Pair of macaws returns to Carlinville

Two Macaws were seen grooming each other Monday, March 9, 2009, high up in the trees on South Douglas. Residents and business owners in the neighborhood have put out food for the pair that have been seen in the area for the past week. Shannon Kirshner/The State Journal-Register

Man certain birds are late father’s

CARLINVILLE — A pair of wayward macaw parrots that temporarily made a south Springfield subdivision home March 6 have found their way back home to Carlinville.

The two blue-and-gold parrots were spotted on Goodwin Court in Springfield as early as March 6 and roosted in neighborhood trees by day before flying west each evening as dusk fell. Mike Nejmanowski, son of the late Carlinville bird enthusiast Del Nejmanowski, said he is certain the birds are his father’s.

The macaws fly away toward the west every day, but have been returning to the neighborhood daily for the past week. People are speculating that they are taking shelter at night somewhere else. Shannon Kirshner/The State Journal-Register Since the elder Nejmanowski’s death, the birds had been flying around Carlinville before ending up in Springfield.

Nejmanowski said the birds escaped from his yard while his father was still alive because Del Nejmanowski forgot to shut the door to the birds’ cage after feeding them last year.

However, they have returned home.

The macaws seem to have damaged feet, but still manage to perch on the wires and tree branches. Shannon Kirshner/The State Journal-Register“Sunday I went to Springfield to see a friend in the hospital and when I got home, the Girard Police Department had called the Carlinville Police Department saying the macaws were in Girard,” he said. “I talked to my eight-year-old daughter and she said she saw them fly over the house (Monday).”

Nejmanowki is not alone in his Carlinville bird spotting. The State Journal-Register received calls Tuesday from other Carlinville residents saying they had spotted the parrots in town.

“They’re in my yard now, but they fly wherever they want to fly,” Nejmanowski said.

Locals driving by stopped to look at the macaws. Shannon Kirshner/The State Journal-RegisterBut now comes the hard part. Nejmanowski still is unsure how to catch his late father’s prized macaws.

“I don’t have a plan,” he said Tuesday. “I plan to capture them and build a large pen for them in my yard, and that’s that. That was my father’s wishes before he died, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Rhys Saunders can be reached at 788-1521.