Hello from a fellow bird nerd!
Apologies for joining this forum as a bird enthusiast, but this may just lose me what few marbles I have left. As an avian enthusiast with a keen interest in and follower of all things showing our birdie friends as the fluffy geniuses they are - I.E the work of Pepperberg, Colbert-White, Jennifer Cunha - for those here who are familiar - as well as the ever growing body of research outside of language proper, I was intrigued to see mention of a certain Virginia Bush in a certain, serious academic essay on a subject for which her work was relevant; she is a recently passed, long time owner of an African Gray, who had kept daily notes on her bird with a specific focus on his observational, contextual acquisition of language, with a book currently in prep for publication detailing her observations, results, and advice for parrot owners who would like to teach their parrots the same. Given that she was also the founder of a purportedly active Yahoo group dedication to the topic of avian cognition which also purportedly included some academic participation, brought up Google, prepared for at least a day or two of very fascinating reading, and found...nothing.
Literally, no information on her or written by her. Not on Google. Not on DuckDuckGo. Not on Archive.org. Apart from a memorial announcement at least proving that she was real and as herself; a reply to a very old and excessively critical post on the subject of parrots possessing anything that could remotely be compared to 'language' posted around I believe 2004; and the one or two mentions in papers that I had already seen, it was as if she had never existed.
Yet she was a founder and regular contributor to a group dedicated to the subject of Avian Cognition, a subject of some interest to the public. She comes from the perspective of a retired teacher of English as a second language, giving her own observations added interest, and her decades of observations of her own bird are the subject of book in prep that from the sounds of it could be the most interesting combination memoir and detailed observation of an apparently semi language competent bird since Pepperberg's academic 'The Alex Studies' and very personal 'Alex and Me'. How can there be nothing written by her to be found, and no discussions or reposting of her observations of her African Gray? How there be no clear follow on the group she founded, nothing to replace the Yahoo group she founded, if it was active and engaged with people with academic knowledge of the topic?
There should be information to find. And yet she and the forum she founded seem to largely fallen into a black hole. Which doesn't make sense. Hence my request for information - if anyone has any - of what became of her forum or where it's members and information may have migrated to, to preserve my sanity. Any information would be much appreciated.
(To the mods: I hope this will not be considered spam; I didn't know what other forum to post this question in, so please move this to another forum if appropriate)
Joel
Apologies for joining this forum as a bird enthusiast, but this may just lose me what few marbles I have left. As an avian enthusiast with a keen interest in and follower of all things showing our birdie friends as the fluffy geniuses they are - I.E the work of Pepperberg, Colbert-White, Jennifer Cunha - for those here who are familiar - as well as the ever growing body of research outside of language proper, I was intrigued to see mention of a certain Virginia Bush in a certain, serious academic essay on a subject for which her work was relevant; she is a recently passed, long time owner of an African Gray, who had kept daily notes on her bird with a specific focus on his observational, contextual acquisition of language, with a book currently in prep for publication detailing her observations, results, and advice for parrot owners who would like to teach their parrots the same. Given that she was also the founder of a purportedly active Yahoo group dedication to the topic of avian cognition which also purportedly included some academic participation, brought up Google, prepared for at least a day or two of very fascinating reading, and found...nothing.
Literally, no information on her or written by her. Not on Google. Not on DuckDuckGo. Not on Archive.org. Apart from a memorial announcement at least proving that she was real and as herself; a reply to a very old and excessively critical post on the subject of parrots possessing anything that could remotely be compared to 'language' posted around I believe 2004; and the one or two mentions in papers that I had already seen, it was as if she had never existed.
Yet she was a founder and regular contributor to a group dedicated to the subject of Avian Cognition, a subject of some interest to the public. She comes from the perspective of a retired teacher of English as a second language, giving her own observations added interest, and her decades of observations of her own bird are the subject of book in prep that from the sounds of it could be the most interesting combination memoir and detailed observation of an apparently semi language competent bird since Pepperberg's academic 'The Alex Studies' and very personal 'Alex and Me'. How can there be nothing written by her to be found, and no discussions or reposting of her observations of her African Gray? How there be no clear follow on the group she founded, nothing to replace the Yahoo group she founded, if it was active and engaged with people with academic knowledge of the topic?
There should be information to find. And yet she and the forum she founded seem to largely fallen into a black hole. Which doesn't make sense. Hence my request for information - if anyone has any - of what became of her forum or where it's members and information may have migrated to, to preserve my sanity. Any information would be much appreciated.
(To the mods: I hope this will not be considered spam; I didn't know what other forum to post this question in, so please move this to another forum if appropriate)
Joel
