The state of New Jersey is taking some seriously foolish measures to rid their landscape of avian colonies, but the 600 block of Pierce Street in South Philly, according to this pretty great City Paper piece, has shown how fully embracing birds can successfully spruce up a neighborhood, adding character and presumably an ample supply of fresh eggs. Following South Philly’s example, we have suggestions for Philly locales as to which birds would make the best additions…
Society Hill: What could be more delightful than spotting a covey of quails, a bird practically synonymous with sophistication, while strolling in Society Hill? We recommend Worcester’s Buttonquail because of its rarity.Chinatown: China may no longer have an emperor, but that shouldn’t stop Chinatown from having some dignified emperor penguins shuffling around.Northern Liberties: Falconry sounds like the type of activity that hipsters would like, right? Falcons it is!Cobbs Creek: A creek without flamingos is like a lawn without plastic flamingos: Simply incomplete.Old City: Would telling tourists that the first flag was sewn by Betsy R’ostrich be too revisionist for history purists?Penn’s Landing: Anything but ducks.City Hall: “Around here, the word ‘budget’ has such a negative connotation. We prefer to call it a budgie.”Kingsessing and/or Fishtown: Clearly, kingfishers (don’t make us explain).What kind of bird would you like to introduce to your neighborhood? Do tell!
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 12:19 pm.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I say introduce hens to the Gayborhood – to help settle down all of those cocks…
June 19th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
“Seriously foolish”?
Bannerman said several of the removal sites in New Jersey are within eight miles of an airport.
The state has 80,000 resident Canada geese, about twice the density that wildlife officials consider manageable.
A single bird excretes about a half-pound of feces daily, Bannerman said, rendering some public parks unusable. A removal program last year rid the state of fewer than 2,000 birds.
Please explain why this is foolish.
Actually, that’s just the beginning: We need to do the same with the runaway deer populations. Both species have benefitted from the manmade parkscapes and complete lack of predators. We need to extend hunting seasons in many areas to get the numbers down–deer are not only major vectors of tick-borne diseases, they’re also eating all the native plants and tender tree saplings in eastern PA, essentially destroying the future of the forests. If deer numbers aren’t brought down dramatically, the forests of Eastern PA may very well begin to die out in fifty years. Go to the rich woodland habitats at deer-free Bowman’s Hill Wildflower preserve, and you’ll be shocked to see what has been lost.
So go out and get that hunting license. (Did I mention it’s free, more humanely harvested meat?)
June 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Barred owl caught and killed a rabbit the other night at 2AM (calls are very distinctive). They make ungodly screams when being killed, rabbits. Woke everyone in the neighborhood.
So yeah, owls.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
>>Northern Liberties: Falconry sounds like the type of activity that hipsters would like, right? Falcons it is!
I did have one of the city’s red tailed hawks dive bomb a pigeon (lol, I typed penguin first!) in our backyard. The percussion of the impact (both audible and something you could feel) was startling.
here’s how I recounted it on the NL message board last Nov:
So I hear this loud thunk just outside my (fenced in) backdoor. I’m like ‘what the heck is THAT,’ so I yank open the door and a pigeon leaps up and nearly flies right into the house, veering away at the last moment. Then I see it…the huge falcon/hawk/osprey also just outside the door. The bird of prey then takes flight and heads off over some empty lots to land on a house half a block away.
Too bad I interupted and ruined his breakfast. But the noise was something I couldn’t ignore…too loud and forceful.
And it’s not the first time I’ve seen a bird of prey here. A while back we saw one on the roof of the house next door munching on something. And we found a couple eviscerated bird rib cages (almost completely picked clean; way more than anything a cat would or could do) in the backyard prior to that rooftop sighting.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Forgot to mention: South Philly has a decent-sized population of night hawks (related to whipporwills). You’ll hear them along South Broad in the evenings this time of year.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Eh, I’m moreso feeling turkey vultures for City Hall. Just a suggestion..