Want a bird? Get a goldfish!

This story has appeared in the Redland Times, Cleveland, Redland Shire, Queensland, Australia.

THE early mornings have been unusually tranquil for the past few weeks around a certain Cleveland home.
Amelia Soutar can now sleep peacefully past dawn.
For most of the past seven years, Amelia was resigned to a rude awakening at first light as a cacophony of birds welcomed each new day.
"They would get going at full throttle at dawn – I just had enough of it," she says.

AN aviary behind Amelia’s Coburg Steet West house where the nine feathered alarm clocks kept up their avian antics is now empty. And Amelia could not be happier.
She thanks The Redland Times Classifieds for helping her toward a beak-free lifestyle.
Amelia advertised "Peach Face Bird to give away; must go" but she actually had nine.
"The first call came at a quarter to seven (on publication day)," she says. "It was a lady from Victoria Point and she took the lot.
"I was still getting calls two weeks later. From the ad I had at least 10 calls. Even a little girl called, wanting a bird, and I felt like going out and buying one for her."

AMELIA says she tried to give away the birds away about two years ago but "no one wanted them".
The new owner of the flock appears to have saved a decent sum, as the species, often called "peach-faced lovebird" is a popular pet.
However, Amelia believes she has not given away a handful of cash as much as a bucket of work.
"Birds take a lot of looking after – keeping the cage clean, supplying the seed and giving them fresh water every day," she says.
"The price of seed has been going up. You have to give them other sorts of food too. I gave the peachfaces apples and parsely.
"And the birds attract snakes, mice and rats. We have had a couple of snakes here over the years."
Amelia says birds can also be a hindrance to a happy holiday. A family member enlisted a young person to look after his aviary for a few weeks.
But he returned to find his beloved birds had died. The carer had not cared enough to fill their water tank. Birds drink a lot, Amelia says.

SHE says a woman thinking of getting a bird for her children recently asked what was a good species.
"About all I could say was the best species of bird is called goldfish," Amelia says.
After all this, we hope the beneficiary of Amelia’s "giveaway" notice does not appear back in Coburg Street West with a car full of creatures that drink, eat and poo 24/7, and do most of their communicating when the average human simply wants to sleep.

THANKS for joining me in the marvellous community of classified advertising.