Volunteers work to provide temporary nests for Edgewater monk parakeets

Monk parakeets sitting on a wire near the trees they live in.EDGEWATER — The Edgewater Parrot Society on Wednesday rushed to set up temporary nesting areas for a colony of monk parakeets to build new homes after learning that the trees where the birds currently live might be chopped down Thursday, one member said.

Society founder Alison Evans-Fragale and a handful of other volunteers wrapped metal wires around four trees on a grassy median at River Road and Route 5, across from where the parakeets currently have nests built.

She hopes to build temporary nesting platforms out of plastic bread crates Thursday, though it’s difficult to round up volunteers on a weekday, she said. Eventually, Evans-Fragale hopes to use better materials to build the platforms, but, given the short notice, she said, the metal wires and crates must do for now.

Monk parakeets sit in the trees they occupy with Manhattan in the background.Borough officials have plans to clear away four trees in the area as part of a project to replace an old retaining wall. Members of the parrot society complained after one tree had been removed last week, and officials halted the project to give the bird lovers time to set up nesting platforms.

Evans-Fragale said she thought she’d have a week or two to order the materials and get the work done. But to her dismay, she said, the contractor hired by the borough sent an email Tuesday night, indicating he would remove the remaining trees in less than 48 hours.

A call to the contractor, James Gotthold of Gotthold Paving in Edgewater, was not returned Wednesday.

Borough Administrator Greg Franz said he believed there had been miscommunication between the parties. When he agreed to stop removing trees last week, the contractor thought the bird advocates would need only a few days to set up alternate nests, Franz said.

“We had said from the beginning that in all likelihood the trees will come down, but the contractor would do everything he could to work around them at this point in time,” the borough administrator said.

However, Franz added, Gotthold is within his rights to proceed. The delay may cost the borough more money, and the contractor could also be losing money each day that the project is delayed, Franz said. He did not give specifics on how much.

The contractor is “also probably looking at the weather. He wants to finish this before we have snow,” Franz said. “He’s doing his best to move the project along, as he should be.”

Evans-Fragale criticized borough officials for scheduling work during the winter. Waiting until spring would give volunteers more time to relocate the birds, and the warmer weather would give the parakeets a greater chance to survive, she said.

Franz said the trees are considered dead and a potential safety hazard. He noted that the law prohibits removing nests between April and October, during the breeding period, and that it is not uncommon for private property owners or other municipalities to remove such nests.

About half of the 200 estimated monk parakeets in Edgewater live among the trees slated to come down, Evans-Fragale said. The birds have also been reported in Leonia and Ridgefield and have caused problems when they build nests atop utility poles.

Monk parakeets, which originated from South America, did not set up roots in North Jersey year-round until the 1970s. They were placed on the state’s “potentially dangerous species” list at the time because lawmakers did not know if they would pose a threat to indigenous wildlife, Evans-Fragale said. She is pushing for legislation to have the birds removed from the list.

Meanwhile, Franz on Wednesday reiterated the borough’s commitment “to do our best to work with” the local bird advocates to relocate the parakeets.

“I think some people are making us out to be ogres and we’re not,” he said. “We’re just trying to do a capital improvement project and make the area safer.”