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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. Hey, everybody. It's Bryn Griffiths. Ian is with us. Janine is with us.
Bryn:We are here at Meika's Birdhouse. It's the Birdhouse Banter.
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Ian, who is joining us here on the show today?
Ian:So today, we're lucky enough to have doctor Darren from Harvest Point Animal Hospital here to help us along. Hey.
Bryn:Okay. Hang on a second. Woah. Woah. Woah.
Bryn:I'm very confused because I thought this was doctor Murray.
Ian:Well, it is. Right? So What? Yeah. Well, it all depends on what's going on, but he can be Murray.
Ian:He can be Darren. He's he's he's
Janine:He's moldable that way.
Ian:Yeah. He's biting. Adaptable. Adaptable. Adaptable.
Bryn:Welcome to the show. But, okay. So how do you go from Darren to Murray?
Ian:Alright. Well, I'll tell you the story. So we when a few weeks or a few months ago, we were in a meeting with Peter who organizes all this stuff for us. Yeah. And he was talking about our vet Murray, doctor Murray.
Ian:Uh-huh. And Janine and I sort of let it go and, you know
Bryn:That's that was mistake one. Yeah. Was mistake one.
Ian:Okay. But, yeah, we put on our put on our detective hats, and finally we realized that, okay, Murray is actually Darren. So that's good. And so, yeah, so now he has he's he's got two two handles.
Bryn:So, we're gonna go with Darren. Is that okay?
Darren:That sounds great. Yeah.
Bryn:Okay. But what did you did you ever hear the story about Murray?
Darren:Is this the first found this out today.
Bryn:Yeah. You're
Darren:kidding. No. I walked in and they said, hey, Murray. And I went, what?
Bryn:What? Well, welcome to the show. Hey. We're gonna be talking about lots of things with doctor Darren and, of course, Ian and Janine. But let's talk about Magpies because this is I don't really notice them that much in the spring, probably because I'm looking at all the other birds and the fact that we've been able to shake off, you know, winter and that kind of thing.
Bryn:But, man, they have been really noisy in our neighborhood a little bit. But, Ian, why why do people have a problem with magpies?
Ian:Well, like I say, in in Sherwood Park, we don't. I know that's Edmonton's bird, so in Sherwood Park
Bryn:keep that problem?
Ian:Yeah. No. Well, we don't talk about it.
Bryn:Okay. You know, we don't But yet here we are on the podcast talking about
Janine:it. Okay.
Ian:Yeah. But, no, the the deal with magpies is is that, you know, once once the Magpies have fledged and there's sometimes there's fledglings on the ground, and then when they get into adolescence, they are just driving their parents crazy, looking looking for food, needing needing reassurance, needing need needing help finding food and doing stuff. So yeah.
Bryn:Walking around the neighborhood actually, this happened this past weekend.
Ian:Mhmm.
Bryn:My better half says, why are they so loud? I said, well, the loud ones are the kids. Yeah. So if we were to walk about two blocks that way towards a playground, we would hear the same kind of noise only would be coming from kids. Absolutely.
Bryn:Not magpies. So this is kinda what they do. Right? Is that how that works?
Ian:Absolutely. That's the thing. I didn't mean to say that.
Bryn:Well, somebody had to bring it up. I I'm prepare I'll take heat for that on this one. So so, Darren, magpies, do you get many coming by? Do you have to look after magpies at all?
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. So we have a few, magpies that come into, like, the into Harvest Point Animal Hospital, but most of the magpies I see are with Wild North at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital. So there's a there's quite a few of them because they are, a native species here, and this is their native habitat. So they're pretty plentiful.
Darren:And we see everything from adults who suffer trauma in in their interactions with people, all the way to babies who just aren't growing right and end up in tough situations.
Bryn:So I was just gonna ask. So so let's talk about the older birds Yep. Problems with people. Is it more people problems with the birds than the beer birds problem with the people?
Darren:It's a half and half.
Bryn:Some of
Darren:them are some of them are genuine accidents. Right? Like, we have we have things going on, but we do have people who have problems with the birds that does come up, unfortunately, fairly frequently. Things like, you know, people shooting them with pellet guns or things like that. Right?
Darren:So yeah.
Bryn:So so let me ask you. Any one of the three of you can jump in on this one. Why why do we have so many in this area? Is that just because this is a native bird from here?
Janine:Janine? Why me? Not me. You're the wild
Ian:bird, guys. Yeah. Yeah. So yes. Yeah.
Ian:This is this is this is their native habitat. They've they've and they and they're super intelligent. Like, they are they are one of the smartest birds that we have. Or I shouldn't say they're smartest birds. They they show their intelligence better than than than a lot of the other ones around here, and they just really do well living around people.
Ian:We Do
Janine:they cash their food like blue jays do?
Ian:They probably do to a certain extent.
Janine:Yeah. I don't know. I've never Yeah.
Darren:I've never I've never wondered that, actually.
Ian:Yeah. Okay. Probably. They can use tools.
Bryn:They're they're, like, super smart. Yeah. Yeah. So so let me ask you this. The difference between a magpie Mhmm.
