A delightful morning visit to Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden.  Nancy had a relatively large lot of land in Key West, most of which was wild and undeveloped, as Nancy wanted.  She called it "her rainforest."  (As a side note, as the value of property in Key West increased, Nancy could not afford the escalating property taxes, so she lost a significant portion of her rainforest a number of years ago.)

Nancy was an environmental teacher and activist but had never owned birds or shown much interest in them.  Then, one day her first parrot arrived unexpectedly when some snuck a bird and its cage into the back of her rainforest garden.  Nancy had no idea who abandoned the bird or why they left it on her property, but she resolved to take care of it.  And that began Nancy's Rainforest Garden, a sanctuary for parrots and other birds.

[Transcription]

I opened Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden Parrot Sanctuary in 1993 after an unknown person abandoned a parrot on my property. Thirty years later we are the smallest United States parrot sanctuary (in size & in number of parrots), we were one of the first sanctuaries to open & we are unique in that we receive visitors daily offering them education to end parrot abuse. We provide unwanted parrots with rescue, re-homing, correct nutrition, veterinary care, social time, out of cage time for playing, bathing, handling, preening, cuddling, target training & higher level learning.  The oral tradition of storytelling (the oldest art form known to man) and Parrot 101 is continued here by me and volunteers during the day.

VOLUNTEER SEAN will most likely greet & inform you. Sean is a very experienced parrot handler. He has a wealth of information to share about parrots living in the wild & in captivity. He has created a unique presentation which he enjoys sharing. Come in, sit down, relax & enjoy listening. When appropriate, he will ask you to share your parrot experiences & ask questions.  If you happen to visit when an educator is not available, then we ask you to self guide.

TIPS FOR SELF GUIDING
I have created a learning experience for you. Take time to read the educational material. Each parrot’s story is posted on their cage. They are highly intelligent social beings. Each parrot is a unique individual with special gifts, likes & dislikes.

Click here to see the movie

Click here to see the movie

Click here to see the movie

Click here to see the movie

Dinner at Azur, and fantastic restaurant with great food and top-notch service

Mike’s Oysters – Best Ever!

Interesting photo in the Men’s room, showing the restaurant’s owners

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