Birdie ramblings

[kiya]

Unrelated preface: Had dinner with lots of people for keshwyn's birthday, and there was much pounding of the table and interpretive dance. (Oh, hey, kviri, that soup recipe I mentioned is over here so you don't have to look for it.)

Now, birdies.

As some people who follow my intermittent obsessions may well know, I want a parrot. Specifically, I want a Jardine's parrot. And, if possible, I'd like a blackwinged Jardine -- that's the one on the upper right of the picture behind that link.

Jardines have a lot of things going for them. The Poicephalus genus is fairly sweet-tempered overall, not prone to screaming like Amazons, playful, and able to entertain themselves. Jardines themselves are often good talkers, and very even-tempered -- even able to potentially deal with children, which is one of those important things. They're also gorgeous. And green. (For some reason, the greenness matters to me.)

The most commonly bred subspecies is the lesser Jardine -- front and center in that image. I like the black-winged Jardine's coloration a bit more, and -- the rub for a multi-species household, I think -- the black-wings have about fifty grams of weight on the lessers.

I wrote to the Jardine mailing list asking for tips about breeders -- I want to be able to cultivate a relationship with one, preferentially visit them and meet the chicks, that sort of thing. Which means I'd love to find a breeder in New England, second choice near Washington, DC (where teinedreugan and I both have family) and lastly out near San Francisco, on the off-chance that I could visit sometime when out visiting brooksmoses and suzimoses.

I've gotten two mentions of the same breeder, one of the very few people in the States who breeds black-wings. One is from someone who got a bird several years ago, and thus has gone through the pubertal period and the like, and who says that their Jardine is a sweet-tempered and well-socialised fellow.

The breeder's in Wisconsin.

I'm not in Wisconsin. And I'm trying to weigh out the merits of a twice-mentioned breeder who has the subspecies against possibility to spend time there. The person who just bought a bird says the breeder has two black-wing chicks not spoken for at the moment, but I'm not set up for a bird right now, and won't be unless we move -- I started looking for breeder information on the remote off-chance that we move next year or maybe the year after . . . .

But I'm not in Wisconsin. . . .

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

where in wisconsin? you know some people who live quite near wisconsin, you realize...

[kiya]

The two people who have commented on this person have just said "Wisconsin", which is an Insufficiently Specified Protocol by my book.

I did nearly in the post where I was asking about this say, "It'd be too much to hope that that breeder is in Minnesota, wouldn't it?" (Someone had posted earlier today about putting a deposit down with a breeder in the midwest for a black-winged J.) He wrote to me though, and specified Wisconsin.

[kiya]

Though it occurred to me after first reply that I was given a phone number. So I am now in possession of an area code map, and after peering at it briefly, note that if it's current, that's over on the Lake Michigan side.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

which, assuming that i haven't misplaced lake michigan, means that it's quite a ways from anywhere sensible... er, i mean, the twin cities.

[kiya]

Nowhere close to anywhere sensible at all, nope. ;)