Bryn:A crow Right. A raven Yeah. Do we have all three of those here? We do. Yep.
Bryn:Okay.
Ian:So Magpies got white on it.
Bryn:Okay. Who which is the one with the the blue feathers? Is that
Janine:Well, if you look at them in a certain light, you can kinda see blue on all
Darren:of them. A blue iridescence too. Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. This isn't gonna make it
Darren:any clearer from a
Bryn:YouTube. Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah.
Bryn:Okay. But and the raven is which is the biggest of the big?
Ian:That's the raven.
Bryn:Is it? Yeah. Okay.
Janine:So beak with, like, feathers that grow on the beak.
Bryn:I think we've got everything in our neighborhood, but we're right off the River Valley, so I'm not surprised to see that. But but it's the magpies that seem to be the the the loudest ones.
Ian:Yeah. Magpies are here year round. Crows are starting to overwinter more, and and but they kinda thin out in the wintertime, and the ravens move in generally in the wintertime. So it's
Darren:Raven's real northern bird.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah.
Bryn:Yep. The the other one too, when the magpies come to visit my feeder, everybody else goes away. I don't see any songbirds around. The chickadees who I think are pretty brave little birds.
Darren:Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. Like, if I go to the feeder, they will stay, like, right there. Every other bird go goes away. They hang around. Squirrels hang around a fair bit too.
Bryn:But the magpies and any of those big birds, Darren, they they seem to when they they show up, they've taken control of that spot. That's what it looks like to me anyway.
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're they're relatively speaking, they're a big bird, and they're super smart, and they're pretty tough. Right? So, I mean, if you're a chickadee or if you're you've honestly, even if you're a squirrel, that's a good bird to avoid.
Darren:Right? Like and they're a generalist. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, if you give them an opportunity, they're not I don't consider them to be a predatory bird in any regard.
Darren:But I mean, you give them an opportunity, they I'm pretty sure they'd eat you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're pretty they're they'll they'll find a way to live no matter what.
Bryn:The other thing too, they have a bit of a reputation. Some bad stuff I hear, some positive stuff I hear, that kind of thing. But I guess, is that just the way it is with Magpies? They they you know? I've never seen any bad behavior.
Bryn:All I know is they they're very loud, and for the most part, they seem to be a big family.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. And and and they do pretty well, but, you know, they some of the bad rap they get is because they they can raid nests and stuff like that. Opportunist? Opportunity of not.
Ian:Right? And and and if they have nothing else to eat, if they are actually, you know, having a having a hard time finding food or something like that, they they you know, there might be a a a fresh nest of robins that, you know, that, you know, they might be able to grab a nestling from, but it's not their go to food by any means.
Bryn:Okay. So how do you keep magpies away from your yard? It's almost impossible. Right? If you've got a feeder, they're gonna be there.
Bryn:You bet.
Janine:Yeah. I'd feed them in a different part of your yard. You know? You you're not gonna get rid of them. So, you know, work with them and start feeding them a big wide open feeder and then save your little tube feeders for the little guys.
Bryn:Ah, okay. I never thought about that. Yeah. Two feeders.
Ian:Mhmm. Yeah. Well, and and, you know, they're just they're like they're like I am. You know, they're gonna go to the path path of least resistance. You know?
Ian:So if you have a you got a big easy thing to eat out of, I'm gonna go there and then and and and eat there. And then, even though I I have to correct myself. Even though with our place, we have a lot of suet feeders hanging. And, the magpies have mastered hanging off the side of a
Bryn:I've noticed that too.
Ian:Hanging off the side of a suet feeder, which they generally you wouldn't think they would bother with, but I think it's more fun than it is.
Bryn:Do do they like to forage? Because a lot of the other birds like to forage a little bit. So
Ian:Yep. But, you know, that's the problem with they're so intelligent. I think a lot of it is just fun for them. You know? So that's that's that's the other side of the story.
Ian:Right? Maybe they're not starving or maybe they're not, you know, needing your assistance so much, but this is a heck of a good game and a lot of fun.
Bryn:One other thing I found is that I can go out onto the edge of the deck and go, hey. Hey. Hey. And they don't go away. No.
Bryn:But you know what? You know makes them go away? It's
Ian:Oh, yeah.
Bryn:If I slap my hands together, I don't know if it's allowed. It they're out. They're I don't know what it is.
Darren:I don't know.
Ian:Maybe You have the magic touch. I used to
Bryn:think I was loud enough. Yeah. But, apparently, that's not true. Hey. Before we move on to the safe house, Darren, tell us a little bit about you.
Bryn:And how did you
Darren:get started in this? Yeah. So I'm a veterinarian, an exotic animal wildlife veterinarian here in Edmonton. So I live or I live in Short Park. I work on the South Side Of Edmonton at Harvest Point Animal Hospital, and then I work part time at Wild North, the wildlife rehabilitation hospital here in the city.
Bryn:Okay. So you're specializing. How did you what made you think of Viery in this direction?
Darren:Yeah. So I didn't actually have birds or exotic pets growing up or anything like that. But when I was trying to get into vet school, I got a part time job working at the Edmonton Valley Zoo as a zookeeper. And then yeah. So when I went off to vet school in Saskatoon, the zoo, the exotic pet, and the wildlife departments are all fused together into the zoo exotic wildlife service.
