PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

THE PEACHFRONT CONURE FILES
MY KENYA DIARY: IN QUEST OF EAGLES
MADAGASCAR DIARY: SERPENT-EAGLES, GOSHAWKS, AND MORE
TROPICAL STORM BILL CRUSHES OUR HOUSE LIKE A BUG PHOTOS
Hurricane Katrina Disaster Recovery and Photos
A Very Partial Index to the Entries
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SF/BOOKWORM***NUCLEAR/SPACE
POKER *** BLACKJACK*** TRAVEL
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photo copyright © 1987 by Elaine Radford, all rights reserved

100 things about me

Read this before you email me for the first time. Personal mail only. No spam. No mean people. If you can't say something nice, I'm not interested.

Recent entries
some death-defying species from madagascar, my death defied and her extinction defied, yeah both in one trip - 2009-08-11
the borg - 2009-08-10
appearing soon in your hometown - 2009-08-10
tweet - 2009-08-09
don't be talking about me in front of my face, yall - 2009-08-06

By public demand, and after a delay of an embarrassing number of years, I've finally put my notorious essay, Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, free on the fabulous internets.

A bibliography of my published books and stories.

Here's my card-counting FAQ.

Visit my original website but I recommend putting pop-up/banner blockers on first.

A Sadean take on Asimov's classic Three Laws of Robotics can be found in Roger Williams' NOW REVIEWED ON SLASHDOT!!! The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Adult readers only please -- explicit sex and violence. For updates on the "Dead Tree Project" and other topics, you may visit the localroger diary.

Visit Peachfront's Cookbook, for recipes that are fast, cheap, and good. A work in progress.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill blog by Mark Bittner about feral Cherry-Headed Conures in San Francisco.

do conures have walk-ins?

2003-09-17 - 9:53 a.m.

© 2003, all rights reserved by Elaine Radford
Someone has swapped my conure. Before Tropical Storm Bill, this conure was a sweet but extremely nervous little guy who had a bad habit of tearing out his feathers. When the oak tree fell on June 30, one branch smashed into his large eight foot tall stainless steel frame rolling cage and trapped him inside. Miraculously, Timmy was unhurt, and BF cut him out the next day to place in this temporary cage. The parrot aviary, as I've described elsewhere, was completely demolished. Now that it has been replaced, we have determined that Timmy's old cage was also damaged beyond repair and must be discarded. We were very fortunate that this little bird didn't suffer so much as the smallest scratch.
The weird thing is, he doesn't act like the same bird. I expected him to be a nervous, plucking wreck, especially with all the unknown people arriving to work on the house and parrot porch in the aftermath of the accident. Instead, his sweet but neurotic personality has completely changed. He no longer plucks, and he looks like a prize specimen. The only problem is that he is now a grouchy little thing that tries to bite like a snapping turtle.
He can't stay in this small temporary cage, especially if he is too nippy to come out and play with us. I got down a bigger, stronger cage from the leftovers in the attic -- BF's boss used to rent to a pet shop owner who ran out on him, leaving several abandoned cages and other supplies that the boss donated to us -- and I'm hoping we'll have Timmy and Sheldon set up again as good as new very soon.
It would be great if Timmy has stopped plucking for good. But it would be a shame if his sweet personality has been lost for good.
Time will tell.
Click here to return to the Peachfront Conure Files.
Hummingbird Report: Another extremely active day for female Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. There are feeder visits every few minutes, and I've witnessed the Cardinal Climber and pitiful remains of the Cigar Plant being used as well. Lots of scuffles. What a year for migrating Ruby-Throats. While I was working in the garden to install their bird bath and move in a few wildflowers, I myself was squeaked and dive-bombed a couple of times.
a few minutes later
Two hummingbirds were chasing wildly enough that one of them collided with my window with a thump. Fortunately, it wasn't hard enough to stun her, and they whipped around and continued the chase in the direction of the neighbor's tall weed tree.
evening
We checked the CLECO alley and looked over the yard from the back. Dueling hummingbird duos -- all females, apparently -- were everywhere we looked.

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All Rights Reserved, Copyright © 2002-200- by Elaine Radford