by Sheldon Dingle, Alhambra, CA

Ji/JO wonde-t:/ttlyoltng women Cifauicltltltre - ::jamantha Gillis alld u'Orld rellOU'1'l allthol~

speaker, and bird breeder Rosemary Low.

Samantha at age/ice handfeeding baby Kakarikis

about 12 hummingbird feeders to thisday. He enjoys all the migratory birdsthat follow the San joaquin River ­his friends call him Mr. Audubon now.During the summer months he refresh­es the wild birds' drinking waterthroughout the day and you will neverfind an empty feeder. He andSamantha (his granddaughter and themain subject of this article) have beenknown to sit out in the back yardwatching all the different birds feedingfor hours at a time.

Samantha (AKA Sam) was born intoa home that had many birds. Hermother, Leslie jennifer Gillis (formerlyKyle) had finches to Amazons. ToddlerSamantha was quite content to sit inthe living room and watch all thefinches in a flight built off the windowwhere one can view the birds yeararound. She would sit there for hours.She loved the Lady Gouldians and

W hen I visit various birdclubs and aviaries I alwayslook for young people

involved in aviculture. I find all toofew. But sometimes I find a real avi­culturist who is also really young.That's what this story is all about.

This story covers three generations.Leslie jennifer Gillis was raised by herparents (Morris and Vi Kyle) to lovebirds - exotics as well as the indige­nous species around the house and inthe fields. The Kyles kept assortedexotic birds including Bee Bee Parrots,Canaries, a Budgerigar, and a fewother small birds.

Vi Kyle got her first first Amazon (avery sick Orange-winged) for $50 fromthe local K-Mart in Fresno, California in1969. For another $25 the pet depart­ment manager threw in a cage andtold her that he did not think the birdwould live velY, long. Kyle took thebird anyway - she hated to see it sickand unloved.

This story has a happy ending ­actually, it is not ended yet. Kylenursed the Amazon (now namedHarvey) back to health and it has nothad a sick day since. Harvey still liveswith the Kyles. (As an aside, Harveywas thought to be a female but whenan African Grey Parrot was added tothe household, Harvey became soexcited she laid eggs in the seed dish.)

None. of this was lost on youngLeslie jennifer.

Leslie was taught how to handfeedabandoned baby wild birds by hermom and grew up with a love andappreciation of birds. Her .father(Morris Kyle) feeds over 100Ibs. ofwild bird seed a month and unknownamounts of peanuts and sunflower forthe larger native birds and maintains

The Making of anAviculturist:

Samantha's Story

L60 January/February 1999

The finch attiary of!Gillis s living room uJhere Sa1nantha befriended a Cordon Blue.

belonged to Gillis and Sam knew it.Sam begged for a bird of her own andwas told that if she helped raise thetwo baby Kakarikis being fed, shewould get her own bird. Sam pitchedright in and began handfeeding thebaby parrots. Indeed, she became very

Samantha and hermother, Leslie, paintedthe walls ofthe aviaryhousing Plum-headed

Parakeets.

made friends with a Blue-cappedCordon Blue. He would flutter at thewindow when she was there - upand down - and Sam would watchwearing a very big smile. She said"This is my bird."

When Sam was about three yearsold she became very interested inhelping her mother handfeed birds.Gillis would let Sam help feed the wildjays and crows being rehabilitated forrelease. Sam would scream withdelight when they took the food fromher tiny fingers. These birds, of coursewere .fed only from necessity - tokeep them from dying. All of the birdswere released, of course, when theywere healthy and on their own.

Occasionally a baby Cordon Bluewould hatch out and need to be fedfrom day one. Sam watched with greatinterest and always offered to help.Gillis always declined.

When Sam was about four-and-a­half years old her mother allowed herto help raise a Green Singer. Ofcourse, Sam and the singer becamepals.

Then the day finally came whenSam wanted a bird of her own - the200 plus birds on the property

Samantha at school uJith her Cockatiel Luna ".for shaul and tell.The teacher U 'as quite surprised at hou 1nuch inforn1ati01l Sa /71

passed on to her classmates.

the afa \VATCHBIRD 61

Samantha Danielle Gillis - the future ofavic1tlture - utith a handfed Green Singer.

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62 Januaty/February 1999

possessive and thought she should bethe only one to feed them. Gillis let herthink that but would sneak in and feedthe babies at need throughout the day.

Sam was very proud when the birdsfeathered out and learned to fly. Theynow live outside in one of the flights.

For her efforts and diligence, Sambought her first bird at the Fresno BirdMart put on by the Central CaliforniaAvian Society. She bought anunweaned pied Cockatiel from Rodand Carlene Silva. Samantha promisedto handfeed it and she did - with a lit­tle help and a lot of overSight from hermother. (Coincidently, the first birdSam's mother bought as her own wasalso a female Cockatiel.)

Sam named the bird Stella Luna,after one of her favorite books.Samantha was proud of Stella and tookher to her first grade class for showand tell and told everyone how to takegood care of a Cockatiel. Her teacherwas impressed with Sam's greatknowledge about taking care of birds.

