I am in the midst of writing a long series of articles about birds in an 1897 children’s bird magazine. Creating avian content reminded me a bird sign in Brooklyn last July.
I took this picture of the “FOUND PARAKEET” sign in either Brooklyn Heights or Cobble Hill. We edited the phone number out of the picture, but it was there originally.
Two things struck me about the sign. First, we have the adorable and possibly-traumatized parakeet. Secondly, we have the statement that the parakeet was found in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Brooklyn Bridge Park is quite large. Furthermore, much of it has dense plant life, which I have covered here previously. If the people who put the sign up found the parakeet in Brooklyn Bridge Park, they must have also caught the parakeet in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Left unstated is what surely must have been an interesting and heroic story. I dare say that it may have been almost as heroic as that time I rescued a fallen trash can in Gowanus.
I do not know whether anyone claimed the parakeet. Regardless of where the parakeet calls home now, I am glad that it was wandering Brooklyn Bridge Park in July instead of in the winter. Many parakeets are not at all fond of the cold.