Tuesday, December 19, 2006

monk parakeets

i was LIVID when ui started killing them off. yes, i know there nests were built in dangerous places BUT there HAD to be a better way to solve the problem

UI, monk parakeets get along uneasily

The Connecticut Post
by Ken Dixon
Connecticut’s monk parakeets have recovered from last year’s eradication program and have settled into a tense, if nonviolent, relationship with The United Illuminating Co.
The green birds that are native to South America and have colonized Connecticut’s coast since the early 1970s are showing at least partial interest in man-made nesting platforms erected over the last year.
And while it seems unlikely that a law to protect the birds — proposed in the General Assembly, where it failed last May — will be revived, the Darien-based Friends of Animals has a lawsuit pending against UI to permanently stop the tactics that slaughtered 179 birds last year.
Two months ago, UI crews tore down 76 nests in utility poles in West Haven, Milford and Stratford.
Unlike last year, there were no U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel working with UI to kill birds on the spot. The parrots immediately went back to building nests in about a third of the utility poles. Most of the parrots, however, built nests in trees, not poles.
There are about 1,500 monk parakeets in the state, officials said.
“They’re doing fine,” said Julie Cook, of Ocean Avenue in West Haven, who was the first to allow the erection of a nesting platform for parrots left homeless by last year’s capture-and-kill program..........


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