Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to The Birdhouse Banter — brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse.
Join host Bryn Griffiths and co-founders Ian Sprague and Janine Couture as we talk birds! Our team brings over 100 years of combined experience and a whole lot of passion for our feathered friends — whether they're soaring wild or perched right at home with you.
We are Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. From quality products and expert advice to supporting bird rescue right here in our community — Meika's Birdhouse has you covered.
Welcome to Birdhouse Banter brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse, Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. And joining us, Ian Sprague. How are doing today?
Ian:I'm doing good. I'm doing nice.
Bryn:Hey. Listen. One of the things we didn't talk about on the first episode as we slowly work our way up here is when you walk in through the door here in Sherwood Park, when you walk in, the first thing that blew me away was the fact that you've got visitors on the floor. Yeah. We gotta watch out for them, all sorts of different birds, and they just seem to they don't seem to be bothered by people.
Ian:No. No. They're they're hap that's the cleanup crew I call them a lot of times. But, yeah, the the the the the original, idea with the chickens was that, you know, as the birds or the other other, the the finches or whatever throw seeds out of the cages Yeah. The chickens this is what they're supposed to do.
Ian:They're not really good at it, but they're supposed to clean up the mess. Right. Right? And, of course, we have diapers on the chicken, so it makes our cleanup a little bit easier.
Bryn:But they're not doing that?
Ian:Well, you know, they can only do so much. Right? And
Bryn:Wait till the next job review.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Bryn:When you walk in here too, the other thing too that is very overwhelming to me, what's with the big parrots?
Ian:Yeah. So there's the the the big green wing, macaw, the big red guy by the door, and then there's the one hanging from the ceiling, the the the blue and gold macaw.
Bryn:Is this Janine's doing?
Ian:This is of course. Okay. She's not here, so we can we can say something.
Bryn:Now we can.
Ian:Yeah. She'll be
Bryn:back so short.
Ian:Know. We gotta we gotta we gotta go be fast. Yes. So somewhere in Janine's Internet travels, she finds these birds that are in state of disrepair. Like, the the green winged macaw had, like, a hole in like, a gunshot.
Ian:Yeah. The the the blue and gold's tail was severed off. And so next thing I know, you know, I'm minding my own business, and this truck pulls up in front of my store and says, here, this is coming in for you. And, yeah. So I then then I have a
Bryn:How does she fix those? She Or she's got a she has a person who does that?
Ian:Well, it's it's herself and a couple good friends of hers, come in and they spend forever, it feels like.
Bryn:Okay. Sure.
Ian:Doing very small little tweaks and and and, and, yeah, they work really hard on it, and and but I have to say they do look good by the when they're done.
Bryn:When you walk in this door here, you see the big parrots, but I look over to my left and all the birdhouses of the feeders, that kind of thing. Obviously, that catches my attention because that's what I have in my backyard, but you've got it all here.
Ian:Yeah. Oh, yeah. We have lots of houses, lots of feeders, lots of novelty stuff. So, you know, just some funny things to have in your yard. You know, I I like those copper mobiles and things like that to hang in your yard.
Ian:We have few few of those kicking around. Yeah. So we
Bryn:And then the the other thing too is I walk towards the back here. On the left hand side, there's these rooms. Is that just what is that?
Ian:Yeah. So that that that well, there's the small bird room. Yes. So that's for people to, to visit the small, the the small birds. Yeah.
Ian:You know, if they're gun adoption going on through Safe House, we can set up that room for somebody to sit in there, take their time. Like, if the door closed, it's just them and the bird. They can they can have a chance to meet. If that's not going on, it's just an open door policy. Go on in and and and meet the birds that are in there.
Ian:Right? And there's small birds on on one side of the store, and on the other side, just the bigger birds.
Bryn:Down the middle, I saw a lot of bird seed, that kind of thing as well. You must go through a lot of that.
Ian:Yes. That's our our our number one thing is is feed. Really? Yeah.
Bryn:Suits I have these suet cages on the side of one of my bird feeders, and it's very, very popular, but I see you have lots of that as well.
Ian:Yeah. Absolutely. Probably that's I'm I'm gonna say the suet. Between the the the suet and and the sunflower kernels, those are our our big time sellers here.
Bryn:Who goes after the sunflower ones? Everybody. Okay.