Darren:And so I started working in that service during my summers and and after school and stuff like that. And so got exposed to exotic pets, pet birds, things of that nature, and actual free ranging wildlife, not just zoo wildlife. And then, yeah, made a career out of it. Really fell in love
Bryn:with it. Really enjoy it. So what's your favorite part of all that?
Darren:Oh, surgery. Yeah. Seriously? Yeah. So I I really enjoy surgery, emergency medicine, and endoscopic diagnostics.
Darren:So, like, cameras. Oh, he likes to scoop. Minimally invasive surgery. That's wow. I am obsessed.
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. It's dangerous.
Bryn:How do you do surgery in
Darren:a bird? Well, what? With a scalpel. Yeah. Yeah.
Darren:No.
Bryn:I don't know.
Darren:I I don't question. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I've asked you. Down.
Darren:If I did
Bryn:I don't think I could have asked the question any dumber than I
Darren:don't know what to say to that.
Bryn:Yeah. But if you obviously, do you have to put them out.
Darren:Well, yeah. Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. You gotta put them under.
Darren:You're not like Ian. You don't just hold them down. Yeah. That's right. No.
Darren:No. Yeah. So we put them under anesthesia, and they have some very specific anesthetic requirements. They're they're pretty Shout
Ian:out whiskey.
Darren:Delicate. Yeah. No. No. They're they're pretty pretty delicate creatures to work on.
Darren:But, yeah, we we have some specialized equipment and some specialized knowledge and medications and things like that. And we put them under anesthesia, keep them under same stuff as humans. We intubate them. We give them IV fluids, all that kind of stuff. We monitor them with ECGs and all the same things you would imagine just, you know, on a 120 gram cockatiel instead of a big dog or a person or whatever.
Darren:Right?
Ian:So
Bryn:yeah. What what would be the downfall? Is is there a shock factor that's a little different with a bird than it would be a dog or a cat or something like that?
Darren:In terms of, like, risk
Ian:and stuff?
Bryn:Yeah. Or to come out of the surgery. Like, what would be a biggest biggest concern Yeah. How they respond? They come out okay.
Bryn:You kinda have
Darren:to support them because they do tend to kinda panic a little bit and freak out, but we kinda keep them wrapped in a towel and kinda comfort them and hold on to them so they can't hurt themselves. K. The biggest thing with them is that they're they they are, physiologically speaking, very delicate. So they don't handle anesthesia and surgery great. So we just we have to treat them with, like, kid gloves.
Darren:We have to be super, super careful with them all the time. Their anesthetic risk is quite high. But once you get good at it, you can do a lot of different stuff. We've we've been able to do quite a bit of different surgical interventions for them. So
Bryn:Fascinating. I'll tell you you're hanging around for the whole episode. Right?
Darren:Here I am.
Bryn:Okay. I'll tell you what. Let's take a break.
Darren:Lunch. So yeah. Hey. I like a guy.
Bryn:I I love a doctor who works for lunch. Yeah.
Ian:There you go. There you go.
Bryn:Okay. So hang tight because when we come back, we're gonna, take a look at the safe house and what kind of summer has it been. It's it's been a wild one.
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Time to check-in with Janine and find out what's happening at Mika's safe house. Tail end of summer here. It's the end of August. What kind of summer has it been? Because the weather's been crazy.
Bryn:Has that affected what's happening here?
Janine:Well, I don't know if it's the weather so much, but, man, it's been a busy summer. It's been a busy year. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
Bryn:Take a deep breath.
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. I got it.
Janine:This is my downtime.
Bryn:Summer's not quite done yet. So Yeah. Well, we have doctor Darren here on on the safe house, so I'm sure that Darren's involved with everything that's going on in the safe house as well.
Janine:Well, he's part of our medical team. That's for sure. He's, he looks at all of our birds to make sure that everybody's all happy and healthy, and he does all the the testing and the microchipping and all that kind of stuff.
Bryn:Microchipping. Can we can we talk about that for a second? Because I I thought that was just dogs and cats. No. No.
Bryn:It is
Janine:so important to get your birds microchipped. There's been so many lost birds out there this year specifically, which should almost be a podcast all on its own. But now if you get your bird microchipped, it's a heck of a lot easier to find the owner when you have a microchip in it.
Ian:Yeah. So we had well, there's a situation right now with some customers for the store that have their cockatiel has flown out. Okay. And, you know, it's very, very stressful for the owner at all, know, and quite worrisome. But, you know, he hasn't had the Bird microchipped, it was his he when I asked him if he was microchipped, he says, well, they can't microchip a bird that small as a cockatiel.
Ian:I was like, yeah. Pretty sure they can. So, you know, when when when this bird is recovered, that's probably gonna be the first thing he does is head over to doctor Darren and and Yeah. And have a microchip put in.
Darren:And we can microchip pretty small. Yeah. Like, we can go down to birds that are fifty, sixty grams easily.
Janine:We've done linenes.
