Buy This!

[Terry Suchma]

Dear Birding Friends,

I was viewing a news story online when I spied a thumbnail graphic here:

http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_c...aign%3dNYT-CCF

I thought I recognized the scene depicted, a parakeet condo, in the photo and it says "Buy Now!"

Well, I clicked the thumbnail to see the larger picture here:

http://img.nytstore.com/IMAGES/NSAP1253_LARGE.JPG

What it really was was an attempt by the NY Times to sell a photograph that was recently featured in their paper.

Ok, I was fooled but still intrigued and amused by the photograph.

I have seen these Monk Parakeets in the Chicago western suburbs. They were also living in Hyde Park area of the City of Chicago and found great favor with the now deceased, Mayor Washington, who lived along the park and marveled and loved the Monk Parakeet. It was the Mayor that saved the parakeets' lives and condo and prevented park officials to issue orders to remove the birds and their stick compartmentalized nests.

Actually, I glimpsed one once saw one at my feeder when I lived in Burr Ridge, IL. I saw it quickly as it squawked and flew away when I came to close to the feeder. I found out later that they had a colony in the next village, a short distance away. After that incidence, I never saw another in my backyard again.

Unfortunately, for the Monk Parakeets, Mayor Washington passed away more than a decade or so ago and still the Park folks want the birds gone. One day, last year, street dept workers with cherry pickers came and disassembled the nests, some of which were perched on top of transformers on utility poles. There, the news station video tape captured them removing their young and stuffing them into a bag and gassing them. It was sad and apparently, without any protection of law applied to exotic species of birds, the authorities could not wait until after breeding season to remove the nests. It was a well engineered plan to remove the nests with the future adults so that the population would take a major hit and perhaps, not survive.

Terry