Ian:Everybody. Anything if it's got feathers, it'll eat it.
Bryn:Right? Even with the shell?
Ian:So at first, I would I would recommend feeding it in the shell
Bryn:Okay.
Ian:Just because they recognize that as a food source.
Bryn:Yes.
Ian:But once they are comfortable with the feeder, you can switch over to a a hulled version or without the shell. Right. And, the the advantages of that is that there's not gonna have a bunch of shells on the ground and nothing's gonna sprout. If it does hit the ground, it's not gonna grow.
Bryn:I'm glad you brought that up because I I did have a feeder not well, not recently, but, at an old house that I had, and I think seed has changed dramatically. But Yeah. I had quite the garden growing beneath my bird feeder before that I don't have now.
Ian:No. No. If you switch to that to the hold, the hold food or the no mess, they'll they'll call it, you shouldn't have, anything growing underneath.
Bryn:What else you got in the middle section here? What is this? It's I I wish I could describe it, but the best way to do is probably go on go online and take a look. You'll be able to see exactly what's going on, but it's just it's amazing what you have here.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. So right right next to the the counter there, there's a an aviary. This is the small one. The big one's coming in soon.
Ian:In in the spring, I'll be bringing the big one over.
Bryn:K.
Ian:And, but that's where we have our a a couple golden pheasants are in there. We have a couple pigeons in there and, and a dove. And those guys are all adoptables, but that's that's their
Bryn:That's their place.
Ian:That's their place. Yeah.
Bryn:The other thing too, how much of this is local stuff? There's a lot of great local, providers of product, that type of thing, but I see a lot of local stuff here. Is that important?
Ian:It is to me. Yeah. And and and it's important, I know, for for the safe house as well. A lot of the the some of the small toys and stuff like that that that that she has, Janine will have people making for her
Bryn:or she'll
Ian:do it herself.
Bryn:Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. As for birdhouses, yeah, we have a few, local guys that are building birdhouses and feeders.
Bryn:And then finally, just to my broadcast right, I picked one off the wall, in fact. Yeah. What is this? This is a, that's a what is this thing?
Ian:That is the famous rope perch.
Bryn:Yes. We've got you going.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Beautiful.
Bryn:That's it. I love it. Hey. The other thing too, about here, we've talked about the staff an awful lot about how it's important. You can't know everything, but you sure can learn from people.
Bryn:And then it may I don't know about you, but it just makes me wanna learn more.
Ian:Yeah. Absolutely. And it it it ends up, I I I think the goal is is to have conversations, not not, not sermons. Right? Yeah.
Ian:And and and and as long as we get into keep that going, I think, that's that's the key to success and learning stuff around
Bryn:We're gonna be talking with Janine coming up in a couple moments. We're gonna talk obviously, about the rescue birds and that type of thing, but you're kind of expanding a little bit here through the month of, of April and into May. There's a lot of work coming. What's going on? Are we allowed to say it?
Bryn:We breaking this story?
Ian:No. You're the first one to know.
Bryn:You heard it here first.
Ian:Janine, again, tell you this without being interrupted. She, it was it was funny because when we first came out, like, first there was rumors. You know? Janine would go up to, to to somebody and say, you know, you can't tell anybody. Alright?
Ian:Yeah. Just between me and you, but it looks like this is gonna happen. Right? And then, you know, and then I'd find her five minutes later with somebody else saying the exact same thing. And then once it became a reality and and and and the and the word was out, she was doing okay just between you and me.
Ian:Right?
Bryn:That's the joke.
Ian:This is happening. Right? Yeah. She's told everybody. So there there's no there's no secrets anymore.
Ian:Right? So what is happening is Safe House is going to be relocating from the the the bay that they're currently in
Bryn:To the location right next door.
Ian:To right next door. Right? So yeah. So it's gonna it's gonna make things so much easier for us. It's it's just, you know, a little bit of a tight time frame, but
Bryn:I was just gonna say, and how many birds are over in the safe house again?
Ian:About a 102 right now.
Bryn:So you gotta move them all over. So you're hoping for good weather to make this move so that it all works out okay. That's, I don't know how you're gonna do it, but I know that you guys will do it.
Ian:Oh, yeah.
Bryn:You guys will get it done.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah.
