Getting ready to dump more Quakers

[Skyebirdsmom]

:aiwebs_00
Here we go again...sigh......


From NorthJersey.com. which features articles from the NJ
papers The Herald and HeraldNews:

PSE&G hatches plan to remove nests

Sunday, February 6, 2005

By ADRIENNE LU
STAFF WRITER

EDGEWATER - Once again, the borough's favorite feathered friends are
facing eviction from their lofty nests, and concerned neighbors are
crying foul.

Monk parakeets, lime green birds with gray "hoods" on their heads, have
been a colorful feature of Edgewater life since the 1970s.

In addition to their tropical-looking plumage, the birds are known for
their loud squawking and twiggy nests, which hold multiple families and
can grow to more than 4 feet in length.

"They're unique. They're beautiful to watch," said Councilwoman Neda
Rose, who said people seeing the birds for the first time often stop
their cars to stare, mouths agape.

Most birds use their nests mainly to hatch eggs, but monk parakeets -
also known as Quaker parrots - live in their nests year-round.

They also have an unfortunate habit of building their nests on utility
poles, often on top of heat-generating transformers, which look like
garbage cans perched high on the poles.

Now, Public Service Electric and Gas Co. is planning to remove about a
half-dozen nests in the Edgewater area. The company says they pose a
fire hazard and it intends to "de-nest" the poles in the next month or
so, as it does occasionally to prevent fires, according to Jennifer
Connell, a PSE&G spokeswoman.

"It's a safety issue," Connell said. "The nests are built in and around
live wires. It's certainly a fire hazard. It's a safety and reliability
issue,"

Monk parakeet lovers - and there are many in Edgewater - are outraged.

"By taking down the nests, they're sentencing the parakeets to death,"
said Alison Evans-Fragale, a nurse and amateur birdwatcher who is trying
to start a movement to save the birds. "I am not looking to get in the
way of progress or safety, but to find an amicable solution for the
birds and the utility company."

After posting a message about saving the monks on a popular Internet
message board about Edgewater, Evans-Fragale received more than 100
e-mails, she said.

One man responded that he considered monk parakeets his first friends
when he moved into town. One woman said that they reminded her of
summer, and that she would do anything she could to help them.

"We just love them," said Tina Koperwas, who scatters birdseed for the
parakeets every morning near her high-rise building. Koperwas estimates
she goes through a 10-pound bag of birdseed every two days, and says the
monks wait in the trees for her to show up every day.

Evans-Fragale acknowledged the law is not on the side of the birds,
however.

PSE&G is permitted by the state to remove monk parakeet nests from
utility poles.

The company's concern is not without cause. In 1998, a nest atop a
utility pole on Hilliard Avenue caught fire and knocked out power to 150
customers for more than an hour. Authorities said a spark from a lower
line set the nest on fire. Six baby parakeets that were trapped in the
nest died. Connell noted that a power outage during the winter would be
considerably more disruptive, causing some people to lose their heat.

Monk parakeets were imported into the United States as pets from South
America. They have settled throughout the country, from California to
New York and from Illinois to Texas.

In Florida, where monk parakeets are plentiful, their nests frequently
cause fires and power outages, according to an article in last month's
Audubon magazine. To combat the problem, Florida Power & Light Co. not
only removes monks' nests but traps the birds at night and euthanizes
them, according to the article.

Both the federal government and New Jersey were once much more
aggressive in dealing with monk parakeets, though for a different
reason: farmers feared the parakeets could cause extensive crop damage,
as they are said to have done in their native countries of Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.

In the 1970s, the state's Departments of Agriculture and Environmental
Protection attempted to manage the monk parakeet population here by
actively eradicating birds and nests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
had a similar program.

Today, although some biologists question whether the birds pose a real
agricultural threat here, New Jersey still considers the birds an
undesirable exotic species. Monk parakeets are not permitted as pets,
for fear they could escape and breed.

Larry Herrighty, chief of the Bureau of Wildlife Management, a
department in the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife, said that
although the state no longer actively pursues parakeets, it does allow
utility companies to destroy nests that pose a hazard. Any eggs that are
found inside the nests are destroyed and chicks are delivered to
appropriate caretakers, such as zoos, Herrighty said.

In New Jersey, monk parakeets seem to be fairly limited to Edgewater
these days. A couple of decades ago, they could be found as far as
Mercer and Sussex counties, according to Brian Moscatello, a member of
the New Jersey Bird Records Committee, a non-profit organization that
keeps records of rare and unusual species. More recently, he has heard
reports of nests or individual birds in Clifton and Lyndhurst, but
Edgewater appears to be the only remaining breeding population.

Evans-Fragale hopes to find a win-win solution for the Edgewater
parakeets. As one of the dozens who protested on behalf of Pale Male and
Lola, the red-tailed hawks who were famously evicted from and later
welcomed back to a luxury co-op in Manhattan, she was inspired to take
action to protect birds closer to home.

At the very least, she hopes to persuade PSE&G to remove the nests
during warmer weather, when the birds would have a better chance of
rebuilding their homes elsewhere and not freezing to death. She also
wants to ask PSE&G to avoid removing nests when eggs or chicks are still
inside.

Moscatello said monks may have survived in Edgewater in part because of
their many Homo sapiens friends here.

"More or less, they've been there and been permitted to survive there
because clearly there is no agriculture to interfere with, and because
the local people have sort of adopted them," Moscatello said. "I think
it's basically a good thing."

