PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

The Online Mineral Museum IS BACK!!!.

The Amazing Bolivian Parrot and Rare Macaw Escapade
Eagle Overload: More Eagles, More Cats, the South Africa Edition
MY KENYA DIARY: IN QUEST OF EAGLES
MADAGASCAR DIARY: SERPENT-EAGLES, GOSHAWKS, AND MORE
A Very Partial Index to the Entries
A for the time being not even remotely complete guide to all 4,300+ plus entries
BIRDS***BIRDING***WILDLIFE GARDENING
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Recent entries

big bird spring clean day - 2019-03-30
cookie nukes a whole orange all to himself - 2019-03-28
march 24, 2019 - 2019-03-24
sheldon, the world's oldest peachfronted conure - 2019-03-23
trying to get these two to egg each other on to eat more greens - 2019-03-22


Read my new book, The 10 Best Things You Can Do For Your Bird at Amazon or at many other fine distributors like Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and more.


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 a simple card-counting FAQ to get you up to speed on the basics. Here's the true story of the notorious DD' blackjack team, told for the first time on the fabulous internets. No other team went from a starting investor's bankroll of zero to winning millions of dollars.


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 official fan site, Passages in the Void..


My Bird Lists -- My Louisiana State Life List, My Yard List and, tah dah, My World Life List.


HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.







my sweet courtney rip

2019-03-16 - 8:17 a.m.

My heart is broken. Courtney passed away last night a few minutes after six. Despite his extreme old age, it seemed sudden, because he had been having a pretty good day up until a short time before when he cried out. For the first time in his long life, the alertness seemed lost in his eyes, and he seemed afraid until I wrapped him close to hold him against my heart. The warmth and the heartbeat seemed to give him peace. A short time later, he closed his eyes for the last time, and I felt his spirit leave.

He was hatched in my home on April 16, 1990, so he passed at age 28 years and 334 days (11 months). In other words, he has been with me for the entire second half of my life. As far as I know, he lived longer than any other member of his species. As he grew more fragile in his last few weeks of life, I rushed my peach-fronted conure book to completion, so that he would be sitting at my side serving as my inspiration while I worked, for I knew I would never have the heart to write it afterward.

Boobear, the 20-year-old cockatiel who became his buddy late in life, also seemed aware that time was growing short. Over the few last days, instead of attempting to make Courtney play on their shared playpen, Boobear seemed happy to sit and nap. On Friday afternoon, their last play date last was an hour-long nap from around 3:45 to 4:45. Although Boobear normally likes to call attention to himself, he seemed to respect Courtney's desire for peace and quiet.

Although his arthritis visibly bothered him on damp days (and Friday was a very damp day), Courtney was determined, alert, and aware until that last terrible half hour. He scrambled into his window to watch for cats and scold the local blue jays. The day before he passed, he took a long soaking bath and then spread himself under the heat lamp to fluff out his feathers. When he stumbled, an increasingly common occurrence, he was still able to grip my fingers and ride back up to his chosen perch.

This morning, very early, above Courtney's grave, a migrating catbird paused to sing song after song, of bird after bird, a great summing up of all the songs he has met on his long journey. Courtney watched over his aviary for so long, for so many years. Even after his mate passed at age 27, he continued to watch out for me. Now his spirit is free to fly on his own long journey.

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