Finch pinch at Ridgewood Reservoir

From an account of a birdwatching trip at the Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park:

"All of a sudden the young child from the family gleefully pointed to a beautiful bird in a cage on the fence near the man. At the same time, I realized that the beautiful bird was a male American Goldfinch, that there were at least 6 different cages, and all had wild birds in them. I didn't confront the man directly because I didn't want to jeopardize my own or the young family's safety, but I did immediately start the long process of trying to report the incident. Through a series of calls back and forth to several agencies... it finally got reported to the Urban Park Rangers, who seemed to be the most concerned.

Unfortunately, by then the man was long since gone, but Rangers Kreft and Billak came to the sight and got the details and specific location so they can include it in some random checks of the area. For future reference, (718) 846-2731 is the direct line to the Park Ranger Office in Forest Park, and you can call that number for any incident in Queens parks. You can leave a message if there is no answer, and the machine is checked from the field for messages."

Complete post here: Late post for Sat 6/23/07 at Ridgewood Reservoir

Photo from Wikipedia