Satnantha has been attendingCentral California Avian Society meet­ings since she was three years old andhas made more meetings than most ofthe club mernbers. She is the youngestvoting member and attends the CCASboard meetings with her mother.

Samantha loves meeting the speak­ers and has been known to draw pic­tures of birds to present to variousspeakers. Indeed, when I spoke atCCAS, it was the crayon bird drawingSam quietly put in my hand after themeeting. That really touched me andinspired me to learn more about Sam,one of the world's youngest true avi­culturists.

And I am in good company. Notlong ago Sam presented a bird draw­ing the the world renowned RosemaryLow who was speaking at the FoothillBird Fanciers club. Sam doesn't mindtraveling a bit to hear a famous birdexpert.

Samantha loves to visit with themembers of her club and enjoys talk­ing with Gene Hall, Dale Thompson,and Dr. Sue Lynch, the veterinarian atthe local Chaffee Zoo in Fresno.. Shealso enjoys the tours when the Societyvisits different aviaries.

One of Sam's best friends in theSociety is a gentleman named Christian

Yost. He kinda spoils her by often giv­ing her his winnings off the raffle table.And not only does Yost spoil Sam,when Mel and Shirley Lehman realizedthat the Society T-shirts were all toobig for Sam, they bought a smallershirt, had it specially embroidered withthe Society logo, and gave it to Sam asa gift (which Sam wears with greatpride). Indeed, Sam thinks of many ofthe society's members as her personalfriends.

Sam, herself, saves money up andbuys raffle ticket every month in highhopes of winning anything.

Although only eight years old, Samis a voting member of the club for thesecond year and knows more aboutbirds than most of the adults.

Her genuine smile and excitementwhen seeing a new bird for the firsttime reveal the spirit of a true birdlover. She looks at the beauty of thebirds and not the dollar value. Hope­fully that will never change. Odd, butthat is the same way the great JeanDelacour looked at birds - clear intohis eighties and nineties.

As did her mother when a child,Sam enjoys helping raise Scrub Jays,Crows, Robins, House Finches andother distressed wild birds. It is stillvery hard on rnother and daughterwhen the day come for releasing theserehabilitated birds. But, Sam under­stands the reasons for feeding themand for releaSing and accepts thereleases with fewer tears each time.

Like most of us, Sam. has learnedsome things the hard way. She oncestuck her hand into a breeding cage ofa pair of Lilac-crowned Amazons whowere nesting. Even after being bittenvery badly, though, she forgave thebird and understood it was her mis­take, not the bird's fault. After the tearsand bleeding stopped, she regained afriendship with the pair (albeit a morecareful friendship) that has lasted untilthis day.

Sam knows, too, all the work thatgoes into caring for birds. In additionto the heavy chores of handfeeding,she cleans out cages, checks food andwater and even serves as her mother'sonly helper in putting the flights upand painting walls with floral prints orsomething to brighten up the aviaries.

Sam's only bird gave her babies the

Parakeets, Button Quail, Canaries, andthree Slaty-headed Parakeets. Therewere four until the wind blew over agreat tree and crushed an aviary (whilethis story was being written) and oneof the Slaty-headeds made a break forit and was last seen heading for north­ern India.

It is all too seldom that we findyoung people coming up in aviculture.Such young folks need to be nurtured,encouraged, and assisted in every waypossible lest aviculture die out as ahobby and avocation.

Samantha Danielle Gillis is the verysort of youth upon which the future ofaviculture depends. And great creditgoes to her mother and grandfather forbringing about this wonderful youngthird-generation aviculturist. Sam, welove you . .,.

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.~>

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Charter Life MembersGerald and Elizabeth Jennings

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full 7(}O/O of money from Life memb rships stays in a ~r­

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last two years, so she considers herselfthe grandmother to the offspring anddoesn't want to sell any of them. She isnow building her own flock up. Howmany of you remember those days?

Samantha has spent many hourshelping her mother catch up loosebirds after the bird marts. Last Juneevery day after school they drove backto Fresno to the fairground to catch uploose birds. If no one did this, the birdswould remain in the building and dieof starvation, so every day for five daysdays they made the 35 mile trip toFresno, carrying a power squirt gun,flashlight, nets, and carriers.

They saved many birds from certaindeath. Some birds captured still need­ed handfeeding and Sam took on thatjob and helped wean one Pennant'Rosella, one Indian Ring-necked Para­keet and one Cockatiel. They alsocaught Zebra Finches and doves andwent back until every last bird wassaved. One bird was given away andthe rest remain under Samantha'swatchful eyes.

The aviaries of Leslie Jennifer Gillisand -daughter Samantha containkakarikis, Amazon parrots (that bitefingers of little girls), various Neophe­mas, finches, Princess of Wales

Little Samantha Gillis is is in very good avi­cil/tural hands. Dr. Gordon Hackett (left) ,Gene Hall Ilana and Roland Cristo hal'eu ell O'l-'er a century ofavicultural experiencea/nang them.

the afa WATCHBIRD 63

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