Now is a great time of year to buy this useful tool, many are quite cheap from now til the end of Nov. Often it's not til the year-end rush hits that prices go up.

There is lots of room on these calendars to write yourself comments about what to watch for on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, and because you can see an entire month at a time, you are both more likely to write down the note you need for the correct day when you think of it, and you are also more likely to see it on the day you need to remember what to do.

This little tool makes it so much easier to remember when to administer medications, clean cages, check physical condition, or whatever other chore needs attention.

I find an over-sized calendar so useful during breeding season that I can no longer imagine going through the spring without one. A few years back I didn't get to the store in time, and the stock for the year was sold out by the time I arrived. That year my spring breeding season was a hopeless mess - without that calendar to remind me of my timing, I was utterly lost and almost completely disorganized!

These days I buy my 'bird-desk' calendar as soon as they are available, along with a pen able to write at any angle. This pen will be attached to the calendar, in its place of honour on the bird-room wall, giving me the ability to jot down notes 'on the fly', as it were.

This way, I know that no matter how my attention wanders, I will be able to continue to track birdroom events and make plans for the future, as well as remembering what to do and when!

Our next issue is due out Nov 25th - until then, may you and your birds enjoy all the best of everything!

Robirda
November 11, 2001
Vancouver, BC

Welcome to the Companion Birds eZine

For bird people who care.

Hello!   Welcome to the 32nd issue of Flock Talk!

If you find help you need in this eZine, please consider joining our sponsors, and help keep Flock Talk and its web home alive and well. Learn how here.

Send any ideas, tips, tricks, stories, or comments here. Thanks for reading Flock Talk!

Robirda

Feature Article

Many of us have a lot to think about these days. Recent events have seen a great shifting of the tides of the human world, and for many of us it will take some time to adapt. But still, while some things change, others remain forever the same.

by R C McDonald
copyright © 2001. All rights reserved.

Human history records, first and foremost, the dramas of the human race. We remember and note days of great change in our lives, events which cause great pain or joy. If these events are wide spread enough to affect large numbers of us, we record them in our histories, and often, after a time, special days of celebration are assigned in their memory.

The perspective of time will gradually put a gloss on events, and as the years pass, the slow transmutation begins. Many of our special days now bear little enough resemblance to their beginnings.

Remembrance Day is one of those holidays, and one that deserves closer attention to its beginnings.

The first World War began, for many, with songs of honour and glory, parades, cheers, and dreams. The reality changed tears into terror, and dreams of glory into grim determination to survive. The pain and horror of war eats into the human soul, and in the aftermath, vows were made that such madness would never be allowed birth again.

Historians may mutter about futile wishes, but the people who live through such times, feel them no less.

Again, the years pass, and the slow transmutation begins.

Then suddenly the world once again shifts, and again we must consider whether the world really is as we thought it to be?

Preoccupation with survival will blot out awareness of the surrounding world, except for whatever is in the immediate vicinity. There is no time for dealing with anything but immediate priorities; all else falls by the wayside.

Yet how our 'histories' have affected the lives of the small things around us!

In the bombings of London, in the second world war, a small piece of history died, unnoticed. Left in the rubble, along with all the other lives both great and small, were the last members of a breed of canary once known as the London Fancy.

In brighter days, this small songster had been, in its own way, a member of London's high society, and thronged in great numbers in many homes in the city of its birth. By the end of the war, few to none remained; shortly afterwards the breed was declared extinct.

One small, minor tragedy in the midst of something far greater, but what a tragic symbol of how far-reaching the effects of war are on all those small creatures who share their lives with us!

Canaries have a long history with humans.

In particular, canaries have a history of sacrificing their lives to save humans. A long-standing tradition of underground miners required a canary to be present in every tunnel dug; should poisonous gas be accidentally released, the so-sensitive canary would die immediately, while the men, having far less susceptibility along with much greater body mass, would have enough time to vacate the tunnels with their lives.

Recently canaries were again in the news. Fears of gas attacks and anthrax poisonings have been rampaging across the North American continent. Sales of gas masks sky-rocketed, and suppliers everywhere faced empty shelves.