Darren:We've done even smaller. Yeah. We've done down to a budgie size, honestly. So I mean, 30 grams. You're talking really tiny.
Darren:You gotta be careful, obviously, but, it's definitely doable. And and I mean, especially in the birds, you know, green tea, conure, and bigger, it's, you know, it's a pretty pretty easy decision in terms of safety.
Bryn:Yeah. Okay. So walk me through this when somebody says I wanna get my bird chipped. Mhmm. The chips go in the same place, or does it depend on the breed of the bird?
Darren:Yeah. No. They mostly go in the same place for the most part. When you get the really small ones, you might put it under the skin by the leg. But in most birds, you actually put it in the chest muscle, in the pectoral muscle.
Darren:So we get where the wing is
Bryn:in that area? No.
Darren:Right where the keel bone is. Kinda right on the front. Kinda think rotisserie chicken breast meat kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:There you go. You
Bryn:went there for me. The white meat. Let's say
Darren:yeah. Yeah. So how long is the procedure? It's five minutes. Yeah.
Bryn:That's it? Oh,
Ian:it is. Know that.
Darren:If not even. Yeah. You give them a dose of of opioids because it can hurt. It's a pretty big needle. Right?
Darren:But you give them a dose of opioids, let them relax for a minute. You prep the skin a little bit of alcohol. It's like a big needle. You poke it in there. You hold off, make sure it doesn't bruise whole bad.
Darren:Right? Just like if you donate blood or somebody put put pressure, a little dab of glue, surgical glue, and they're good to go. Don't fly for twenty four hours, and
Bryn:that's it. Is there an expense involved here? Is that why people don't get it done, or is it because they just they're like me. I didn't know you could do it. Yeah.
Bryn:No.
Darren:It's not. It's actually not particularly expensive. I think people just don't know about it, honestly. And they know about it in dogs and cats. It's common knowledge.
Darren:But I think, like and I mean, I'm biased as a bird vet, but I think you're more likely to seriously lose your bird than your dog.
Ian:Yeah. Absolutely. And and the the No. I said absolutely.
Janine:You did.
Bryn:Oh, okay.
Darren:She knows.
Bryn:Here we go again.
Ian:I felt the vision. You know, Janine glared at me.
Darren:Why I'm between you two.
Bryn:Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go.
Ian:You know, I I hear it quite a bit is where people are afraid, because they what do they call that? Fear free handling that that that is is done at harvest point when they're doing the microchipping. So a lot of times they can what did he call that when you when you knock them down a little Oh,
Darren:like intranasal sedation conscious sedation.
Ian:Sedation. Yeah. So when when that's what happens when the when the microchip goes in. So it's not like the dangerous stuff like we were talking before where you're you're you're out cold. Oh, no.
Ian:No.
Darren:Lot of
Ian:people are really scared of that with their birds because, you know, sometimes they don't wake back up. Right? Yeah. But with this this this fear free handling thing, the bird, you know, he gives them a little little snifter or whatever it is. Yeah.
Ian:And does the thing, and then you can reverse it or not. It depends
Darren:on And for the microchips, we don't even really, like, sit like, we don't even really give them much for conscious sedation. It's pretty much just think of it as, a shot of morphine and there you go kind of thing. Yeah. It's a different drug, obviously, but, you know, it's they're they're not even that drowsy for that one. Like, when we do blood work or X rays, they're pretty they're pretty drowsy.
Darren:They're pretty sleepy. They're awake, and it's that fear free handling kind of thing for the microchip because it's so quick and it's not even really that stressful. It's really mostly about the pain. Yeah.
Bryn:How accurate is this though? Like, you know, it's the old thing. Where's my phone? Okay. So I have an iPhone.
Bryn:It's gotta find my phone technology on it. How accurate can
Darren:this You're thinking of a different kind of microchip there. Yeah. No.
Ian:But GPS. Okay.
Bryn:So so explain to me exactly difference.
Janine:So the microchip is not actually a tracker. Because if you were to put a tracker inside a bird, you'd have to monitor it, its battery life.
Ian:Yes. It has to change its batteries.
Janine:Yeah.
Darren:Yeah. Yeah.
Janine:So that would last maybe a year or two. And, you know, like, it's it's possible, but you'd have to keep implanting these things into them. So it's not very accurate. So microchip is basically something that identifies the bird to the owner. So, you if a bird is lost and it's brought to animal care and control, they have a microchip scanner.
Janine:They scan the bird Yeah. And it comes up with the owner's information. Hey. This belongs to Jane, and the phone number is here. Oh, hi, Jane.
Janine:I have your phone or I have your I have your bird, and then they come and pick it up.
Bryn:So it's It's the same as it would be if it was a dog or a cat. Right? Same technology. Yeah. So is that the first thing you look for, Darren, if somebody brings a bird in?
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. 100%. I mean, any animal. Right?
Darren:Yeah. A dog, cat, bird. If a lost animal gets brought into the clinic, into animal care and control, or into Mika's Mhmm. They get scanned. Right?
Darren:And that's that's kinda like standard protocol to do that kind of thing. Because if if they are, if they're microchipped, I mean, this is an easy thing. We don't need to go through. They gotta go to animal care and control. They gotta be processed.
