BOAF Bulletin Express

Dear Members,

I hope that everyone had a joyous holiday season. As a new year approaches many of us plan to make changes in our life styles-such as losing weight, quitting smoking, getting more sleep, cutting down on birds, etc. Habits are hard to break and it takes so much will power that most of us fall short of our ultimate goals. But the important thing is to set goals. Only then can we better ourselves - even if we don't always succeed.

Which brings up an important subject -- our schedule of events for the year. What will BOAF do for 1998?? As always, it’s up to you! The focus of our January meeting again this year is "Roundtable Discussions". That is when we all have a voice in who and what we want for our monthly meetings. Please come prepared for this meeting. Think about what you want to learn or do (Not only do we have guest speakers, but hands on workshops are lots of fun as well). In 1997 we deviated from the norm and held a "Bird Mart" and "Birdie Bingo" - which proved to be quite successful. In 1998, lets do more.

We also have to get some contributing editors for the Bulletin. Who would like to write a monthly article? Many of our members raise cockatiels for instance. Who would like to become the "resident expert" in cockatiels? Same for finches, lovebirds, parrots, canaries, etc. You don't have to write an article each month - maybe 2 or 3 times a year. If we can get 3 or 4 contributing editors to help Ray out, then the Bulletin will be much more informative. Ray CANNOT DO EVERYTHING HIMSELF!!! I know - I've been there. It's not easy.

Pitch in and help him out. If you want to contribute, Call Ray and plan an article or two.

We've had many changes this year and winners too! Ray took on the tremendous responsibility of Bulletin Editor and has done a fantastic job! Katie Secor won "Best Parrot" at the National Cage Bird Show in Denver with her Brown Headed Conure - Quite a feat!!!

All in all, it has been a very good year for BOAF and our Christmas party /Yankee swap was lots of fun. The gifts were all terrific and everyone was a winner. The food was especially good...not much for hot dogs though.

In closing, we are all wishing our dear friend and dedicated member, Carl Cantin the very best for the New Year.

See you at the January meeting!

Sincerely,

Who says things are easier the second time you do them? That certainly doesn’t apply to BOAF bulletins!

After many calls, and considerable prodding, I got the inputs for last month’s bulletin. How many people noticed it was a bit later than the first bulletin I sent out? I know this is a busy season so a large THANK YOU to all the contributors.

Hope everyone enjoyed a happy Chanukah, merry Christmas, joyous Kwanza or whatever. Now its time to look forward to 1998 and exciting new presentations.

For those who don’t already know it, the first week in January is my vacation. That, combined with the holidays, resulted in an early cutoff for ads and announcements. (Did you read the December bulletin?) If your material wasn’t received before Christmas, it didn’t make the January bulletin. It will be published in the February bulletin.

I’d like to include articles from more members. Give me them at a meeting or mail them to:

Ray Schwartz
19 Olde Common Drive
Atkinson, NH 03810-2177

or e-mail them to Prismsdad@aol.com

or call me at (603) 362-6106

Contribute an article to the BOAF Bulletin and become a world famous author. Don’t believe me? Visit the BOAF web site (www.boaf.com) and see the bulletin resplendent with vibrant colored headings.

Next Directors Meeting

Date: January 19, 1998
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Steve Tanner’s Home
Agenda: This meeting of the Board of Directors will be to establish the Calendar of Events for 1998. It is open to all members. Please let Steve know in advance if you plan to attend so he will put out enough chairs.

If you are not an Officer or Director, but have a program suggestion that didn’t come up at the meeting, please come to the directors meeting or contact one of them.

Jade, Flower and Prism are not common names for parrots. But then I wanted something distinctive, yet meaningful. After all, my birds are special - they're mine!

Although I set off to buy a scarlet macaw, my first parrot was a green cheek conure. He selected me as much, if not more, than I selected him. Could it have been love at first sight? After I put the deposit on him, I was told he needed a name other than "Hey Bird." I rejected something cutesy like Larry and pondered the possibilities. Under the store fluorescent lights, his feathers looked jade green. You guessed it - he became Jade.

Jade was about three pounds shy of the macaw I really wanted to buy. So about six months thereafter I went to Eileen Brouk to order my macaw. She convinced me I needed experience with a bird larger than Jade. She originally suggested an umbrella cockatoo or an African Grey. I had heard that cockatoos are prone to screaming and that African greys tend to feather pluck. I looked through parrot books until I saw a blue headed pionus sitting on a morning glory vine. It looked just like one of the flowers. When my blue headed pionus arrived, he immediately became Flower.

A year later I was ready to purchase a macaw. I planned to order a scarlet macaw but Sabine Heiser convinced me that a green wing macaw would have a more stable personality. I insisted I wanted a red macaw and only a scarlet would suffice. She showed me there were two red macaws. In the green wing picture the bird looked like a rainbow. And, my bird was going to get that name. But, while in the mall one day, I saw a Swarovski crystal prism that turned white light into a rainbow. The spectrum matched the bird's coloration and Rainbow became Prism.

Please tell us how you chose your birds' names.

Ads are now published both in the bulletin and on the web site.

Survey Question??

Breeder's List Update

Snow Cancellations

Last October a dozen or more people offered to write stories for the bulletin. I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are. Well it is now three months later and I'm still waiting. Please let me have your stories. The spelling and grammar don't have to be perfect - Word takes care of that. They don't even have to be typed. There are no special events in February so there'll be room for several member articles. Let's try for a minimum of three!