Exotic bird rescuer Nancy Spann
You rush outside as a golf cart rolls by. The driver turns to wave, and the parrot near his shoulder squawks out a greeting. In the back seat two rainbow-hued Catalinas jockey for position like kids on a long road trip. The cart turns out of sight, parking on the far side of a Monaco Signature Series you watched pull in yesterday. Curiosity aroused, you walk over to the Monaco. A friendly couple introduces themselves as John and Nancy Spann. She is holding a bucket of chicken. He is holding a stick upon which an excited parrot is perched. The macaw has eyes only for the chicken. Still waiting in the cart, the matched pair of Catalinas vigorously dispute the macaw’s claim to the KFC.
“Meet the kids," Nancy grins. "Just be careful, they may bite.”
Since they began rescuing and rehabilitating exotic birds six years ago, Nancy and John Spann have been bitten countless times. “Patience is the only way to earn their trust.” Nancy explains. “Most of these birds have been abused. You cannot react in fear or anger if they snap at you.” The Spanns admit that’s a tough order. The average macaw can break broomsticks with its beak. But John and Nancy have had plenty of practice. At their home in New Jersey they currently care for more than 80 rescue birds: parrots, cockatoos, cockatiels, lovebirds and finches. They have even rescued and rehabilitated starlings and ducks.
Table for Ten
The Spanns eat dinner around a table that could comfortably seat 10 humans but usually caters to two humans and 11 birds. “They each have a place setting and they eat what we eat,” Nancy explains. “Chicken, pork chops, spaghetti and meatballs, mashed potatoes.”
“There are some things they can’t have,” John adds. “Alcohol, caffeine, avocados are poisonous, onions and anything carbonated. Otherwise they love people food. You do not want to see our grocery bill.”
Loving the RV lifestyle!
The Spanns have not always been “bird people.” John worked near a “melt-your-face-off furnace” in a steel mill and Nancy managed a restaurant. Together they raised two children. When John retired, “doing nothing” caught up with him quick. “You never realize how fast you can get real bored sitting home.”
The Spanns adopted Tiki, a blue and gold macaw, who quickly became “daddy’s girl.”
Captain Bligh and Louie soon joined her. Then a friend from Disney’s Animal Kingdom introduced the Spanns to the Catalina siblings, Ariel and Jasmine. The Spanns rescued two smaller parrots, Monkey Bird and Cackles, from a home in New Jersey where the chatty birds were kept isolated in a cold basement. Mango and Lucy, two Conures mistreated so badly they plucked out their own feathers, now have their own special place with the Spanns. Zazu, a Sir Arthur who is the baby of the bunch, and BooBoo, the Spanns’ latest rescue, round out the candy-colored traveling crew.
Traveling birds
Everywhere they go, John and Nancy are ambassadors and champions of these exotic breeds, which are too often mistreated and abandoned by those who lack the patience and attention the sociable creatures require.
Willing to Step Up
But why travel with the birds when it’s easier to care for them at home? “Sure, they do require a lot of attention.” Nancy opens one of the four cages in the coach. “But we would miss them too much. They’re like family.”
Family that might still nip. Nancy does not reach a hand into the cage. Instead she uses a two-foot piece of broomstick. “Step up, Tiki Bird, step up.” Reluctant, Tiki obeys, first stepping up onto the stick and then onto Nancy’s arm. “Many people go out and get a bird, and it’s something new, a novelty. After a while they start to give less and less attention to the bird. When they get lonely, they demand attention by screeching. If that doesn’t work they start plucking, self-mutilating. That’s when they start to get aggressive.”
John Spann with one of their rescued birds.
And that, say John and Nancy, is worth every scar.
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