Darren:We gotta find a home for it. It's like, no. Just call Jane and tell her she got her cockatiel. Come get it.
Bryn:Let me throw this out to all three of you. So why aren't people getting is it is it on the increase or people still not thinking about it? It's Oh,
Ian:it's definitely on the increase.
Darren:The increase.
Janine:Big time. Especially because we microchip all of our birds. Anything over, you know, 80 grams, we microchip. So anybody that loses a bird that's come from Micas will know that it comes from Micas, and we can find out who has it as well. So
Bryn:Gotcha.
Ian:And then people, you know, as they get to know more, then then they'll be more comfortable with it because, you know, even even Janine and I, when we first talking about that sedation thing, you know, well, we were a little worried about, do we should we be sedating versus are are they is it gonna be harmful to the bird? We didn't know. Right? So, know, Dan Dan walked us through it, and Murray walked us through it a couple of Murray.
Bryn:Yeah. Slash Murray.
Ian:You know? And and, you know, seeing it with your own eyes is believing. And, you know, oh, jeez. Yeah. Look at that.
Ian:So that's Wow. You know? Because
Darren:we've seen it increase a lot now. Like and and I do think it's more of the educational piece really because as, you know, we it was early on in our relationship working together. We got together with the parrot club and started talking about it and and how it's, you know, safe and how important it is. And now more and more of those people come through and and, you know, uptake is improving a lot, which is awesome because now I have actually had birds, lost birds come into the hospital where it's like, oh, this is actually an old bird. This is great.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Darren:Yeah. There's the fruits of our labor
Ian:right there. Right?
Janine:And the other thing is, like, every green cheek conure looks the same. Right? So, like, if you have two conures that are side by side, you can identify them with their number too. So, yeah, it's it's not like a dog where, oh, he has a freckle on his face. I can identify that one.
Janine:No. This one, they they all look the same, and this is the way that we can tell them apart.
Bryn:Now if the bird is carrying my iPhone around with it oh, never mind. That's a different story. Different story for a different show. Yeah. Okay.
Bryn:Jeanine, we we we have doctor Darren here, so, there's gotta be other topics because I just think that there's so many things that you guys obviously work as a unit.
Ian:Oh, yeah. Well, Janine Janine and Darren more so than I I just sort of come in and
Bryn:just You
Janine:pay the bills.
Ian:Yeah. I
Bryn:just That's right.
Ian:Kinda just hear you go in and get yelled at a little bit, and they then they force me out. Right?
Darren:But Yes. That has happened. Yeah.
Ian:But it's, it's, you know, when when when like with Jasper, for instance, Jasper had, or had I don't know if he has a heart condition or had a heart condition, or we can we were really concerned about a heart condition. We brought, you know, the first thing we did was have Darren, give him the once over and
Janine:And do a bunch of heart tests.
Darren:Yeah. Yeah. Jasper was thought to have potentially Mhmm. A heart condition because there was another bird that was thought to potentially be his genetic relative who did die of a heart condition that is inheritable. So when Jasper came into the safe house, we were pretty concerned about that as a possible disease he might be suffering from.
Darren:So he got brought in. We did some kind of initial testing on him and then did a full cardiac workup. So, heart X rays, ultrasound, ECG, the whole works. And actually, Jasper looks pretty good. So Awesome.
Darren:All of his stuff got sent off to radiologists for interpretation, and it looks like he'll be he should be fine, which is awesome.
Bryn:Can you tell when a bird comes to you that might be a might be a an issue? I we gotta check for something here. I I don't feel right here.
Darren:Oh, yeah. Definitely. Like, we can def we can get feelings on how these animals come in just this subjective assessment right off the bat. The problem with Jasper and his relative is that that disease is famously silent. So you can't really tell that they have it.
Darren:They're not you know, an animal who has, you know, generic heart disease tends to breathe heavy. They're exercise intolerant. Maybe they have kind of a you know, they might be pale or things like that. Right?
Ian:Am I dying? It's you.
Darren:It's you.
Ian:Oh, am I cleared?
Darren:That looks like you. Never mind.
Bryn:Just on what you're gonna say.
Darren:But but that disease, it's called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It's a thickening of the heart. And and it's famous because in veterinary medicine because they don't often have clinical signs. The clinical sign most commonly associated with it is sudden death. So that's not really a
Bryn:Not really a sign.
Darren:Not really a good one to jump back from.
Bryn:Yeah. Exactly.
Darren:So there was an, you know, a situation where his, his potential genetic relative died suddenly and it caught everybody totally off guard. And on his autopsy, we found he had this condition, which gave us quite a bit of cause for concern for other individuals like him.
Ian:Right?
Bryn:Janine, how often do you have to call Darren?
Janine:He usually comes to the shelter about once a month. K.
Darren:Yep. She texts me almost every day.
Ian:Yeah. I'm guessing I'm
Bryn:guessing you like to get updates though. Right? Because you're in here. You do you do kinda bond with all the different birds you look at.
Darren:Oh, yeah. Well, then we work very closely. I mean, there's you know, I come in once a month ish. Right? But I mean, I come in once a month to see anywhere from 10 to 20 birds.
