NY Times: Defending the Parrots of Edgewater, NJ

Photo Credit: Alan Zale for The New York Times

The New York Times posts a good article covering the controversial wild Monk Parakeets of New Jersey, and the humans who defend them, including Alison Evans-Fragale, a friend of this site. We're a fan and supporter of EdgewaterParrots.com: to learn more about the NJ parrotsclick here. Also I've embedded a video below showing the famous Edgewater Parrots:

It's Here: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill Collectors DVD (With Extra Brooklyn Parrots!)

I'm happy to say Judy Irving's wonderful film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, is being re-released on a special 2-disk Collector's Edition. This new release is chocked full of more than 100 minutes of extra features, and makes for an ideal Holiday gift.

Judy Irving and Mark Bittner are great friends of this site and I was honored that the new DVD includes "The Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots." It also includes a feature called "Parrots and Power Poles," a sequence featuring EdgewaterParrots.com's Alison Evans-Fragale, who has labored mightily to protect the wild Quaker Parrots in New Jersey. You can learn more about this wonderful new DVD by clicking here.

Photo-Essay: New Wild Baby Quaker Parrots in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery

Wild-born baby Quaker (left) begs for food from mother at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. All photos by Steve Baldwin.

People sometimes ask me what's the best season of the year to watch wild Quaker Parrots in the Northeast U.S.A. In some respects, Fall and Winter are better for seeing the parrots, because they form larger flocks, and because they're easier to see and photograph when the trees are bereft of leaves.

But if you want to see young baby Quakers flying, playing, and feeding for the first time, however, there's no better time than Summer. Right now, these fresh youngsters are shaking, quaking, and begging their parents to satisfy their appetites, and they're also beginning to learn the Quaker's main trade (nest-building) and how to forage for food.

Last week, I posted a brief photo-essay on the baby Quakers in Green-Wood Cemetery. Here's a follow-up with some new photos intended to welcome 2008's new additions to the wild Quaker Parrot flock.


Baby Quakers will keep "quaking" for food until they've been trained to gather food for themselves.


Here, Mom (on right) is teaching baby to eat grass, which is the main diet for wild Quaker Parrots.


Mother bird (center) is kept very busy these days allo-feeding her young (this Mom has two to take care of).


Another shot of Mom Quaker with her two hungry youngsters.


Across the river in Edgewater, NJ, baby Quakers are busy learning how to eat pizza.


Baby Quakers look almost exactly like their full-grown parents when they emerge from the nests. You can spot them by their distinctive begging behavior, slightly different beak shape, and the fact that they look slightly "fresher" than grown-up birds.

Is PSE&G The Most Parrot-Friendly Utility Company in the U.S.A.?

Like other utility companies serving customers in regions of the U.S.A. where wild parrots now fly free, New Jersey's Public Service Electric & Gas must occasionally remove nests built by the parrots on electrical infrastructure. But PSE&G has demonstrated extraordinary sensitivity towards both the parrots and the folks who like them, as was demonstrated in a recent e-mail exchange between Alison Evans-Fragale, of EdgewaterParrots.com, and representatives in its Overhead Construction Palisades Division.

This exchange concerned the fact that the nest teardowns scheduled to occur in March and early April (an ideal time when it is both warm enough for de-nested parrots to survive but before their annual breeding cycle begins) could not be performed. Instead of simply doing the nest teardowns later in the Spring (when there would be major damage to eggs in such nests), PSE&G agreed to wait until some time after the babies have fledged (which usually occurs by late summer).

If you're a regular reader of this site, you know that I have written some harsh words about other utility companies whose wild parrot control policies have been heavy-handed and harsh. But PS&G has proven it has a heart by listening to the wildlife community, moving toward best practices, and forging a path that I am confident will lead to a situation of improved coexistence between parrot and man. In a world where money too often wins out over kindness, PSE&G deserves praise by all who value our free-range urban parrots.

Video: NJ Parrots at Bird Feeder

I got an e-mail from a Fort Lee resident today mentioning that he got some good video close-ups of a gang of about 12 wild New Jersey parrots helping themselves to a tasty meal from a bird feeder. These parrots likely hailed from Edgewater. Enjoy!

WNBC: Parrots Rule New Jersey Town

Lily Jamali is an intern with WNBC.com and she shot and edited a terrific video report on the famous Wild Quaker Parrots of Edgewater, New Jersey. It includes nice shots of the parrots, some quick interviews with some local parrot fans, and even some stunning shots of a marauding Red-Tailed Hawk. This video is currently on WNBC.com's web site: the URL is http://video.wnbc.com/player/?id=111458

Prayers for NJ Governor Corzine

N.J. Governor Jon S. Corzine was badly injured last night in a terrible car crash on the Garden State Parkway. Governor Corzine's adminstration has been friendly to the wild parrots that live in Edgewater, N.J.; please join us in wishing him a full and speedy recovery.

Video Clip: The Wild Quaker Parrots of Edgewater, New Jersey

Our film crew (consisting of one middle-aged human and three well-trained Quaker Parrots) was active over the weekend. On Saturday, we were in New Jersey, and were graced with cold but beautiful weather that let us shoot many elements which will be included in our forthcoming Wild Feral Parrot Epic. The resultant clip runs just under 5 minutes: it includes:

1. Views of several types of wild Quaker Parrot nests seen in New Jersey.
2. Views of the Quaker Parrots, conversing, flocking, and catching the winter sun.
3. Assorted winter snuggling (it was COLD on Saturday!)
4. Classic scenes of the Quaker Parrots fighting each other (you thought the Brooklyn Parrots were pugnacious: the Jersey Parrots are ferocious!)
5. A scene in which the Quaker Parrots' feeding is interrupted by a warning siren.
6. Close-ups of Quaker Parrots performing construction tasks.
7. Quaker Parrots eating snow, a wintertime delicacy which must be one of the true pleasures of any charismatic avian Argentinian expatriate living in the Northeast.

The arrival of wild parrots in Brooklyn is fairly well documented. But the appearance of parrots in the Garden State is highly mysterious. Did they fly from a barge? Break out of the Sea-Land Terminal located near the Lincoln Tunnel? Or bust out of a crate at Newark Airport, stopover at a cemetery in Hoboken and move to Edgewater in the 1990's? Everybody in Jersey seems to have a theory, and someday the truth may out.

Enjoy the incredible wild Quaker Parrots of Edgewater: these hardy urban parrots have made Edgewater a must-see place for anyone interested in wild parrot conservation today! (This clip, like just about every clip we upload, will be making its way into the forthcoming Brooklyn Parrots documentary film).