About Me

  My name is Patricia Sund and  I live in Florida. My family consists of 2 African Greys: Parker and Pepper and an elderly Shih Tzu I rescued from my Condo parking lot named Mattie. I’m a Flight Attendant and I write. I also like to cook. When I first got Parker years ago, I decided that if I was going to do this “Parrot” thing right, I was going to have to learn a few things. So I sat down and read absolutely everything I could find on the Internet. I bought every book, even the outdated ones, and purchased every training video available. I enrolled in and  completed the Natural Encounters Inc. “Companion Parrot Training Seminars” I and II. After completing these, I  enrolled in, completed and earned a Certificate of  Excellence in Dr. Susan Friedman’s online course:  LLP: Living and Learning with Parrots. These courses are life-changing and I recommend them highly. They will change the way you view your birds, as well as the way you view the world.

  I started writing for “BIRD TALK” Magazine in 2007. This year, I began writing a column for “BIRD TALK” titled “Memo to Parker and Pepper” which is apparently making an impact. I have written articles for Barbara Heidenreich’s Magazine, “Good Bird”, internal articles for the Company I fly for, and have I’ve contributed to Phoenix Landing’s “Phoenix Beakin’” and the Alamo Exhibition Bird Club Newsletter. I have done presentations in Positive Reinforcement Training for bird clubs as well as doing children’s presentations for the Boys and Girls Club and several schools.

I worked for three weeks at the Cincinnati Zoo after meeting the Bird House Manager, Steve Malowski at the Houston Parrot Fesitval. He knew good free labor when he saw it! So last September, I packed up my stuff, entrusted my birds and dog to my good friends Shari Mirojnick, and Beverly Shwartz and took off for Cincinnati. Three weeks later I came home sore, tired and smelling like a Mackerel but man, I had fun!

I began this blog last year not long before I left for the Zoo, and it became my journal of the time I spent there. Now it’s a journal of, as Barbara Heidenreich calls them, my “Adventures in the Bird World”.  You’ll find posts about the Houston Parrot Festival,  and my work with Shari Mirojnick: rehabilitating relinquished African Greys and our efforts to place them.  I write about saving money in these difficult economic times, living with parrots, and managing to thrive and even enjoy life with my Greys. I have more “adventures” planned; even a return trip to the Zoo. I hope you find my blog interesting and come away from reading it feeling better about your birds and your relationship with them.