Darren:There's a lot of follow-up. There's a lot of questions. Never mind emergencies, urgent care, things like that. Right?
Ian:Like Or tormenting. She'll phone she she will torment you once in a while.
Bryn:Yeah. Sometimes
Darren:she calls complain. I know.
Bryn:I I think he's the tormented one. I just get that feeling. But, hey, Janine. What else what when we're talking about, obviously, the safe house fundraisers over the summer months going into the fall, are you working on anything?
Janine:Well, this year well, I don't really wanna do dates or anything, but we're gonna have our barbecue pretty quick here. So our fundraising barbecue and garage sale, that's pretty fun. It's always a a good time.
Ian:There's gonna be cake.
Janine:There's gonna be free cake.
Bryn:Kinda like that.
Janine:Free cake for everybody.
Ian:Wow. But,
Janine:yes, it's it's good. I got lots of people helping. I got my mom here starting to price up the garage sale. You can't see her. She's in my office working away.
Janine:But yeah. I got my chicken helpers too.
Bryn:I know. They're right behind us here. Yep. Pecking away there.
Ian:That's the that's the two youngsters. So that's the that's the
Bryn:Can I just butt in that's the youngster? That is a very big rooster. Yeah.
Janine:They're the youngest chickens we got. They were hatched in January. Yeah. And you know, funny thing is about those guys, like, they came in as little chicks in January. They they were just tiny tiny little babies.
Janine:Somebody had found them walking on the side of the road and, brought them in and asked if we could take them and
Ian:And Jean has a chicken problem.
Janine:I
Darren:It's an understatement.
Janine:Yeah. I I kinda like chickens. Yeah. Just a little bit.
Bryn:Nothing wrong with
Darren:that. I met you. I thought you were a parrot person.
Janine:Yeah. I know. None of them got chickens.
Darren:I learned. Alright.
Bryn:Before we wrap this up on the safe house, anything else we wanna pass along? We pretty much summed everything up?
Janine:Well, how about we just talk about how many birds have come into care already?
Bryn:Let's get to those numbers. We haven't done that.
Janine:Let's do that because it's absolutely insane. We've taken in a 132 birds, and it's only halfway through the year, and we've adopted out 92. So So
Darren:that's good.
Ian:Wow. Like
Janine:It's fantastic. Yeah. It's, and we've unfortunately had to turn away a bunch of people, but it just gets to be overwhelming just the amount of surrender requests that we get.
Ian:Well, right now, there's a basically a waiting list.
Janine:So
Ian:Yeah. You know, I I think I was talking to people yesterday, you know, and I think we're looking at the end of the month before anybody, you know, we'll be able to have any space to for anybody to come in.
Bryn:So you're thinking September now at this point. We're so late in August. Right?
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. Yeah. So are these numbers higher than usual?
Janine:They feel higher than usual. I can quickly pull up last year's intakes. In August, we were at
Bryn:let's see. And still got a week to go.
Ian:Oh, yeah. And we got
Janine:August, yeah, hundred and thirty three, hundred and thirty four. So, you know, I guess we're on track, but
Darren:Oh, yeah.
Janine:Just the amount of surrendered requests that we got.
Ian:Yeah. And and and, you know, the donations that we need to we we we we need to beg for more donations to Yeah. To, you know, to keep it going. We have we have a better facility now that it's already full. But, you know, in order to to get these things moving along, we, you know, we have to keep begging for So how do
Bryn:people people wanna get involved in that and help out? How do
Ian:they do that? So sorry. We got
Janine:Yeah. We got chicken bites.
Bryn:Calm down over there.
Ian:Wait a minute. It's a little bit more it's a little bit better than a fight.
Janine:Oh, thanks. That's the opposite of a fight. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. They're breaking it up over the cold shower kids. Yeah.
Janine:National Geographic.
Ian:Yeah. So no. But if people wanna, you know, help out, with anything, the best thing is to email, info at Mika's safe house, and, and that that'll get right into Janine's inbox. And, and if there's something that she can you guys can line up with her, that'd be perfect.
Bryn:Let's end on that note. And, there's one other thing I gotta point out. The last time we were recording, we had to separate birds. Yeah. So it's, it I don't know if it's maybe the the lights, the glare.
Bryn:Yeah. The Yeah. Romantic I don't know what it is.
Darren:Your kids to learn about biology. Come to Michelle's Birdhouse.
Bryn:Come on in. You're say hi. Birds are
Darren:Learn where babies come from.
Ian:Yeah. It's that very white voice you got there,
Darren:Brett. Arms
Bryn:distance. Okay?
Janine:Do not agree with breeding birds, though.
Darren:Do not breed
Bryn:the birds.
Ian:That's right. That's right. That's right.
Bryn:I think we covered it all there. Yeah. In about thirty seconds,
Ian:I think
Bryn:we covered it all.
Darren:Birds and the bees. Yeah. Exactly.
Bryn:But weirdly enough, you know what's up next? The seed.
Ian:Oh, yeah.
Bryn:We'll get right to that when we come back. Jesus. I was there. What can I tell
Ian:you about this? There it is.
