shook their heads at my random bird trivia. But really now, what are the odds that I would get a key with birds on it? Especially since the other two keys had flip flops on them. The hotel people must have known, or perhaps it’s some sort of bird gravitational pull in my aura.
But back to answering my question and maybe the answer is more that I have a greater appreciation for birds. And with this greater appreciation I find myself including birds in my life.
I still do not own a bird. I don’t think it would be practical in my living situation right now, especially since I’m not completely unpacked and settled into my new house. But thanks to my friends and family, I do own more bird themed items.
My mom got me a statue of a woman holding a dove for Christmas. One view of it is that she wants me to find more peace in my hectic life. But the real reason is that she saw that it had a bird on it, and that is exactly the reason why she got it for me.
Every time I go into a pet store to buy stuff for my cat, I have to walk by the bird section to see what birds are there. I have to say hi to them and I have to look at each of them and try to guess what kind of species they are without looking at the sign.
And that so far, is my life with birds outside of my work with the magazine and BirdChannel.com.
Speaking of BirdChannel.com, the promises of new features has finally happened.
The interactive Medical Conditions tool and the addition of the new Bird Breeder page were launched today. You should go check them out.
- Crystal
When I started off working with the BIRD TALK team as an intern, I couldn’t tell you much about birds. I could tell a cockatiel from a cockatoo, and perhaps a toucan. But that was about it.
I’ve learned a lot, and am still not a bird expert, but I like to think that I’ve become more knowledgeable when it comes to the world of birds.
I was greatly amused this weekend when I went down to San Diego for my birthday weekend. I pulled out the key to my hotel room, and there on the card where three birds. Three lovebirds to be exact, yellow in color with peachy colored faces. I guessed out load that they were lutino peach-faced love birds. (I found out today that they are actually called orange-faced lovebirds.) My friends, as usual, looked at me as if I had grown wings and shook their heads at my random bird trivia. But really now, what are the odds that I would get a key with birds on it? Especially since the other two keys had flip flops on them. The hotel people must have known, or perhaps it’s some sort of bird gravitational pull in my aura.
But back to answering my question and maybe the answer is more that I have a greater appreciation for birds. And with this greater appreciation I find myself including birds in my life.
I still do not own a bird. I don’t think it would be practical in my living situation right now, especially since I’m not completely unpacked and settled into my new house. But thanks to my friends and family, I do own more bird themed items.
My mom got me a statue of a woman holding a dove for Christmas. One view of it is that she wants me to find more peace in my hectic life. But the real reason is that she saw that it had a bird on it, and that is exactly the reason why she got it for me.
Every time I go into a pet store to buy stuff for my cat, I have to walk by the bird section to see what birds are there. I have to say hi to them and I have to look at each of them and try to guess what kind of species they are without looking at the sign.
And that so far, is my life with birds outside of my work with the magazine and BirdChannel.com.
Speaking of BirdChannel.com, the promises of new features has finally happened.
The interactive Medical Conditions tool and the addition of the new Bird Breeder page were launched today. You should go check them out.
- Crystal
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The New Year brings New Things for BirdChannel.com
The month of December was such a busy month, which means that there will be more exciting things to look forward to on BirdChannel.com come January.
The last week of December some of the BIRD TALK editors spent time behind the camera filming a new cooking show series for BirdChannel.com.
Cooking with BIRD TALK features recipes that you can make for you and your bird to share.
It took a while to get the scripts right and to get all of the needed shots, but it was a lot of fun, plus I learned a couple of new things about what birds like to eat.
The first episode should hopefully be aired sometime later in January.
I’ve mentioned the interactive Medical Conditions quite a bit, and the process in getting it ready to go live to the public has been a long one.
Not only was it a long journey to get all of the information for it, but the process of building it and making sure that it was correct and user friendly the first time around took a lot longer than anyone anticipated.
But, it will be available to the public in the first two weeks of January. I hope that it will be a useful tool for pet bird owners. Not just because I worked so hard on it, but because it is full of so much useful information.
On the Birdchannel.com Message Boards I see a lot of posts asking about certain ailments, and what to do about this and what to do about that. The answers to all these questions, or at least a good majority of them, will soon be a couple of clicks away.
I’m also looking forward to getting the Featured Bird of the Month gallery up and running.
The January Featured Bird of the Month is the African Grey. I’ve put requests out to bird owners to send in pictures, funny stories and their experiences of life with their African Grey. I want to put these stories and pictures together and display then on the website for the month of January.
Who wouldn’t want to brag about their pet being featured on a website?
- Crystal
The last week of December some of the BIRD TALK editors spent time behind the camera filming a new cooking show series for BirdChannel.com.
Cooking with BIRD TALK features recipes that you can make for you and your bird to share.
It took a while to get the scripts right and to get all of the needed shots, but it was a lot of fun, plus I learned a couple of new things about what birds like to eat.
The first episode should hopefully be aired sometime later in January.
I’ve mentioned the interactive Medical Conditions quite a bit, and the process in getting it ready to go live to the public has been a long one.
Not only was it a long journey to get all of the information for it, but the process of building it and making sure that it was correct and user friendly the first time around took a lot longer than anyone anticipated.
But, it will be available to the public in the first two weeks of January. I hope that it will be a useful tool for pet bird owners. Not just because I worked so hard on it, but because it is full of so much useful information.
On the Birdchannel.com Message Boards I see a lot of posts asking about certain ailments, and what to do about this and what to do about that. The answers to all these questions, or at least a good majority of them, will soon be a couple of clicks away.
I’m also looking forward to getting the Featured Bird of the Month gallery up and running.
The January Featured Bird of the Month is the African Grey. I’ve put requests out to bird owners to send in pictures, funny stories and their experiences of life with their African Grey. I want to put these stories and pictures together and display then on the website for the month of January.
Who wouldn’t want to brag about their pet being featured on a website?
- Crystal
