Parakeet Nest in Leonia Blamed for Area Power Outages
Widespread power outages in Teaneck, Englewood Cliffs and Leonia were caused by nesting birds, according to report.
A monk parakeet nest on a utility pole outside Overpeck Park caused a transformer to short out and power lines to come down, knocking out electricity to more than 3,000 customers in areas from Teaneck to Englewood Cliffs, northjersey.com reported.
The outage was reported shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday and impacted up to 2,000 customers in Teaneck, according to PSE&G. Service was fully restored more than four hours later.
The large nests can cause heat to build up in transformers, eventually leading to a short circuit, according to the report.
Monk parakeets have been nesting in Edgewater and the Overpeck Park area for at least 30 years. Last week, parakeet supporters managed to stop Edgewater officials from cutting down trees where the birds nest.
-- Staff Report
Diane Schwarz
10:52 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
They seem to be living happily in MANY communities, without endangering anything! How did those communities work it out?
William Mays
1:40 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
Yep, people always need something to complain about. I love how in the original article about the borough tearing down their nests, the borough administrators was saying that many people complain to him about the noise these parrots cause. A lot of people pay to buy vacation homes in tropical areas, here the bird population of tropical areas has come to them, and they complain. I've somehow been able to live for the past 8 years with a Cockatoo as a pet, and a great one at that, and he hasn't caused me any problems, I'd say that my dogs misbehave more.
zizi
5:28 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
These birds are a menace..... Cause too much problems..... noise... spread disease.... they are not pets.... they are invaders.. they don't belong here and please capture them all and get rid of them.....
I love birds too... I had parakeets that were sweet and a lot of fun to be around.... but one should not confuse these with the sweet birds that we keep as pets and spend time with.....
William Mays
9:00 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
We have them in Fort Lee too, a lot of them spend time in one of the trees in my backyard. I can somehow live with it.
Lois Wilson
9:40 am on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhfTasxGarg
My Kiki is a sweet bird that is fun to be around,
Michael Rogovin
11:17 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
They have caused similar problems in Brooklyn as reported in the NY Times