Diary of a Wild New Jersey Parrot

Welcome to the first installment of Quaker Parrot Photo Comics! This photo-story is based on actual events witnessed last weekend in Edgewater, New Jersey. You can read Issue 2 and Issue 3 on this site. (Click on any photo to see a larger version).

My name is Jorge. I'm a Jersey Parrot and I live in the "Big W" tree just up the street from the pizzaria.


I'm on guard duty today, with my buddy Eduardo. For Monk parrots, it's a pretty important job. One of us is always watching, and if we see or hear something that seems to be a predator, we sound a special alarm to warn the rest of the flock.


I'm ordinarily a very cheerful parrot, but I'm a little tense today.


See that sign written in chalk on the sidewalk? Some friendly neighborhood kids put it there this morning -- it says: "Watch Out for Cat - Beware: Cat in Neighborhood." Well, I guess I'm not going to be gathering any food from the ground this weekend!


"GRAK GRAK GRAK!" - that's Eduardo, screaming like a banshee. "RED ALERT!"


SCRAMBLE! Oh man, I'm not looking forward to tangling with a feral feline!


Whew - I should have known. It's just a high altitude flyover by one of those Red-tailed hawks that lives up in the cliffs. That bad boy cruises over our nest at least twice each day. I've never seen him take a strafing run at us, but nobody's taking any chances. Word on the street is that Pale Male and Lola, who live just across the river, can eat up to five pigeons a day!



Whenever we issue a hawk warning, a crew of three or four parrots will immediately fly off in on an evasive flight path, alerting the whole colony, which ranges for quite a distance up and down River Road, and drawing the hawk away from the main nest, where the young and the females are. It's dangerous work but it's got to be done. That's just the way we Jersey parrots are: we watch each other's backs!


Are we clear up above now, Eduardo? Everything Copasetic?


I sure hope so. I'd really like to get back to what's really important - my feathers!

To learn more about the continuing struggle of the embattled tribe of Jersey Parrots to free themselves from "outlaw parrot" status, please visit EdgewaterParrots.com.