Bryn:Well, we're gonna, check-in with Janine in a couple moments, and, maybe there's a bird called Rocky. We're gonna get Rocky's story when we come back. Time to check-in with Janine and find out what's happening at Meika's Safe House. Hey, Janine. So the Safe House, we're gonna talk about is it Rocky?
Janine:Yeah. Rocky.
Bryn:What's Rocky's story?
Janine:Double yellow headed Amazon. He was surrendered to us with another little parrot. And a year and a bit ago, maybe a couple years ago now. I don't know. It's been a while.
Janine:He's been here for a long time. They were surrendered together, but being together, they were very aggressive towards not only each other, but, like, to other people as well. So we ended up separating them, and the one got adopted. The other one stayed here. And, yeah, there was a lady that came in and absolutely fell in love with him.
Janine:She came in multiple times, her her husband, her kids, and, yeah, he's he's on his way. He's getting adopted, I think, soon.
Bryn:Hey. So I I do have to ask you. Can you feel that synergy between people and the the bird I right
Janine:really like it when they're open to learning, you know. I love it when people say, I don't know everything. I would like to learn, you know. I I love people that leave the door open for for that kind of kind of stuff where they don't just say, oh, yeah. I know everything.
Janine:I have I've had birds for however long. I like the people that actually are engaged and listen to what we say and you know, learn from our experience and also have their experiences on their own. But, you know, they they really wanna do what's best for the bird, not what they think is what's best. So
Bryn:So here's the other one. Is your phone always on during the day if somebody's got a question? Or do
Janine:Yes.
Bryn:I mean, it's Email Yeah.
Janine:Phone, text. Yep.
Bryn:I get
Janine:it all.
Bryn:How often does that happen? A lot?
Janine:A lot. Every day, multiple times a day. Yep.
Bryn:Mhmm. Is it similar questions? Are there questions that you hear a lot?
Janine:There's there's a few. Yeah. How do I get my bird to stop biting? How do I get my bird to stop laying eggs? You know?
Janine:I want do I should I get another bird for my bird? You know, we get a lot of those kind of questions.
Bryn:Easy answer to that one, or is every situation different?
Janine:Every situation is different. You know? Like, it it it's like yeah. Every situation's different. Why is your bird biting?
Janine:What's the reason? You know? What's happening before? What's happening after the bite? You know?
Janine:Why is your bird laying eggs? Well, is it breeding season? Do you have the lights on? Is there too much humidity? You know?
Janine:Is it too hot? You know? Kind of things. So, like, there's so many different reasons for so many different behaviors. And, usually, yeah, a bird is surrendered because of their behavior.
Janine:So
Bryn:So I gotta ask you about Rocky just to get back there a little bit. So, the owner, the friend, the the family member Mhmm. Has come back four or five times. And, is Rocky can you tell by the way Rocky responds?
Janine:He responds really well to her, and so do they. You know, they respect his body language, and, yeah, they're more than willing to give him his space when he needs it. And they're they're really engaged, and they're excited about training him and developing a relationship with him. I think it's already started even.
Bryn:Definitely. Is that is that hard to to give a bird some space because everybody kind of thinks, well, gotta keep them active. Gotta do this, but there's nothing like a little downtime. I like it at home. Yeah.
Bryn:Birds have gotta be the same. Right?
Janine:Absolutely. People don't understand that either. So we do have our bird room hours where they do close an hour before the store closes just to give those birds a little bit of downtime. They and people don't understand why can't we see the birds? Well, they've been active all day.
Janine:They've seen people come in to the store all day. You know, give them a little bit of space. Like
Bryn:Hey. One of the things we didn't talk about on the first episode, and we can touch on it here. Mhmm. It's not cheap to look after birds, but but you have some wonderful people, I'm guessing, that support you and the work you do at the Safe House. Mhmm.
Bryn:Right?
Janine:Yeah. Yeah. We do. We have we have donors. We have monthly donors.
Janine:We have people that buy off of our Amazon wish list. We have, yeah, people that give us supplies and our veterinary, he gives us discounts at, at the clinic. So, yeah, we do have a lot of support. Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough because it is overwhelming the sheer number of animals or birds that we have, but, we seem to make it through. So
Bryn:yeah. You talked about a vet. Mhmm. I didn't realize it. I always thought all vets did everything.
Bryn:No. That's not true. Right?
