Birdmad Girl, aka Lee-Anne, has been around at Tailfeathers since 1st September 2003. She oringinally joined because she was faced with the possibility of having her budgie spayed, and was looking for advice from other people who had been through this with their birds. She was asked to join the modeator team a few months afterwards. She enjoys moderating here because she feels that Tailfeathers is a friendly place for bird lovers to share advice and information, and she hopes to be around to contribute her experiences for a long time to come. She loves working with the moderator team, and has made some great online friendships here.
Lee-Anne was born in October, 1978, and has been living with birds all her life. She grew up around them as her parents were bird enthusiasts, keeping cockatiels and budgerigars. Her passion grew when she aquired her first budgierigar Madame Jo Jo when she was 14 years old, who sadly passed away in December 2004 at the age of twelve.
Lee-Anne has also kept other budgerigars over the years. She aquired Rhoobarb, her Congo African Grey in 1998. She developed a passion for exotic animals when she worked at a pet store during her student years, and now lives with a total of twelve exotic pets, including her two budgies Banshee and Malibu, various lizards, snakes, tarantulas and a frog.
She graduated from university in 2000 with a BA Hons degree in Media Arts & Video Production, working around her course at a livestock supervisor of a PetSmart store, and on reception at a veterinary surgery. Her interest in exotics moved her to drop her 4 year long career in television production to take a position as a trainee veterinary nurse with an exotic practice, working alongside one of the UKs leading avian specialists. She spent a full year being trained in-house about avian medicine and nursing, and has learned a lot about the diseases of birds from first hand experience. She now works part time with the veterinary practice at weekends, and has gone back to a full time career in TV making classic rock music documentaries. She occassionally does some freelance work as a casting assistant for TV commercials and sometimes works as a healthcare assistant at a family planning centre.
She and some of her friends occasionally take out their animals to do educational talks at fairs, nature reserves and schools. One of her tarantulas is particularly friendly, and she enjoys the challenge of explaining to people that tarantulas are not actually dangerous, and very often it is the children, not the adults, who are keen to hold her tarantula!
Lee-Anne has written articles and letters for publication in Parrots Magazine, a UK based hobbyists magazine of which her avian vet is a regular contributor. She would always like to keep a part of her life dedicated to the welfare of birds in captivity. She is particularly passionate about budgerigars, and is very knowledgeable on health and nutrition issues. She has provided Tailfeathers with a few articles about first aid, nutrition, safety around the home, psittacosis and egg related problems, and hopes to contribute more articles in the future.
« Click here to go back to the "The People Behind the Scenes" page.