Bird lovers cry foul over parakeet killings

Julie Cook came home from work Wednesday night to find utility crews tearing down a parakeet nest from a pole and taking the birds away to be killed.

"I couldn't NOT do anything," said the 37-year-old West Haven woman. "So I started yelling at them and standing under the nest."

Cook was arrested on a breach-of-peace charge.

Bird lovers delighted by the chattering and the brilliant green-and-gray markings of Connecticut's wild parakeets are upset over an effort by United Illuminating Co. to remove 103 large nests from its utility poles and destroy the birds.