Janine:No. Right. No. Most vets won't look at birds. We are so fortunate to have doctor Mandrzyak and his team at Harvest Point that
Ian:We call them Murray sometimes. Murray. Yeah. Murray the listening.
Janine:Yeah. Yeah. No. But no, we're so fortunate. He's done a lot of extra classes and courses.
Janine:He's he's even teach taught
Bryn:That's okay.
Janine:Yeah, courses. And he brings in interns and stuff. So, yeah, he's training the the young population to start looking at birds.
Bryn:So Does he just casually drop by here?
Janine:Sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. But we bring him in, like, once a month to
Bryn:Right.
Janine:To do our birds. So
Bryn:I gotcha. Now, as I mentioned on the first episode, first time I walked in there, I was blown away. That kind of thing. It's just it seems so overwhelming, but you've got great staff.
Janine:Mhmm. Yeah. I couldn't do it without staff. There's no way. Not that's not a one person job at all.
Bryn:When we were talking too, this is something you thought about about actually before the store. Is that right?
Janine:Mhmm. The shelter?
Bryn:Yeah. What made you think about that?
Janine:Well, just because people they like I said, we were bird sitting and people wouldn't pick up their birds. So there is a need out there. I know that the Humane Society, they do take in birds, but they also call us because they don't have the facilities to care for them or the knowledge or, you know, some birds come in very aggressive or plucked or, you know, they have issues and they can't keep it at the like, deal with their dogs and cats and their snakes and their rabbits, but birds are a class all on their own.
Bryn:How tough is it for you? Because you see some great stories and you see some tough stories. It it's I guess you gotta be you you you're all in. You're all invested, but it's gotta be tough.
Janine:It is. You definitely have to have a thick skin and, understand that you're not gonna be able to save everybody. You can do the best you can with what you have and you just have to accept that you can't save them all, but you just do your best.
Bryn:When guys like me walk in and our jaws hit our knees because we're so blown away, I can't be the only one that feels that way when they walk into the safe house.
Janine:Even I feel like that too. It's like, oh my goodness. Yep. But no, just one day at a time and yeah, just love. I just love the birds.
Janine:Love talking to them. I love interacting with them. Yeah. And watching them get better when they do get better. So
Bryn:So Rocky? Rocky was the bird?
Janine:Yep. Rocky.
Bryn:Alright, Rocky. We're thinking of you. Best of luck. Yeah. Hey, Janine.
Bryn:Thank you for this. We'll have more stories about various success stories and also some of the tough stories throughout, the entire run of our podcast. So thanks for your time today.
Janine:Yeah. Thank you.
Bryn:Hey. It's now time to wrap things up with the bird's eye view. I gotta tell you, just the other day, heard the Canadian geese flying over the house, and nothing makes me think fall Yeah. Or spring more than that sound. And it's beginning, you know, bigger and bigger, more increasingly so loud that I'm I've just wished they would get all settled, but I'm very it's a very happy sound for me.
Ian:Absolutely. It, this time of year, it means that the golf courses will be opening soon. Yes. It does.
Bryn:Absolutely. You know, the migration period in in the spring, it's, it's gotta be exciting for you because everybody just seems to have a little extra hop and skip and jump when they come in here.
Ian:Absolutely. And then they're seeing different birds. Some birds are leaving us. You know, some like, for the southern migration point for some birds and then the southern heading back north. And then the guys, of course, like you said, the geese are coming in now, and we'll start seeing more and more and more of those guys up into the next month or
Bryn:so. Ask you about robins because robins for me, I love hearing the the song in the morning. I leave the window open, and I they're the first bird I hear before I hear the magpies and the crows and everything. And I hear them late at night as well. But just in our neighborhood, it doesn't seem like there's been as many lately, and that's worrying me a little bit.
Bryn:Is that have you heard anything about that? Is that a common do you hear that often for people?
Ian:I I hear it quite a bit, and I I don't wanna say that there's a a robin shortage because I don't think there is. Right. I think our neighborhoods are changing.
Bryn:Okay.
Ian:Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. So I I don't think it has anything really, you know, you know, dire news for the Robins. I think we're fine that way.
