Sylvan Lake 7/25--Monk Parakeet

 I drove up to Sylvan Lake in Bradley Beach this morning to see the Monk Parakeet that has been seen around a nest there for the last few days. I have seen lots of Monk Parakeets in various places, but I have never seen just one Monk Parakeet. Monk Parakeets tend to travel in noisy flocks, and they nest communally, in large stick condominiums that they like to build atop utility poles, especially those with transformers to keep them warm, much to the chagrin of the power companies. A lone parakeet is a curiosity. The first surmise would be an escaped pet, but this one is building a nest on, what else, the top of a utility pole, inside a triangular structure that I would guess houses some kind of equipment. I got there early and found a couple of birders hanging around while the parakeet flew from a pole across the street up into its triangle house, all the while making the typical parakeet racket. I remember the first time I ever saw Monk Parakeets, in Silver Beach, Delaware, where there was a huge flock nesting along a residential street. I wondered how anyone could stand to live there with the constant screeching of 50 or 60 birds. Talking to one of the birders, I brought up the bird's solitary status. He allowed as how he'd never seen just one either. We speculated that perhaps there were two and one of the birds was sitting on eggs inside the housing, but there's no evidence of that, so far. But even just two would be an oddity. 

I haven't seen Monk Parakeets since they disappeared from Carteret a few years ago, the victims of gentrification. Where their old nests use to be, near an empty lot in a somewhat sketchy section of town, a new condo or co-op was built and, I'm certain, the developers didn't want the birds chattering and screaming while they were showing the apartments. I have a fond memory of the last time I saw them, when the nest had moved to Heald Street. Carteret isn't far from Iselin, so when I would visit my mother, I would, once a year, drive over to see them. That day when I was leaving, I told her I was going to try to find the new nest. "Oh, I'd like to see them," she said. By this time my mother was frail and practically blind, but the idea of birding with her delighted me, so into the car she went and in about 20 minutes we were in Carteret. I parked directly beneath the nest. She got out of the car and the parakeets were making their noises. She looked up and I'm sure she could only see a silhouette of the bird, but she did see one. She said, "I thought they'd be bigger." "Mom," I said, "they're parakeets, not parrots" And then my mother, who was noise averse said, "We can go now." 

I would have liked to get a decent photo of the bird, but the sun was directly behind the opening of the nest, so all my original pictures showed was a solid black triangle. Through the magic of Photoshop, I stripped away a mass of pixels and now have this rather ectomorphic picture of the parakeet sitting on the sticks in the opening. Year bird. Monmouth County lifer.