Our parrot rescue made national news today!

[jgraz]

This Sunday, some idiot intentionally let their entire flock of exotic birds escape into a San Jose neighborhood. Our parrot rescue (mickaboo.com) went down there to try to recapture the birds before they starved or were taken by hawks.

I called KTVU about the story and they sent a out news crew. This is the local coverage, but we just learned that CNN Headline News is re-running the story. http://www.ktvu.com/video/22781207/index.html

So far, we've recaptured two birds and lost one to a hawk :cry:. Hopefully, we'll have more safely inside cages by this evening.

[Ignis]

1. Keep up the good work, jgraz.

Glad to hear you got some good press out of it. :thumbsup:

[Shell Beau]

2. Oh no! How many are still missing?

[jgraz]

4. We have no idea. The former homeowners are nowhere to be found

We're hoping the birds have stayed close to their aviary so we can find them. If they've flown more than a few blocks away, they're going to be lost unless someone spots them.

We had a big storm yesterday and it's likely many of them got blown off course. Pet parrots are not particularly strong fliers, especially in high winds. We're all combing the neighborhood, looking for spots of color in the trees.

[Shell Beau]

7. Aw!

:(

I hope y'all can get most, if not all, of them back. Poor little birds.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. The stupidity of letting them go...

:banghead:

Good luck this evening.

[jgraz]

6. Yes, there was no need for it. They could have called us and we would have picked them up.

You have to be pretty heartless to just let a parrot fly away to starve or be eaten by hawks.

[Pithlet]

41. I know. How could anyone do such a thing?

:mad:

[sarge43]

5. From my parrots, bless you jgraz and mickaboo..

Pets are some of the saddest victims of the housing crash.

[arcadian]

8. How do you recapture them?

I know where some escapees are living.

[jgraz]

10. Nets or cages baited with millet and other treats.

After a few days, pet birds are often so hungry they'll fly back into a cage for food. The birds in the story were recaptured using nets.

There's likely a bird rescue in your area that will come out and capture them. If you're in the Bay Area, let me know and I'll send some people to check it out.

[arcadian]

14. I think they have established a colony and are reproducing.

So I'm guessing they are feral. Can they be rehabilitated?

[jgraz]

20. It depends on the circumstances

I take in and rehab feral parrots from the San Francisco flock. Here's a couple that I'm working with now:



If the birds are doing OK, it's probably best to leave them be. But make sure to notify your local parrot rescue organization. They're probably aware of the flock but it never hurts to make sure.

[EFerrari]

56. When my George used to escape, I used to put Gracie out in a cage

in the yard and he'd always came back to her.

What neighborhood was it in? I'm in SJ for a while.

[jgraz]

57. It's on Doma Drive in San Jose

It's a short street just off 280 and San Tomas. If you do go by there and see some birds, you can PM me.

[xchrom]

9. Recommend and may the blessings of good work be with you. Nt

[jtuck004]

11. Congratulations on the good PR, and the good work!

Ironic that tragedies get more of this stuff in front of people than just the day-to-day volunteer work. But that is the biz.

thanks!

[Mari333]

12. I cannot even imagine my sweet parrot being on his own

he would be terrified... thank you for doing what you do...

[jgraz]

22. What kind of parrot do you have?

[Mari333]

31. .....

[jgraz]

32. Is that a Yellow-Crowned?

Gorgeous bird!

[Mojorabbit]

46. Me either

I am working on finding a home for an african grey that was found at a toll booth in Nov. My grey is 13. I have a sun conure and a teil as well as a 20 something year old dove.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. +1 from Willow

It would be nice to see some other 'feather'-babies in this thread. Lots of attention goes to our furbabies (not that I don't love them and enjoy seeing their pics too).

Good luck!!!

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. flocks of them live in trees around LA.

[jgraz]

18. What a gorgeous Pi!

Here's our Maxi, Bialy, when he was a baby:

[Behind the Aegis]

23. Thank you and yours is very handsome! Willow is a girl! :)

She will be 7 this year (Lord knows, she may outlive us). Did you hand-raise yours? We didn't. We got her when she was 2.

[jgraz]

24. We bought him at a pet store before we got the rescue religion

He was raised with his parents along with being acclimated to humans. He's very self-confident but he loves hanging around with people -- especially my girlfriend, who he calls "mama".

[KittyWampus]

27. He has a smudge on his beak!

[jgraz]

29. That's the baby markings. His top beak is now almost completely black

Too bad I don't have any good pics of him here at work.

[AlienGirl]

34. Per your request to see featherbabies!

[jgraz]

37. Cute! What are those weird beakless birds in the last picture?

They look like they might have a plucking problem...

