Budgie intelligence

I stumbled across this interesting web site today:

Victor the Budgerigar: A Journey Into the Mind of a Parrot

Currently most of the scientific community has not recognized that parrots are capable of higher order thinking such as conversational language or concept formation. This site provides audio and video proof that they can. My goal is to lobby the scientific community so they do not ignore this case study and accept it as an important breakthrough in the animal intelligence field.

The main focus of this study is on a budgie named Victor who had a vocabulary of more than 800 words and thousands of phrases. This site shows how he pronounced these words and understood their meanings as well. You can hear him conversing on many different topics. Recently other budgies have began to talk in similar context as well. You can hear some of their recordings on this site too. We believe the recordings here are some of the most important examples showing higher animal intelligence ever provided.

~site owner and budgie speech trainer Ryan Reynolds

Listening to the recordings requires some patience, but it is worth the effort. This bird knew what he was saying.

Down Lilac Way

Can't we two go walkin' together, out beyond the valley of trees?
Out where there's a hillside of heather, curtsyin' gently in the breeze.
That's what I'd like to do: see the heather--but with you.

( The rest of the lyrics )

This isn't an enchanted Scottish village, so I can't take you walking through a hillside of heather. In France we might find a hillside of lavender. But here in Southern Ontario the best I can do—and it's a pretty good best—is a hillside of lilacs. Any of you romantics up for a stroll?

The soreness in my thighs has abated so I finally made the trek down Lilac Way this afternoon. The photos don't do it justice. It made me think of one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite musicals.

The texture of my life has been so rich these past few days that I have a long journal entry to make soon. Meanwhile I haven't had time to keep uptodate on my friends' journals. I still have an article to finish writing and publishing on Suite101. So other things might not get read or written until tomorrow.

May (?) article published

I have finally published my May article at Suite101.com. LJ is entirely to blame for the late submission. Well they don't pay contributors anymore, so they shouldn't complain. Here's the new article:

Texture

bitterlawngnome, it contains a link to your plant gallery.

It isn't one of my more stellar essays. Considering how much I've been thinking about beauty and texture lately, I should have come up with something more articulate. But these ideas relate to the much larger project I have been working on. Synthesis continues. For now, imperfection must suffice.