"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...

Three days before Hurricane Charley hit Florida, the 150 or so parakeets
nesting in a power substation in Deerfield Beach seemed blissfully
unconcerned.
So did the ones in seven huge communal nests on the communications
tower of the Broward County Sheriff's office a mile or two away.

observe at:
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/...anim.184.2.jpg

Monk parakeets, which seem to have first escaped or been released in
the 1960's, now number from 150,000 to half a million in Florida,
depending
on who is counting, said Winifred Perkins, environmental relations
manager
for Florida Power and Light. She keeps track because the birds love the
infrastructure of the power grid. Some of those poles will support nests
of
1,000 pounds or more, and cause power failures and fires, Ms. Perkins
said,
as well as present a hazard for workers.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Having lived in West Palm Beach until recently, I can attest to their
abundance- you always know they are around because the noise is
unbelieveable.
Dale W4OP