:P

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. good work! Cool story!

[SidDithers]

17. Norwegian Blue? Beautiful plumage...

(sorry, watched And Now For Something Completely Different last night)

Sid

[scarletwoman]

39. They're pinin' for the fjords.

[ihavenobias]

19. K & R. I saw a good documentary about Parrots and I completely forgot about it until now.

But if you make a documentary about your rescue I'll watch it!

[onestepforward]

21. Good luck on finding the other birds

and thank you so much for looking for them. :)

[Swamp Rat]

25. k&r

:applause: :hi:

[Starry Messenger]

26. I hope you can find as many as possible jgraz

They must be scared and confused. :(

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Good luck with this,

and damn I know the local wild flock is getting larger.

And not all who open cage and let them go are heartless. They truly believe that releasing them onto the local flock is better for the birds.

[tilsammans]

30. Amazing work!

Thank you for everything you do for these beautiful creatures. :toast:

[AlienGirl]

33. Wow, you're with Mickaboo? You guys do great work!

Off topic, have you considered contacting Animal Planet to start a show about your rescue, the way they have tons of shows about dog rescues?

Tucker (typing with help from cockatoo on the keyboard!)

[jgraz]

50. Thanks! It's a really good group.

We have so many great volunteers. They really make a difference.

We haven't done a lot with media outreach, but we're starting to. We have a really smart person in charge of this who's working on a bunch of different ideas.

[Kat45]

35. I wish I was there to help find the birds.

That really bothers me when someone lets their birds go free like that. The birds don't know how to survive on their own. I hope you folks are able to rescue as many as possible, and that those you don't get will manage to survive. Are any of them Quakers? That's one species that seems to be quite resourceful, with colonies of them even existing in cold climates in this country.

Edited to add: Thank you for being involved in rescuing birds.

[jgraz]

36. No quakers -- they're illegal in CA

It looks like we have the Australian Ringnecks and some budgies. The budgies have not been captured yet, but we haven't seen any more Ringnecks.

[Kat45]

43. Yeah they're illegal in a number of states--because they're so resourceful.

That sucks that a lot of the birds are budgies. They're so small, I'd particularly worry about their survival outside. The best hope for a budgie is if he finds a birdfeeder in somebody's yard and the person is able to catch him, take him in and give him a good home.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

44. Maybe laptop + speakers + captured bird voice in a WAV?

[flvegan]

38. Congrats, and keep up the good work!

[dave29]

40. good luck!

It is a good thing you are doing.

[Pithlet]

42. I hope you get the rest!

Congrats on the story! You deserve the recognition. I hope the jackasses who did this face consequences somehow :(

[nolabear]

45. As someone completely owned by an African Grey I thank you.

My grandfather taught me to love birds, wild, caged, poultry, all of them. I got my first parrot through a wildlife rehab program I used to be involved with (you know how it is, people drop off everything with you). These past six years we've had "Pidge" in our household, and she's a wonderful part of the crew.

Does your rescue take donations?

[L0oniX]

47. As a care taker of a grey, blue gold, eclectus and sever mc ...I wish much success to the effort.

[truedelphi]

48. Thank you so much for doing this. And glad the local

Media has been helpful.

Why/what happened to the owners that they left the birds on their own?

And in this kind of weather - I am not sure about San Jose, but we had a freeze watch for last night and again for tonight. (We are maybe five hours away from SJ.)

[jgraz]

49. The owners were foreclosed on. It's sad they decided to penalize their birds for that.

At least we got two back. Hopefully, we'll find the others if there are any more.

[alcina]

51. Thank you, to you and Mickaboo...

for looking after these precious creatures. I'd say our little ones thank you, too, but they're both such narcissists that they really don't seem to care about any other birds. Sadly, I'm pretty sure they're also both republicans.

[ddeclue]

52. YAY!!!

:applause:

Keep up the good work!

:)

[fishwax]

53. wow, good work!

:toast:

[G_j]

54. applause!

:applause:

[EFerrari]

55. You Go, jgraz!

:woohoo:

(Yikes, Ch2 crashed my firefox. I'll just trust you on this one!)

[Greyhound]

58. Very cool. K&R

We had a flock of parrots That lived in my Long Beach neighborhood. Apparently they started as escaped pets 40 years ago and they have thrived.

[spooky3]

59. k&r

[Blue_Tires]

60. amazing

that person who let them go wild needs to answer for this shit...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

61. Fantastic work! Deserting animals due to foreclosure is an epidemic and it is so frigging sad.

:cry:

[jgraz]

62. Photo gallery of the rescue operation

http://www.shelbytransam.com/gallery2/Mallee%20Ringnecks/index.html