Animal rights group says parakeet nest removal by UI will hurt eggs, chicks
The New Haven Register
By Mark Zaretsky, Register Staff
The director of an animal rights group that is battling United Illuminating in court over UI’s efforts to get rid of monk parakeet nests on its equipment blasted the utility Monday for its latest attempt, saying it’s coming too late in the season and could kill incubating eggs and chicks that have not yet learned to fly.
“It’s sinister and insensitive of UI to destroy nests after late March and up until August or later if the birds and their young are expected to survive the nest destruction,” said Priscilla Feral, executive director of Darien-based Friends of Animals.
UI had planned to begin getting rid of the nests Monday, but postponed the start of the program until today because of Monday’s rain.
“There’s no exact science” with regard to the monk parakeet breeding season, but “I’m saying there’s a high probability that the breeding season has started, and that they’re laying eggs and sitting on eggs,” said Feral, adding that her organization may seek an injunction to stop the program.
“This is practically May,” Feral said, pointing out that similar, past efforts by a New Jersey utility in the first week of May resulted in broken eggs in Edgewater, N.J. “We think May is too late, and we’re a day away from that.”
“It would be nice if UI would agree to hold off until August …” she said.
UI spokesman Al Carbone stressed that while UI is destroying the distinctive birds’ nests, it is not killing the parakeets themselves and is only removing nests from UI property, not from nearby trees or shrubs.
“We don’t touch the birds,” he said, and “there are many, many nests in trees and bushes that we do not touch.”
In addition, “We work with bird experts to determine what the best time is to remove the nest,” Carbone said.
“Obviously, the nests on electrical equipment are risks to public safety and they need to be removed,” he said.
The timing of the nest removal “is consistent with prior years,” he said, “and no eggs were observed” in the past.
UI has removed nests four times over the past 18 months after drawing widespread publicity and strong criticism in November 2005 for a program that, at that point, including capturing birds and turning them over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be gassed.
Friends of Animals sued UI in the wake of the 2005 eradication effort. That case is scheduled to go to trial May 21.
Monk parakeets, originally from South America, have found a home along the Connecticut coast in recent years and stay all year round.
They are known for their eye-catching, condo-style stick nests, as well as their gregarious — and often loud — social nature.
This spring’s effort aims to remove 66 nests from utility poles in West Haven, New Haven, East Haven, Orange and Stratford, Carbone has said.
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3 Comments
On May 1, 2008, Robin Karr wrote:
I live across the street from one of these nests on the West Haven shoreline. I just watched UI take the nest down. Two people from friends of animals were there to save any eggs they could.
I find this quite disturbing that UI would take the nest down this late in the breeding season. For those who haven’t seen this spectacle let me discribe it for you. The nests are made up of small sticks like what you might use to roast a marshmallow,grasses and pieces of string,plastic,straw,feathers, pretty much any little pieces of junk they can find.
UI goes up in a cherry picker, in my case two at a time, with poles in hand and disturb the nest to get out all the adult parakeets who pretty much take off in fear when they see the men getting closer to the nest anyway. Some other birds might attack the intruders, but I have never seen the parakeets attack anything much less a human.
They take the poles and start picking apart the nest letting it’s contents drop where it may. The two FOA members said that on other nests they just let the eggs and nest fall, broken eggs on the ground. This would have been the case in my nest too, but mine was empty. The most Disturbing thing about this would be if there had been chicks, because they would have dropped to the ground too.
The FOA members go in after UI finishes and before cleanup. Everything was orderly because this task requies police presence not because of FOA members, but because residents have become unruly in the past. Here in West Haven we like our parakeets.
Once everyone leaves the parakeets are back up there looking for their nest. Sometimes they rebuild in the same spot sometimes they move on. The only problem these parakeets cause is to the tranformers and I doubt that much damage is really done to those either. I don’t see why they have to remove all the nests.
You don’t see UI chasing squirrels because one of them got in the wires and blew a tranformer, so why down the nests unless they are too big or repair is needed at that time. If they have to do nest removal it should be before breeding season or before winter.
On May 5, 2008, Julia Jester wrote:
Couldn’t they have at least waited until the babies hatched? This is so cruel!
On May 5, 2008, Robin Karr wrote:
UPDATE: Just wanted to update on my nest of Monk Parakeets. They started rebuilding immediately after the nest was destroyed. They are recieving help from their little “renters” small brown birds who co-habitate with the parakeets. The nest is about half the size of the old one but enough to give the birds some protection, it must have been uncomfortable for both sets of birds last weekend in the rain with no nest. Hopefully they will be able to lay eggs soon(my nest didn’t have any eggs yet,fortunately, for either birds). I am glad they are back!