Bryn:Okay. It's now time for the seed and time to wrap things up. You know, I I noticed it says Mica's conservation vacation. Yes. What is that?
Ian:That is something that that well, Jeanne puts together. I should say I I I would say we, but it's actually her. But that's something that gets put together every year, and where we go on a a vacation to other wherever in the world. Yeah. And, you know, basically, we go and we look at birds, learn about birds, and with with with as we go along, we we collect donations and we and we give it to part of it goes to the safe house and other part of it goes to conservation programs.
Bryn:Janine, how long have you been doing this for?
Janine:We've been doing the conservation vacation for about three years. This is our third year. Yeah. And but we've also done, which doesn't exist anymore, the parrot lovers cruise, which is kind of the same thing, only a little bit different since 2012.
Bryn:Yeah. So where have you gone over three years?
Janine:We've been to a bunch of places in The Caribbean. So we started in New Orleans, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Martinique. We've been to oh my goodness. We're in
Bryn:While you're thinking about it, Dominica I I've been on cruises before. Dominica, to me, is a is an island nobody ever talks about.
Janine:It's the most beautiful one.
Bryn:It's probably the most untouched of them all. Yeah. I've I've got nothing. And the people are unbelievably friendly.
Janine:That's one of our favorite islands.
Ian:The Rum Punch is the best.
Janine:And their black sand beaches and their their water, their ocean water that bubbles because it's a volcanic island. Right?
Ian:Yeah. So
Janine:and they have a really amazing parrot called the imperial Amazon.
Darren:Mhmm.
Janine:And it's one of the only purple Amazons that that
Ian:Critically endangered, by
Bryn:the way. Very critically endangered.
Ian:You would
Janine:be lucky to see one. They also have the jacko parrot, I think.
Ian:Yeah.
Janine:Right? Yeah.
Darren:Yeah.
Janine:And yeah. Not as endangered as the imperial, but yeah.
Bryn:Well, I I also to point out that we were driving on a highway that goes around the island. Beauty it was in beautiful shape when we were there.
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:And I said, wow. This this is this road's fantastic. And they said it was I think it was Hugo. Was a hurricane. And they said, you paid for this road.
Bryn:Yeah. Because the Canadian government was involved heavily in that building of that highway around the island. So, you know, they they thanked me, and I went, no.
Ian:Hey. At least
Bryn:we did something. Who walked? I didn't know we did this, but, this is great stuff.
Ian:But We can't build them in our country.
Darren:There's so many
Bryn:great islands down to the Caribbean. But what about are the birds similar, or they're just it's wildly different from island to island?
Janine:They they are different from island to island. Like, in Bonaire, you'll see a bunch of the brown throated conures. In Belize, you'll see, like, the white capped pionis. Like yeah.
Ian:Well, the thing like the brown throated Conures that we saw in in Banter. Banter, when I first saw them, I thought they were Gen De Conures. Yeah. Because, know, they're they're they're on they're on this little island, you know, all to themselves so that they they started looking more like Jende conures than they do olive throats. When you see olive throats, you know, and seeing, you know, in one of the other islands, it's very clear on what what you're looking at.
Ian:But yeah.
Janine:Yeah. They look a lot like Jendes.
Bryn:What about migration for birds like that? They stick to their islands?
Janine:The parrots do. Yes.
Ian:K. Yeah. I wonder. Yeah. And I I I don't know.
Janine:Unless they get blown off by
Ian:a hurricane. Blown off by a hurricane. Maybe in the
Bryn:Of course.
Darren:Nipples spread of species. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Bryn:So this is fantastic. So what's coming up this fall then?
Janine:Oh, we're going to Thailand.
Bryn:Oh, time? Oh.
Ian:First time.
Janine:Yeah. So, yeah, it's like it's gonna be an interesting it's gonna be an interesting tour. I'm hoping to see some hornbills. You know? I'm crossing my fingers, but we'll see.
Darren:Or
Ian:Alexandrians. There's lots of lots lots of birds that you can see in Thailand.
Janine:Oh, they have, like, a bird for every single day. Like, they have a thousand different species of birds.
Ian:I don't know if that's right. But that's
Janine:a They have tons.
Ian:They have lots of birds, but it's the the deal is is that in in this year, we're gonna do, split the the proceeds with the or or split the donations with the World Parrot Trust this year.
Janine:Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. So So I have to ask this because somebody might be listening, thinking the same thing. So do you take a group with you? Is it just you two?
Janine:No. We take a group with us.
Bryn:Oh, we need a group.
Janine:Yeah. Yep.
Darren:That's where the donations come from.
Ian:Can you imagine could you imagine you know? No. No. Just a group because I'd be in trouble.
Bryn:Because I wanted to be polite.
Darren:Yeah. So high to the crowd. Yes. High to someone
Ian:to high behind. Absolutely. Wow.
Bryn:Okay. And so you're jammed? You're full?
Janine:This year.
Bryn:Okay. Right.
Janine:Yeah. We got full.
Bryn:Who do you deal with on that? Is that something you guys put together with,
Janine:any agency? Agent. Yeah. With New West Travel.