E-mail: lu@northjersey.com

[Lynjupiter]

At least they are saving the babies. But why do they need to do this in the spring? Why not in the fall or late summer when the chicks have fledged.

At least New Jersey is handling their quaker problem better than Florida does. Their illegal in NJ, Go figure.

Lynda

[SavvyMoon]

Actually NJ doesn't see "Spring" until the end of March or first couple of weeks of April. It's definitely still dead of winter here. :icon_smil

I completely understand WHY they need to tear down the nests, (and they do have a right to maintain their utility poles as they see fit...)
but they do the same thing with ANY nesting creature that obstructs access to, or proper function of, transformer boxes etc.

I also wish they would wait until April to do it, though.
But that won't solve the problem either. Quakers can rebuild a *huge* nest
within a few weeks anyhow.
They work as teams, with sometimes 3-6 pair of Quakers to a nest, or more.
Quakers are actually a very insignificant problem in NJ. There's no justification for them being illegal here any longer. We are no longer an agricultural state. That is why they were originally banned; because of farmer's fears of propagating another natural "pest".

Tearing down the occasional nest doesn't kill off the Quakers as a whole, and they are by no means endangered anywhere. Maybe after a few times the Quakers will learn to build nests elsewhere like most other birds?
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Quakers! I used to have one.
But this is one of those issues that (IMO) isn't worth getting one undies in a bunch over. You're talking about a few nests in One county.
And I can assure you, if I was one of the hundreds of homes with no heat for a couple days while it was a "balmy" 8 degrees out there... I'd be complaining about those nests too! I think most people would...

[Skyebirdsmom]

Originally Posted by SavvyMoon

Actually NJ doesn't see "Spring" until the end of March or first couple of weeks of April. It's definitely still dead of winter here. :icon_smil

I completely understand WHY they need to tear down the nests, (and they do have a right to maintain their utility poles as they see fit...)
but they do the same thing with ANY nesting creature that obstructs access to, or proper function of, transformer boxes etc.

I also wish they would wait until April to do it, though.
But that won't solve the problem either. Quakers can rebuild a *huge* nest
within a few weeks anyhow.
They work as teams, with sometimes 3-6 pair of Quakers to a nest, or more.
Quakers are actually a very insignificant problem in NJ. There's no justification for them being illegal here any longer. We are no longer an agricultural state. That is why they were originally banned; because of farmer's fears of propagating another natural "pest".

Tearing down the occasional nest doesn't kill off the Quakers as a whole, and they are by no means endangered anywhere. Maybe after a few times the Quakers will learn to build nests elsewhere like most other birds?
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Quakers! I used to have one.
But this is one of those issues that (IMO) isn't worth getting one undies in a bunch over. You're talking about a few nests in One county.
And I can assure you, if I was one of the hundreds of homes with no heat for a couple days while it was a "balmy" 8 degrees out there... I'd be complaining about those nests too! I think most people would...

Just to set the record a bit straighter...it's not a matter of a 'few nests in one county'. Quakers are wild and living in CA,CO, CONN, FL, NY, NJ, NC, OH, OK, TX, and VA. That is a LOT of counties in a lot of states. Yes, I agree they should not pose fire hazards, but there should be some compromise to make everyone happy. These birds have never posed an agricultural problem anywhere . And there are more than simply a few per nest. Have you SEEN those nests? They are huge condominiums, LOL. Housing many, many birds and babies. There should be some sort of compromise to make all happy. Just takes a meeting of the minds,not water hoses or torches.
Sincerely,
Linda & HRC~

[Scott16]

I didn't kno there was quakers in tx. Huh, learn something knew every day.

[SavvyMoon]

Originally Posted by Skyebirdsmom

Just to set the record a bit straighter...it's not a matter of a 'few nests in one county'. Quakers are wild and living in CA,CO, CONN, FL, NY, NJ, NC, OH, OK, TX, and VA. That is a LOT of counties in a lot of states. Yes, I agree they should not pose fire hazards, but there should be some compromise to make everyone happy. These birds have never posed an agricultural problem anywhere . And there are more than simply a few per nest. Have you SEEN those nests? They are huge condominiums, LOL. Housing many, many birds and babies. There should be some sort of compromise to make all happy. Just takes a meeting of the minds,not water hoses or torches.
Sincerely,
Linda & HRC~

Hi Linda,
Thats exactly the point! Now they ARE wild in CA, CO, FL, NJ, NY, etc. but they are not "native" to those states or anywhere in North America. They've become part of the ecosystem only because of the pet trade. This is the reason they are/were banned in some states, because they are so hardy and prolific breeders.

I absolutely do NOT agree with the banning of Quakers, and I wish
there was an alternative to tearing down the nests too.
But I don't think there is.

However, the article you brought to light IS about only 6 nests in one county in NJ. It's not a state wide "problem" where thousands of Quakers are going to be killed...
I've lived in NJ my whole life (48 yrs) both in Northern NJ and on the Jersey shore. I've never -ever- even seen a quaker's nest in NJ.
I have seen them in NYC though, where they choose building ledges and fire escapes to build nests more often than utility poles.

The nests have to be removed from utility poles. It's just a sad fact of life unfortunately. They do the same with hornets nests, wasp nests, squirrel nests and other birds' nests too.
I think the best we can hope for is that they wait until after the chicks are hatched and fledged before they ruin the nests. But unless they keep taking the nests down as soon as they start building them, the problem will most likely continue over and over again.
Like I said, maybe that's what they need to do so the Quakers 'learn' that utility poles dont make good places for their nests, and build them elsewhere?