Jersey Parrots Face Tough Week Ahead

This busy nest on River Road will likely be removed next week.

The Brooklyn Parrots' brethren to the west, the parrots of Edgewater, New Jersey, face a tough week ahead, because PSE&G will begin teardowns of a number of their nests next Monday.

Weather permitting, PSE&G work crews will begin removing the nests on Monday, 5/16. They will be starting at 8:30 AM, at the corner of Route 5 & River Road. I am not sure how far North the removals will go - there are quite a few nests along River Road. Attendees will include two Edgewater police officers, PSE&G workers and reps, NJDEP, and at least one local political leader. It's likely some local media will be there as well. Edgewater's own Allison Evans-Fragale, the NJ birds' great advocate, is travelling, so I'm not sure she'll be able to be there, although I know she will try very hard to do so.

It's sad to see these nests go, but there's a silver lining to this cloud: the Edgewater parrot colony may actually be better off if these removals happen now, rather than in June or July. There are likely no eggs nor young in the nests right now, the weather is favorable, there is plenty of food and plenty of time to rebuild before winter.

My biggest worry about these birds being nestless over the next few months is their increased exposure to Red-Tailed hawks. There are many such predators living in the cliffs and high-rises above Edgewater, and I've personally witnessed some very scary strafing runs by Red-Tails against the parrots. It would be unfortunate if the colony is decimated by Pale Male and Lola's progeny due to a lack of protection. (Note: I'm not anti-hawk - in fact, I'm a former Pale Male partisan, but I do wish these raptors would stay away from the parrots, at least for the next few months while they're vulnerable).

Only time will tell whether PSE&G's nest removals lead to an appreciable decline in Edgewater's wild parrot population. One hopes that the parrots will simply take their lumps this week, rebuild expeditiously, and make maximally effective use of their unique defensive "sentinel" defenses to thwart the raptors.

For what it's worth, PSE&G has been very forthright, open, and cooperative in terms of meeting repeatedly with New Jersey residents (and even outsiders from Brooklyn such as myself!) who care about these birds. Its representatives have expressed a sincere willingness to try to devise solutions and practices that will better accomodate the interests of avians and humans in the future. Nobody's served by demonizing either the power company or these charming birds.

Steve Baldwin
Webmaster, BrooklynParrots.com