San Francisco's Telegraph Hill Parrots Facing Eviction
The wild parrots of San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, those colorful birds made famous by a book and movie, may be evicted from towering trees where they like to spend their days, proving that in the cutthroat Bay Area real estate market, even feathered celebrities have it tough.
A property owner whose land includes three Monterey cypresses where the parrots perch, watch for preying hawks and stash their offspring while they hunt for food wants to give the aging trees the ax because he considers them a liability that could topple onto surrounding homes, neighbors say.
The buzz of chainsaws attempting to cut down the trees on Monday morning drowned out the loud squawking of the parrots that typically floods over Telegraph Hill -- that is, until Mark Bittner, who lives next door and who wrote the book about the birds and starred in a documentary with them, ran out of his cottage, stood at the base of the trees in protest and persuaded workers to turn off their saws.
Two of the three trees were spared, and now those people closest to the parrots are waging a high-stakes campaign to save the remaining two cypresses and thereby ensure that their famous feathered companions stay on the hill.
"If these trees are cut down," Bittner said from his rustic cottage, "the birds will all move on. There's no need for it. Why put them through that?"
Bittner, 53, is a formerly homeless and unemployed musician who took to the parrots more than a decade ago while he was caretaker of a home on the hill. He feeds the birds, has given them names -- Snyder, Chomsky and Mendelssohn -- and is an expert on their behavior. He estimates there are about 200 of them.
The band of red-headed conures that are native to South America start their day at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero and fly across the way to leafy Telegraph Hill, where Coit Tower is located. Their first stop is the cypress trees, Bittner said.
"They come here screaming in the morning," Bittner said. "The parents use the tree to stash their babies while they go and look for food. They sleep in it and nap in it. They stop here before they come to me when I feed them."
Without the trees, the birds could end up perched on some other limbs on Telegraph Hill, but not even Bittner knows exactly what would happen.
"I can't predict it," he said.
John Cowen, who owns the Greenwich Steps property where the trees stand, did not return calls for comment Monday. Neighbors who live in the historic homes on Telegraph Hill are quick to caution that they hope to work out a solution and that it is not a "good-guy, bad-guy" situation.
They, however, had been negotiating the fate of the trees with Cowen for six months and were surprised to look out their windows Monday morning and see a crew of tree cutters perched in the cypress with their chainsaws.
Judy Irving, Bittner's girlfriend with whom he lives and who was the director of the documentary about the parrots, said: "What we had here was a failure to communicate."
As Bittner stood at the base of the trees trying to persuade the workers not to cut them down, Irving was inside the couple's cottage hastily writing a proposal that said neighbors would pay for the cost of maintaining the trees on Cowen's land. They called politicians and brought in the media.
Today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider legislation that would allow city residents to bestow landmark status on public and privately owned trees, a measure that could have provided protection for the Telegraph Hill cypresses.
"I personally will pay for the cost of trimming the trees," said Telegraph Hill resident Stan Hayes, 59. "Whatever it takes. I'll do it."
Irving, 59, said Cowen promised to take the proposal to his business partners for consideration. Neighbors hope for an 11th-hour agreement.
They did agree on Monday to allow the largest tree of the grove to be cut down because its base was rotted. But the other two trees are invaluable, Irving said.
"Whenever you see Monterey cypress in the film, it's probably those trees," she said.
Her 2004 documentary, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, A Love Story ... With Wings," received rave reviews. Bittner's book, which was published last year and has the same title, made it on to the New York Times bestseller list.
How the parrots ended up on Telegraph Hill remains a mystery. Legends about the birds say they either escaped or were rejected by local owners or fled during shipments to pet stores.
Bittner's close relationship with them continues.
"It became a friendship," he said. "It gave me a story to tell .... They've changed my life completely."
A property owner whose land includes three Monterey cypresses where the parrots perch, watch for preying hawks and stash their offspring while they hunt for food wants to give the aging trees the ax because he considers them a liability that could topple onto surrounding homes, neighbors say.
The buzz of chainsaws attempting to cut down the trees on Monday morning drowned out the loud squawking of the parrots that typically floods over Telegraph Hill -- that is, until Mark Bittner, who lives next door and who wrote the book about the birds and starred in a documentary with them, ran out of his cottage, stood at the base of the trees in protest and persuaded workers to turn off their saws.
Two of the three trees were spared, and now those people closest to the parrots are waging a high-stakes campaign to save the remaining two cypresses and thereby ensure that their famous feathered companions stay on the hill.
"If these trees are cut down," Bittner said from his rustic cottage, "the birds will all move on. There's no need for it. Why put them through that?"
Bittner, 53, is a formerly homeless and unemployed musician who took to the parrots more than a decade ago while he was caretaker of a home on the hill. He feeds the birds, has given them names -- Snyder, Chomsky and Mendelssohn -- and is an expert on their behavior. He estimates there are about 200 of them.
The band of red-headed conures that are native to South America start their day at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero and fly across the way to leafy Telegraph Hill, where Coit Tower is located. Their first stop is the cypress trees, Bittner said.
"They come here screaming in the morning," Bittner said. "The parents use the tree to stash their babies while they go and look for food. They sleep in it and nap in it. They stop here before they come to me when I feed them."
Without the trees, the birds could end up perched on some other limbs on Telegraph Hill, but not even Bittner knows exactly what would happen.
"I can't predict it," he said.
John Cowen, who owns the Greenwich Steps property where the trees stand, did not return calls for comment Monday. Neighbors who live in the historic homes on Telegraph Hill are quick to caution that they hope to work out a solution and that it is not a "good-guy, bad-guy" situation.
They, however, had been negotiating the fate of the trees with Cowen for six months and were surprised to look out their windows Monday morning and see a crew of tree cutters perched in the cypress with their chainsaws.
Judy Irving, Bittner's girlfriend with whom he lives and who was the director of the documentary about the parrots, said: "What we had here was a failure to communicate."
As Bittner stood at the base of the trees trying to persuade the workers not to cut them down, Irving was inside the couple's cottage hastily writing a proposal that said neighbors would pay for the cost of maintaining the trees on Cowen's land. They called politicians and brought in the media.
Today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider legislation that would allow city residents to bestow landmark status on public and privately owned trees, a measure that could have provided protection for the Telegraph Hill cypresses.
"I personally will pay for the cost of trimming the trees," said Telegraph Hill resident Stan Hayes, 59. "Whatever it takes. I'll do it."
Irving, 59, said Cowen promised to take the proposal to his business partners for consideration. Neighbors hope for an 11th-hour agreement.
They did agree on Monday to allow the largest tree of the grove to be cut down because its base was rotted. But the other two trees are invaluable, Irving said.
"Whenever you see Monterey cypress in the film, it's probably those trees," she said.
Her 2004 documentary, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, A Love Story ... With Wings," received rave reviews. Bittner's book, which was published last year and has the same title, made it on to the New York Times bestseller list.
How the parrots ended up on Telegraph Hill remains a mystery. Legends about the birds say they either escaped or were rejected by local owners or fled during shipments to pet stores.
Bittner's close relationship with them continues.
"It became a friendship," he said. "It gave me a story to tell .... They've changed my life completely."
posted by John | 10:58 PM
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