Ian:Great thing about Robins is that they have multiple sets of young in a year. So, you know, if they if they if they miss one clutch,
Bryn:they'll catch There's there's gonna be another batch going. Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. But I think I think our neighborhoods are changing, so I think we're we're we're changing. You know, a lot of people are knocking down some of the older trees and putting in newer trees, different kinds of trees, and it it just takes a bit for the robinies to catch up.
Bryn:Are they a spruce tree kinda bird? Are they anywhere? Know, I
Ian:think I think it's just change. I don't I don't wanna say that they're a spruce tree bird or or or, you know, a poplar tree kind of bird. Yeah. Yeah. It it it it's it's just the change.
Ian:Okay. Right? So it's disruption, I guess, is what what I would think.
Bryn:Well, what kind of seed would they
Ian:So robins What would they eat? Yeah. Robins generally are not a seed eating kind of bird.
Bryn:Really?
Ian:Yeah. So they're more interested in insects and and and Worms? Worms, the the the the those berries off your mountain ash trees.
Bryn:Ah, I've got a bunch of those. You're
Ian:right. Yeah. They'll eat that kind of stuff. You know, crab apples, that that you know, that's that's more what Robinson were warned to.
Bryn:What else should we be watching for early in the spring here? I've talked about Canadian geese are back, but there's also a period of time in our neighborhood where we get a ton of blue jays.
Ian:Yeah. So right now, I at least where I'm at anyways, the blue jays are kinda thinning out right now.
Bryn:K.
Ian:That's generally they're going to nest. So they're they're building nests. They kinda get a little secretive, I feel, and and so I don't see them as often. They'll be back. But what I am seeing now is is that, you know, some of the other birds are moving, and I I see a a big uptake in my in my backyard anyhow.
Ian:Yeah. A big uptake in house finches. And I is it something I'm doing? I don't think so. I think it's just that time of year.
Ian:But it's, it that's what I've noticed. I've seen the Red Bulls. I didn't really see very many, like I always said, you know, I don't unfortunately, I'm You're
Bryn:in here.
Ian:I'm here. I'm so I'm not outside watching birds where I wanna be a lot of times, but Yeah. But, I I hear about it. So I don't I've I've heard people some people have great great numbers of Red Poles still. They're gonna be heading north soon.
Bryn:I I also have to bring up the black capped chickadees because they have the wonderful song. Yep. A longtime broadcaster in the Edmonton region, Bill Matheson used to say they used to go cheeseburger. Yeah. Cheeseburger.
Bryn:And, I wish Bill had never said that to me because now every time I hear one, I just go, cheeseburger. Yeah. Cheeseburger. But it's such a wonderful sound.
Ian:Absolutely. Chickadees are are definitely one of the songs of spring. Right? So you'll hear that whistling their their their their their breeding call. Hey.
Ian:That whistling that they do, starting to hear that in the mornings for sure. Yeah. When you go out, in, you know, in the early hours, Starting to hear lots of that. Starting to of course, I always hear nuthatches. Those are those when I walk out the door, I hear the nuthatches.
Ian:That's the first thing I hear. Yeah. But yeah. And then, you know, right behind that is the chickadees and the house finches.
Bryn:It's a fun time of year. Hey. How's this going? This is episode two for you. It's, this has been fun.
Bryn:I've enjoyed it. It's been great.
Ian:Oh, yeah. No. It's going really well.
Bryn:And are you ready for the summer?
Ian:Well, I'm always ready for summer.
Bryn:I know. Exactly. Because there's gonna be lots to talk about the next few months, and, really, really looking forward to it. Yeah. Also, I'm putting you, I'm putting the pressure on you here by saying that we're gonna do fun facts coming up.
Bryn:K. So, you're gonna have to find a different fun fact for every episode that we'll be doing in the bird's eye view segment. Is that okay?
Ian:Yep. Absolutely.
Bryn:Hey. Thanks for joining us today. If you're a bird brain like me and you don't wanna miss our next podcast, then check us out on any of your favorite Ear Candy sites like Apple, Spotify, Google. There's lots of them out there. Make sure you tell your friends and make sure you follow or subscribe to our podcast.
Bryn:That way when a new one drops, you'll get the new one right to your home perch. And, also, if you're not as the crow flies and you can't drop into our location, check us out online at meika'sbirdhouse.com. That's it for the Birdhouse Banter. Have yourself a great day. Let's get chirping.
Bryn:Doctor.