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. 

Carteret 6/7--Monk Parakeet

Birding with Mom! Despite thrice-weekly dialysis sessions and macular degeneration, my 91 year old mother is still up for the occasional adventure, so, when she called me earlier in the week and asked if I would come up and write out her checks since her vision suddenly worsened, she also mentioned that maybe I would take her to "see" the Monk Parakeets in nearby Carteret.

I've been going to Carteret for 4 or 5 years to see the parakeets that colonized a residential section of the city but last year I missed them. I'd noticed in the previous years that a new, luxury (whatever that means in working class Carteret) condominium was being put up right next to their utility pole nest and feared that whatever "luxury" did mean, it didn't include squawking parakeets and that the nest would be destroyed. As it seems to have been.

However, Monk Parakeets are nothing if not tenacious, so this year they have regrouped and moved their operation over a couple of blocks to quieter street with small one-family houses. The nest is only about 20 minutes away from my mother's house but neither of us had ever been in that part of Carteret as we drove a circuitous route through the town. I saw the nest as we turned onto Heald Street and saw that birds were flying out of it. I was able to park directly underneath the next (granted, possibly not the best strategy if you worry about droppings, but I didn't want to make my Mom walk too much). I wasn't sure if she'd be able to see them, but I was pretty certain that even with her slight deafness she'd be able to hear them and the first squawk proved me right. She could see the bird in the nest (above) but when one came out and perched on a wire she could make out its silhouette. "They're much smaller than I imagined," she told me, not realizing that these are parakeets, not parrots. "Well, I see its outline, but I can't see any color," she sighed. In this case, I told her, it wasn't her eyes, because, since the bird was back-lit, all I could see was a silhouette too.

What I found most peculiar about this nest, which is a giant assembly of sticks and twigs surrounding the top of the light pole, was that it seemed to have more species sharing it than just parakeets. The first two birds that I saw fly out of it were robins and House Sparrows were also sitting right outside one of the nest entrances. I'd have to go back to see if this is truly a multi-species nest, which would be a new one for me, but today I didn't have the time to study the comings and goings, especially since I was in a resident's parking space. He was nice about it, understanding the attraction, but he also wanted me to move.

So my Mom got to add a life bird to her list, which, like most non-birders, is probably a lot bigger than she thinks. Driving her back home, after lunch, I was getting a little maudlin, thinking that since her eyesight is failing so quickly (according to her) that the parakeet might be the last bird she ever saw. Then I saw a mockingbird fly across the street in front of the car and called it out and she said, "Oh yes, I can tell mockingbirds just from their long tails." So, I guess there are still a few more bird sightings left for her.

My mother has always been interested in the birds Shari & I have seen and she used to be an assiduous reader of Pete Bacinski's birding column when it appeared in the Star-Ledger, but today was the first time I ever had the chance to take her out into the "field." A 3 species list with my Mom today means more to me than finding a 100 species tomorrow by myself.