Ian:New West Travel. Got it. They help us out with that. Yeah. And they've already got amazing.
Bryn:Solid group. Yeah. Solid group of and everybody.
Janine:So answer all of our questions on time. They're, you know, they're really thorough with what they they what they say is what they deliver.
Bryn:That's how how it's always
Darren:been asked. Are you guys seeing these birds in the wild? Is this wow. That is so good. Because I went on
Ian:the World
Darren:Parrot Parrot Lovers Cruise Yes. Right?
Ian:Yeah. We were there.
Darren:Number of years ago. Yeah. I think I I think I saw you guys there, actually. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:I was drinking the rum. You were
Darren:actually one drinking the rum. Right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Darren:And there there was we saw some parrots in the wild, but there wasn't too too many. But this sounds like you guys are seeing a lot more actually, like, out there in the wild.
Ian:That's that's our goal.
Janine:That's our goal.
Bryn:Hey. That reminds me. I saw you guys sell binoculars here. Right?
Darren:We do.
Bryn:We do. I saw that on the way in today. I went, oh, I love that. Yes. I'm not all about the green color, but that kind of fits in.
Bryn:I would lose those in a heartbeat if I put them down somewhere.
Ian:Well, there's these things like Eugenia's got, like, I and I think it's in one of her bags or whatever. What do you call that thing? What? The thing that I can track you on.
Janine:What does that have to do with Banter Well,
Darren:if he loses the Banter pills, she can
Bryn:turn the tags. We're back to that again? Wow. Hey. As I try to get this back on track here, you know what?
Bryn:We gotta move on. That means you know what time it is? It is
Janine:fun facts.
Bryn:Time for fun facts.
Darren:There you are.
Bryn:What have we got going today? What's what's the fun fact today?
Janine:These are all Ian's fun facts. Okay.
Ian:Don't blame me.
Darren:They better be good.
Janine:Yeah. Better be good.
Ian:These are good. These are good. So today was night jars. Right? Yes.
Ian:Night jars? So here we have, in in in this area, we'd see the common nighthawk, which don't see anymore. It's not so common. I don't see them very often. But the the fun fact with these guys is is that they time that, their their egg hatching, so it coincides with a full moon.
Bryn:Really?
Ian:Yeah. Like, that's like That is scientific fact. Wow. That is a scientific fact. That
Bryn:is That's such as fun.
Ian:That's scientific. And that's freaking cool. Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah.
Ian:And so the reason why they do that is because they're insectivores. Right? And so when the chicks hatch under a full moon, there's more light, more hunting for for for the the common nighthawk for the to eating insects and things like that.
Janine:So a nighthawk is the same as the nightjar?
Ian:There well, it the nighthawks a common nighthawk is in the nightjar family. Is that right? Right? Yep. Yeah.
Ian:See?
Bryn:There we go. Now I got
Ian:it backed up by a doctor.
Darren:I just said yes.
Ian:I don't know. I'm not sure. Actual fun fact. Yeah. There you go.
Darren:Well, if anyone's listening, you want look up a nighthawk's mouth wide open on Google, and you'll see something cool. They are amazing. When they come into the hospital, they are mind blowing.
Bryn:Like, they
Darren:just have the biggest mouths ever.
Ian:They're like, they're super cool. Super cool birds. And, you know, I used to, like, I think maybe four or five years ago, we saw them quite a bit in this area. I haven't seen any recently in that, you know, and we of course, we've had the mosquito population that we've had this year, I think, jeez, why aren't we trying to encourage Show that show that photo. Look at that.
Ian:Oh
Bryn:my goodness.
Darren:Yeah. You gotta Google image that, man. It's crazy. Wow. Sorry.
Bryn:Yeah. That's That's a distraction. Big mouse.
Ian:That is a big mouse. I know.
Darren:So we might
Bryn:wanna end this.
Darren:We might wanna yeah.
Bryn:I was just gonna say we might wanna end the podcast right here Yeah. Off of that. Hey. Before we wrap it up, though, Darren, tell everybody in case they miss it. So where where are you where are you located?
Darren:We're yeah. We're on the South Side Of Edmonton, Ellersey, and 50th area, Harvest Point Animal Hospital. Yeah.
Bryn:Do not ask for Murray.
Ian:Yeah. No. Can't. You can't. You won't find him.
Ian:Yeah. Well, but you know what? I'll talk to the staff there. I I can have his name changed.
Bryn:Just to make sure. Just to make sure.
Ian:Say hi to Meg.
Bryn:I think yeah.
Ian:There you go. Wow.
Bryn:Thanks, everybody. This is a total blast.
Ian:Yeah. Right
Bryn:on. Alright. We'll talk to you again coming up in September. I cannot believe August has flown by.
Ian:Yeah. Done. Hey.
Bryn:Thanks for joining us today. If you're a birdbrain 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. That way when a new one drops, you'll get the new one right to your home perch.
Bryn:And, also, if you're not as the crow flies and you can't drop into our location, check us out online at mica'sbirdhouse.com. That's it for the Birdhouse Banter. Have yourself a great day. Let's get chirping.