October 7th, 2008 by Gypsy

Photo: Wild Quaker Parrots in Flight Over Midwood, Brooklyn
How did they get here? It’s a long story!

Attention all Urban Parrot fans: the next Wild Brooklyn Parrot Safari will happen on Saturday, November 8th, 2008, at 12 Noon. All interested wild parrot fans should meet at Brooklyn College’s Hillel Gate, which is at the intersection of Hillel Place and Campus Road. Our tour runs in two sections. You can attend either section, or both, depending on how many wild parrots you’d like to see!

Please e-mail me if you want to attend, so I know how many folks are coming. Note: there is no rain date for this trip. If we’re rained out, please join us in December.

Wild Parrot Safari — First Section (Brooklyn College): 12:00 Noon to 1:30PM
At noon, we’ll inspect the Brooklyn Parrots’ “Ellis Island.” Their large nests around the soccer field represents the first major colony in Brooklyn. The site is easy to get to via public transportation. Just take the Number 2 train (Seventh Avenue IRT) to the end of the line, walk one block Southwest on Hillel Street past the new Starbucks, and look for the main Brooklyn College date. The tour begins at the entrance at Noon sharp. Allow some extra time, given that the MTA is doing lots of construction/train re-routing on weekends. Driving instructions are available at Brooklyn College’s main Web site. Parking is fairly easy to come by in the neighborhood. If you’re late, just call me: I’ll give you directions so that you can meet up with us if the tour is already in progress.

Wild Parrot Safari — Second Section (Green-Wood Cemetery): 2:30PM-5PM.
Due to popular demand, our monthly tour will run an optional “second section.” After getting our share of the raucous antics of the Brooklyn College Parrots, at approximately 1:45 PM, our group will walk to the Q Train (BMT) station at Avenue H and journey to Green-Wood Cemetery, where we will observe the late-afternoon antics of the parrots residing there. If you just want to see the Green-Wood parrots, show up at 2:30 PM and we’ll be there. To get to Green-Wood, take the R Train to 25th Street and walk one block East to 25th and 5th Avenue.

What to Bring/What to Wear
Please bring a photo ID (this is required by Brooklyn College Security). Bring binoculars and a camera if you’d like to immortalize your wild parrot-watching experience. The weather will be warm if not hot, and we’ll be exposed to the wind and possibly strong sun, so bring a hat/sunscreen if you have sensitive skin. I ordinarily do not cancel the tour unless the forecast is for sustained rain in which birds will not fly.

Please feel free to wear anything except bright orange (Monk Parrots freak out when you show them something orange: in fact orange tags are one of the best ways to convince Monk Parrots to build away from electrical infrastructure). Wear green, blue, white, but orange will drive away the birds.

This Tour is Free, But the Parrots Are Hungry!
The Wild Parrot Safari is free - if you wish to help your hungry urban feathered friends, bring some bird seed: trust me, the parrots won’t soon forget the gesture. Wild monk parrots also appreciate “real parrot food,” especially unshelled peanuts, sliced apples, and raw sunflower seeds. Finch food or millet are always welcomed by our hungry urban “peeps.”

See you in wild, exotic Brooklyn!

Steve Baldwin, Webmaster, BrooklynParrots.com
steve@brooklynparrots.com
646-361-2879 (phone)

September 19th, 2008 by Gypsy

EVERY SUMMER EVENING, as dusk descends on Temple City, California, hundreds of raucous green and red parrots settle into the sweetgum trees planted along the city’s residential streets. Abruptly, the cacophony falls silent. It will begin again before dawn, as the birds take off toward the northwest to spend another day foraging for sustenance in the supermarket parking lots and suburban streets and strip malls of greater Los Angeles.

Some of San Francisco’s wild conures survey the city and Alcatraz island. (Photo courtesy of Mark Bittner.)

These are flocks of red-crowned and lilac-crowned parrots, also known as Amazons. Both are seriously endangered in their native Central American habitats. Here, however, their numbers are increasing. In this valley live an estimated 2,000 red-crowned parrots and an estimated 400 lilac-crowns. From all appearances, they are healthy, growing flocks.

And they’re not the only ones.

Read more…

September 18th, 2008 by Gypsy

20/04/08 Update - Baby doing well and growing.

Quick update as it’s been a month since our last one, we’re bad I know but hey we’ve got four kids and thousands of parrots to look after (Ok not thousands but it feels like it at times!!)

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There was only one baby the other eggs failed to hatch but we finally brought the baby into the house a few weeks back, as promised here are a few pictures if you want to see more of these baby grey pictures follow the link to the official gallery for this baby which will be constantly updated as it grows.

This hand reared baby is extremely friednly and LOVES attention I think out of all the babies we’ve had so far this is the most loving so far, lets hope it stays that way, I guess it will as there’s no real competition like as it’s on it’s own, saying that we have Marlene and Boycee’s baby in the nest box at the moment which is due to come into the house in a week or so so who knows what will happen then, it will be a fair while before they are both at the age to interact with each other properly.

We have kind of sorted our technical issues out in terms of getting pictures from the nestboxes though we still have to refine a few things to get REALLY clear pictures as you can see, but here’s some pictures of this baby in the nest box.

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22/03/08 Update - One of the eggs has hatched … we have a baby!!!

Firstly apologies for not updating earlier but things have been pretty hectic with one thing or another, the joys of four children and lots of parrots means less time than most!!

Well we’ve been waiting tentativley for the eggs to hatch and we can confirm that as of a week ago one of the eggs hatched, mother and baby are doing well for those of you concerned, unfortunately there is no sign of the other two hatching, one looks like it may have started but we can’t tell for sure, not right now anyway.

Both parents are taking it in turns to feed the chick and they are doing a good job, the chick has grown already … wow they really do grow quick.

Unfortunately we still haven’t managed to sort our technical issues out but as I sit here writing we have the multi plexer out all over the floor looking at how to install the blooming thing looks frightening but I’m sure it’s not as hard as it looks on first sight.

We will get things sorted if not in time for this baby it will be for others in the future, in the event the multi plexer isn’t sorted in time we will bring you the first pictures as soon as we bring the chick in which will be in about 2-3 weeks … till then hold tight!!!

24/02/08 Update - Aproximately 21 days to go till eggs hatch

Unfortunately we haven’t sorted the technical issues out to bring you any further pictures of Ant & Maksoi sitting on their eggs or anymore of the eggs, obviously we don’t wish to disturb them anymore than we have to.

All we can say is that things are going as they should be, they are both being great parents and sitting the eggs as they should, Makosi is crossing her legs as long as she can do and nippin gout of the nestbox when things get too much to relieve herself before dashing back in like the doting mother that she is, Ant is being the perfect husband and pampering Makosi by feeding her and sprucing up her feathers.

Not much more we can tell you right now, any news or pictures we can bring you we will do as soon as we can … till next time!!!

17/02/08 - Approximately 28 days to go till eggs hatch

Exciting news today, finally Makosi has finished laying her batch of three eggs today on 17th February 2008, in fact these are the first clutch of fertile (We think) eggs of 2008, so well done Ant & Makosi, this is the first diary to be added to the site, we hope the other pairs will follow suit sometime soon.

So what to expect from this diary is a step by step diary of the incubation peiod to the hatching of the eggs to the removal of the babies from the nest to the up bringing until the birds and weaned and ready to go to their homes, hopefully it will be interesting!!

So the first photo we can offer you is the three eggs in the nest, we have a few technical issues to get around before we can bring you more updated photos but rest assure we’re working on it :o)