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Fri 21 Jul, 2006 06:53 am
The lady Diane somehow found and ordered a dvd titled "the wild parrots of telegraph hill" which we watched a few days ago. I was fascinated. it is a documentery about a man in San Francisco on telegraph hill who has feed and cared for a flock of abandoned conure parrots (my fred is a conure) anyway when (after some years of caring for) he was forced to move out of the area the city was concerned about how to carry on his activites with the conures and he spoke at the city council (whatever it's called there) and said "the best thing would be to just let them alone" when he left, his favorite conure was devoured by a hawk but he (the conure) lived free as was given his choice. Many people spoke saying from (1) they are not native species therefor some be captured and removed to (2) they should be totally cared for with city/public support feed and aid stations in the area. Personally I was brought to tears watching this man care for all this (50 or so) conure parrots and at the same time only want their lives to be lived in freedom with all the attendent perils. The man is a true liberal in my mind.
How does one find a flock of 50 abandoned parrots?
To me, this wasn't so much political as simply a true love story. The man, Mark Bittner, took care of the parrots by feeding them (the food wasn't necessary to their survival), keeping them company and taking in only those who were wounded, then letting them free again.
They were at the mercy of hawks and cats and diseases, but Mark never tried to capture them in order to give them homes and safety. He respected their wildness, even though some might have been pets before they escaped into the wild.
Dys mentioned that when Mark was forced to move away from Telegraph Hill, many people started talking about what would happen to the parrots, including some who felt they should all be captured and either destroyed or given to animal sanctuaries.
The greatest point of the film was Mark's beleif that they should be left alone, to continue being wild, the way they were meant to be. The strength of that belief wasn't weakened even though he was devestated when his favorite parrot was captured by a hawk.
By the end of the film we were crying--I was sobbing--but that's just me. For us, it represented love at its best: the ability to let go and give the other person/animal a chance to be whatever he or she wants to be. From his work in child protection services, Dys calls it "The dignity of risk."
How would you respond to a similar situation?
Gus, they never were completely certain how the parrots got away. Theories were that they escaped from a truck bringing in a bunch to be sold at pet shops or that they escaped from their homes. However it happened, they adapted beautifully to living in the wild.
I still would like to know how he captured 50 parrots. Were some of them offspring of ones captured or did he, throughout a certain space of time, manage to take in 50 parrots?
I guess I had no idea there were so many wild parrots in that area.
Thanks for that, Diane. I'll have to do some research on this one.
Sounds interesting.
Dys and Diane, I just watched the trailer on
this site.
That does look entertaining. There's a store in town that deals in lesser known, quality movies. I'll see if they have it. Thanks for the tip.
i saw this one in a theater when it first came out. there's also a book on the subject by Mr. Bittner, which i haven't read.
turns out there are "wild" parrots in San Diego, as well, known as San Diego hybrid amazons--saw one in a bird shop, where they were helping it recuperate i think--but haven't seen one in the wild, yet.
There was and maybe still is a flock of wild parrots in Pasadena (east of Los Angeles)...
Of course, there are now wild parrots in several areas of the US.
Anyone interested might like to read the poem, "Metropolitan Nightmare," by Stephen Vincent Benet.
Thx for the headsup. How great is that: the parrot boogying and him playing guitar on the trailor.....
I cant wait to find this movie now, and watch it with a certain someone. (someone i can cry in front of ! )
noddy, thanks for the links. next time i'm in NYC, will try to make it to Brooklyn college to check out the monk parrots.
Cool site. "Illegal avians", heh. And the opening para:
"There is much mystery surrounding the appearance of these remarkable birds in Brooklyn, but it can safely be said that they did not fly up here from Argentina on their own."
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