Nested on the pier

Ski Meinschein always tries to make it down to Newport Pier if the sun is out, even on the days he can’t seem to breathe.

Dripping children covered in sand run up from the beach when they see Meinschein puttering toward the pier on his bright red power scooter. His two scarlet macaws, named Chichi and Rojo, squawk and flutter their wings from their makeshift perch fastened to the front of the scooter. Fireball, an energetic red and orange dusky lory, rides in a little cage at Meinschein’s feet.

“Holy crap, look at the birds,” one child shouts as he scrambles after Meinschein’s scooter.

If the children are willing to brush the sand off their hot hands, Meinschein will let them hold Fireball. The little bird will lie motionless on its back in their cupped palms. It takes an adult to hold Chichi, an intimidating, rainbow-colored 8-pound bird the size of a large house cat. Chichi gives kisses upon request, especially to pretty girls in bikinis.

With his long, white beard and Hawaiian shirt, Meinschein must look like a sort of Southern California Santa Claus to the children. His red scooter is decorated with scraps of fake flowers and beads — like a Mardi Gras float that crashed into a Tiki bar.

“He always stops for kids,” said Toni Tomlinson, an assistant who helps an aging Meinschein around the house a few days a week.

Known as the Bird Man of Newport, Meinschein has turned making people smile into his life’s work. A retired oil well worker from Indiana, he has been bringing his trained exotic birds to the base of Newport Pier to entertain people for the past 30 years. Now, he worries the people of Newport will forget him once he’s gone.

The city is building a monument at McFadden Square to commemorate Newport’s 100th anniversary at the base of the pier, near the spot where Meinschein has brought his birds. For $250, donors can have their names engraved on a brick in monument. A historical timeline will commemorate important dates and notable people from Newport history.

Meinschein wishes his name had found a spot on the memorial, but the historical timeline focuses mostly on the achievements of more famous residents from Newport’s past, such as movie stars, champion sailors and pioneering airplane pilots. He doesn’t have the money to buy a brick.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I feel I deserve some sort of recognition,” Meinschein said.

Sometimes, Meinschein has to stop mid-sentence to catch his breath. His emphysema makes his chest rattle and sputter like an old furnace.

Tomlinson trails behind Meinschein on foot as he makes his way on his scooter toward the pier. He had to teach the birds to trust her. The birds now eat out of Tomlinson’s hand, but it took a few months for them to get used to her.

“You can either come into this environment and either stay or go, and I chose to stay,” Tomlinson said.

Meinschein hired Tomlinson after she responded to a classified ad for a caretaker. Now she helps Meinschein around his cluttered studio apartment near the pier, helps load the birds onto the scooter and makes sure his pockets are full of peanuts and crumbled crackers for them.

The birds are Meinschein’s family. He doesn’t like to discuss his age or talk much about his past.

“I’m getting on in years, and my health is pretty shaky,” he said.

He fell into bird training when he bought an old girlfriend a pet parrot some 30 years ago.

“We broke up, and I got custody of the bird,” he said.

Meinschein worries about what will happen to his birds after he’s gone. Macaws can live to be 100 years old. He hopes they’ll find a good home somewhere, perhaps at a wildlife refuge of some sort.

“I meet all sorts of people doing this, all ethnicities and backgrounds, and the kids, the kids are a big reason why I keep doing it,” he said.

A young boy in swim trunks near the pier lets out a gleeful shriek as Fireball hops from his hands to the top of his head. His eyes light up as the bird perches on top of his messy blond hair, and Meinschein’s eyes twinkle a little, too.

BIRD MAN OF NEWPORT

 Ski Meinschein got the name “Ski” from when he used to water ski on the Ohio River in Indiana as a young man.

 Meinschein worked on oil wells in Indiana before moving to Newport Beach in 1974. “I guess I was chasing that California dream,” he said. “I love the sunshine here.”

 You can send donations to purchase Meinschein a brick for the McFadden Square Centennial Square Project to the Cultural Arts Services Office at the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave., 92660. Donors should specify contributions are for the Bird Man of Newport Beach.

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BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.