Bon Voyage

9/27/2014

Bon Voyage

This is just a quick note to let you know that I’m off to Africa for an amazing safari. This is something I have wanted to do since I was 14 years old. I can’t believe it’s taken this long and that I’m finally going.

So there won’t be any blogs until November, and then expect some exciting stories and pictures of my time in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

I’ll be back at work on October 27^th. If you need a communicator while I’m away, there are always referrals on my home phone 941-752-5761.

Enjoy October!!

I am a technophobe

9/19/2014

I admit it. I am a technophobe. I’m not good at using new technology and I don’t even want to learn. I have someone who handles my website. I have only mastered the rudimentary art of ‘liking’ something on Facebook or making a post. I don’t understand how Facebook works, how to share, how to find things again or God forbid how to ‘tag’ someone. Don’t even mention other social media.

I have a dumb phone and it stays off in my car. I turn it on when I go somewhere in case I need to call home or Bob needs me to pick up something at the store. All my friends have smart phones and they can do a million things with them, but I don’t want one.

My lack of smart phone is starting to cause some issues with my work. Clients call and say ‘did you get the photo I texted you?’ Then I tell them I have a landline and no way to accept a text. They don't understand what I'm saying. It’s amazing how many people only take photos with their phone and don’t know how to email them. And please don’t leave me a message and say ‘you have my number’, because I don’t. If it goes to voice mail, there is no way for me to get your number. It's not a cell phone!

I love my landline. It has clear and consistent volume and quality. Calls don’t drop and I don’t need to perch in the southwest corner of my kitchen to get a good signal. I do value being able to make a call when out on the road, but I honestly don’t understand why people have given up a really great phone system for one that only works some of the time and not very well at that. Isn’t phone technology actually worse than it used to be?

I also don’t want to be ‘connected’ all the time. When I walk in the park I see people engrossed in their phones, texting or talking and they never see the stunning Roseate Spoonbill flying overhead. They are not connected to nature and the things around them. Technology is creating a world of disconnect.

I want to be connected to people face-to-face. I love to see them and feel their energy and give them a hug. I don’t want to read their thoughts in tweets and smiley faces. That’s not connection, that’s distance. That’s hiding behind technology and creating separation. Life is meant to be lived in person, not virtually.

Although I do my work on the phone, I am connected energetically to the animals I speak to every day. I get to feel them and be with them on a deep intimate level. I am very fortunate that so much of my time is spent in this space.

I often describe myself as ‘technologically impaired’. I know it’s not good to put negative labels on myself or anyone else, but there’s just no way around it – I’m bad at technology and I won’t be getting a smart phone anytime soon.

Wild Parrots of Florida

9/9/14

Florida is the land of invasive species. Because of our status as a center for the importing of exotic pets and houseplants from overseas, and our neo-tropical climate, we have been invaded by everything from kudzu plants to Burmese pythons.

One of these non-native settlers is the Black-Hooded Parakeet, also known as the Nanday Parakeet or

the Nanday Conure. A small parrot, Aratinga nanday is native to Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. It's diminutive size, its brash personality and its high intelligence have made it a long favorite in the pet trade--and that's how it got here.

I have seen flocks of these birds several times and a flock was hanging around the airport when I flew in last week. Their calls are astounding. That led me to do some research on these delightful creatures. Enjoy this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQwdcBXaVI

It's not known exactly how and where the birds entered Florida. The initial reports happened in 1969, and centered in the Tampa and Miami areas. Both have ports that are major hubs for the exotic-pet import industry, so it's conceivable that a shipment of birds could have escaped from either one of these areas, or both. In other counties, it is possible that the birds are escaped or released pets.

Colonies of Black-Hooded Parakeets have been found in at least 19 counties in Florida. In ten of these, including Pinellas County (the St Petersburg area just to the north of us), they are known to be breeding. Individual birds can live as long as 25 years.

There is no missing a flock of Black-Hooded Parakeets. The birds are about a foot tall, with a two-foot wingspan, and travel low to the ground, in flocks of 20-30. The bright electric-green body with bluish breast and jet-black hood and beak make them conspicuous and unmistakable, but their loud raucous continuous calls and piercing squawks usually mean you can hear them long before you can see them.

Urban Florida is a perfect habitat for the birds. In the wild, they feed on seeds, palm fruits, and flower buds, and prefer habitats at the edges of clearings and in open grasslands. Urban areas, with their parks and suburban lawns, suit them wonderfully. They nest in tree cavities, and have broods of three or four at a time. In their native wild, they are one of the few parrot species that are not in environmental danger.

So what is the State of Florida planning to do about the uninvited guests?  There's nothing it can do. The birds are already widely established and already breeding. It is expected that eventually they will spread to cover the entire state.

If you’d like more information on the wild parrots of Florida, check out this blog http://floridaswildparrots.blogspot.com/

Saskatoon

9/2/2014

I just spent a fantastic week in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was my first time to this Canadian province and I loved it. The town was lovely and is known as the City of Bridges because of its 8 crossings over the South Saskatchewan River. Its greater metropolitan area has about 300,000 inhabitants and is rich with First Nations history. The surrounding prairies are gorgeous and the people were very open and welcoming.

I was invited to Saskatoon to participate in a research project at the University of Saskatchewan which has 21,000 students. Dr. MJ Barrett, a student of mine who is a professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability, is heading this research. The project goals are to 1. Address the human-nature disconnect and facilitate reconnection, 2. Generate bridges between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples and their ways of knowing, and 3. To facilitate public dialog on the place of telepathic animal-human communication in animal care and wellbeing, wildlife rehabilitation and management, veterinary care, and so on. Eventually this information will also be used to address complex environmental issues.

Dr. Barrett and I were interviewed on TV during a morning news show. Three and a half minutes just fly by in an interview! That evening we held a public panel at the University to discuss animal communication and the research project. MJ and I were joined on the panel by Joseph Naytowhow, a Cree storyteller and knowledge keeper who is also on the research team. More than 70 people attended our presentation and many did not want to leave when it was over.

The next two days were spent teaching an expanded How to Communicate with Animals workshop. It was sponsored by the University but held at a tribal friendship center in downtown Saskatoon. The class filled up easily and everyone that attended did very well. It was very exciting for me to have three Cree elders attend and share some of their wisdom as well. One participant brought a little bat for us to talk with!

Some of the research team

Our research team met for a full day of brainstorming and reflection on the workshop and panel discussion. The team includes several professors from various departments at the University, three Cree Elders who are delightful, Deborah Erickson, a student of mine who just got her PhD with a dissertation about telepathic interspecies communication, several graduate students, and myself.

I am very excited to see animal communication research coming into academia. There is so much misunderstanding about this field and I am certain that fostering this skill will heal our human disconnection with nature and bring about great changes in the way we view our world and our place in it.

Can you imagine a world, where a major component of researching or solving complex environmental and wildlife issues is talking directly to nature? Doesn’t that make perfect sense to go right to the source? I can’t wait to see where this project goes and the many shifts it will create. The times they are a changing………..