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blackpolls downtown; killing monks



Hi Carolinabirders,

It started yesterday: I was driving around Old North Durham with the
windows down, and it started to sound like every laundry machine in town
had a loose bearing. Yes, it's Blackpoll season again! They've been
singing all day today in the backyard, along with lots of Ameican
Redstarts.

On Wed, 7 May 2003, Mary C. Bledsoe wrote:
>
> What state agencies kill Monk Parakeets? Why? I've seen the huge
> colonies in a neighborhood near the Miami airport, and they are really
> fun to see. But I know they're not native, so probably mess up the
> balance of nature. Although I guess there's a debate between people
> deciding that the balance of nature can never evolve and doing whatever
> we need to do to prohibit it, right?

If only state agencies cared that much about nature! Monk parakeets to
date have had no effect on the "balance of nature"; they're almost
exclusively restricted to human neighborhoods in the US. I'm fairly
certain that government parakeet control has been directed at protecting
agricultural crops from parakeet raids, and possibly at preventing fires
caused by their habit of building massive communal stick nests on utility
poles.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/