Then somebody remembered that miners used to use canaries as living gas detectors.

Suddenly, pet stores were being inundated with requests for canaries.

One pet shop owner said, "Ever since September 11, 50% of our customers are buying these birds for the wrong reasons. We're very concerned they're not going to take good care of the birds.

"People are coming in, they're asking, 'Give me a canary, I don't care if it's male or female. But I want one.'"

Dr Michael Garvey, director of the E & M Bobst Hospital of the Animal Medical Centre in New York, says it is "very silly" to buy a canary for such a reason. "You can kill a bird just by overheating Teflon on the stove."

"Technically, they would succumb first," he said. "That's not the point. The real question is what would you do after the bird died? Where could you go?"

And isn't that the real question? Where will we go?

The miners had a whole world outside their tunnels, one filled with friends, relatives, homes, and, most importantly, safe air. With adequate warning given them by the death of their canary, they could reach their homes safely.

But in the world of today, there is no 'outside' left to escape to - we are already there! This is our planet. Our One and Only planet. And it's growing smaller every day.

It's a new world out there. Maybe we should take a little time to take a good hard look at what we are doing with it.

by R C McDonald
copyright © November 2001. All rights reserved.

Help Needed

Canary Science

Nature magazine ( www.nature.com/ ) recently published another interesting canary research story.

It seems that research at the Rockefeller University in New York into the mathematics of canary song, has discovered that canaries require precise control of their breath and muscles in order to sing. Mathematical projections of the physics behind the canary's song helped researchers to build an apparatus capable of producing sounds similar to those generated by a canary's syrinx while singing.

Studies of how closely their model's sound approximates the similar sound from a canary will allow them to improve their models, and understand exactly how canaries sing. Tim Gardener and his team hope that uncovering the mechanics behind the generation of birdsong will help explain just how closely singing is related to activities in the bird's brain.

Once the mechanics and physics behind a singing canary's brain activity are fully understood, the team hopes their results will allow them to learn more about how these complex small birds learn their songs in the first place.

Whatever their results, my experience makes me willing to bet on one small fact - since canaries are involved, chances are quite good that results will be both more and different from what's expected! Any takers? ;-)

Robirda

This is an interesting site with a lot of growing to do, if they are going to live up to the expectations they've begun with. But so far so good! The idea is to act as an information portal between avian businesses, clubs, and hobbyists. They offer free website hosting services to non-commercial clubs, organizations, and information portals, as well as reasonably priced commercial hosting for avian-oriented businesses.

There is quite a lot of information posted here, some of it quite good. You will even find events listings, updated weekly. (event organizers, take note!)

"My Canary has started moulting way early this year just as in the previous one. He starts losing feathers in late July or August and I' ve been told this is early. This past week I noticed he is wheezing when in a relaxed state on his perch. He doesn't sing at all, although he seems to eat and drink and is active. I've tried special seeds and got no results. The last two weeks he seems to have started wheezing when in a relaxed state on the perch. Please help"

My answer;

"Hello! Many canaries start moulting in July or August, this is quite normal. It is also fairly normal for singing to slow down greatly or even completely cease for the duration of the moult, as growing in new feathers takes a lot of energy, and so does singing. It takes an very healthy bird to have enough energy for both.

"His breathing problem, however, is another matter entirely and should be dealt with as soon as possible. Your bird could be suffering from long-term exposure to a lack of minerals, vitamins, or a constant draft, or he could have a fungul infection, a virus, or air sac mites - all of these problems can have quite similar symptoms.

"You will do best to take him to a good avian (bird) vet, and make certain exactly what his ailment is, rather than simply randomly trying treatments - medicine for air sac mites will make the first two problems far worse, and weaken the bird to boot - while a treatment for one of the first two ailments, will allow air sac mites to spread even faster than they otherwise would!

"If you don't know of a good avian vet near you, check the listings at www.aav.org If the listed vets are still too far away, phone the nearest and ask if he or she can recommend an avian vet closer to you - not all avian vets are listed here, but the ones who are will often know everybody in their area, listed or not.