Custom Artwork of my family by Luiza RL

Life with our birds after a 2 year long tour has been very different. It’s nice not to need to have expectations, I will admit that. We were never really into much of a routine on the tour. The number of shows each week changed, the times changed, and the miles we drove and places we stopped and arrived to all changed. The birds loved having tasks it seemed, and enjoyed the constant exercise. But it’s not like we always lived on tour, we did have a couple years here in Florida as well and went on constant freeflight trips with them. Once we got home they were all leaning on our hands towards the aviaries wanting to go in! I think they understand we’re home for good this time (we spent 5 days here in the last two years) and have relaxed right in. A few days ago I found boings in their trailer along with a few other toys I was able to implement into their aviaries. Every day is different for them. Sometimes we bring them into the house to fly or flight train. Sometimes they stay out in the aviaries all day, sometimes they come into the bird room to play around as they want and fly. Right now there isn’t much variation because it is taking us so long to move back into the house. The birds were the first ones to be moved in with all their things... so they’re perfectly comfortable. We, however, have vehicles to fix and trailers to clean, things to move into the house and to move out into the garage, and things to move into our storage unit. We also have yard work to catch up on... just today I trimmed our lemon tree in the backyard and cut back all the neighboring vines on all sides, even the ones going into the aviaries. The birds watched and were perfectly silent while watching me at work. They didn’t protest to the pool lady coming by, or to our motorcycle going into the backyard either. They didn’t say a word when I cut down a few palms. They don’t really know what to expect right now except to be home a while. Life is much different for us; using an oven again and laundry machines, a bed that Dave’s feet don’t hang off of and much much more. But the bird life? Ah, we’re used to this kind of bird life and I rather love it... no constant cage cleaning after hard travel days or worrying about food and toys showing up at random arenas. We couldn’t be happier to be home and are excited to focus on new projects for BirdTricks which is much easier in this atmosphere.

Special thank you: To Luiza for making this beautiful artwork of me and my wonderful husband and beloved birds. I love that Rocko, my toucan, was captured in this artwork as a baby as he is and the others so naturally and perfectly. I can't express how much I love it and feel blessed to be given such amazing gifts like this from amazing people all around the world. Thank you ever so much. It means the world and I love sharing my gifts with everyone. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Article by Jamieleigh Womach. She has been working with parrots and toucans since the age of 17. She isn’t homeless but is home less than she prefers to be. She travels the world with her husband, daughter, and a flockful of parrots whom she shares the stage with.