London Parrots

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

My (occasional) Basingstoke - London - Basingstoke commute takes me through Richmond Park where yesterday I saw many more parrots in one day than I did in two weeks in Sao Paulo Brazil.   Ring-necked parakeets apparently.  First became aware of them a couple years back, but would have said that they have become the most dominant form of bird life in Richmond Park.

[Basil]

 My late uncle lived in Thames Ditton   I remember the Parakeets at least 30 years ago.  Maybe earlier.

[red marley]

They have been in Richmond Park and the SW of London for several decades, but they have definitely spread NE in recent years. Last Christmas was the first in my experience of seeing them properly established in Hackney. I'd say now that it is very rare that if I go to London Fields, Hackney Downs, Victoria Park, that I wouldn't see or hear some.

[toontra]

Hear being the operative word.  They took up residence in a few trees behind my house in April for a few days and the squawking was unbearable.  It really must be one of the most piercing and irritating bird calls of all species. They also decimated my bird-feeders, gorging themselves until they were empty.

Luckily they left as quickly as they arrived, but I and my neighbours were seriously about to invest in some pump-action water pistols.

[Robh]

I noticed them in Esher a few years back and, more recently, I spotted one in Ripley, but it was just the one, and it must have been an outlier.

[SteveC]

Of course the mystery is how they got here. The story about them having been used on a film at Elstree (usually specified as 'The African Queen') has no justification, I believe.
And somewhat weirder, how did a whole load of them end up in a small town near Barcelona?

Pretty but, as toontra says, noisy!

[Mrs Pingu]

There's a flock in the village of Vlezenbeek, just outside Brussels, too.

[Ruthie]

There used to be some in Kirby Stephen in the Lakes too, I don't know whether they're still there.

[Ian H]

There's a wild or semi-wild flock at the National Parrot Sanctuary near Boston, as well.

[Wowbagger]

I have seen them, although not recently, in our local park in Southend.

My Mate Terry Who Art in Sibton is a bit if an ornitwitcher. He told me that a couple of years ago he was at a loose end on New Year's Eve and noticed that he had seen 239 bird species in Suffolk during the year in question. He decided to drive to Southwold to see if he could see a 240th - he felt that a vagrant might well be around on the coast. He did indeed see his fortieth species, as he described it to me in his Sunderland accent, undiluted by 40-odd years living in Suffolk: "A fookin' ring-necked parakeet!"

[ian]

Loads of them in Beddington Park this afternoon. Cheerfully colourful and noisy. If they were children, they'd have indulgent middle-class parents.

[Martin]

re the African Queen urban myth, even more tenouos is the story that they are all descended from a pair released in Carnaby St by Jimi Hendrix

I think there may be some in Mid Sussex too

[red marley]

I was in Hyde Park yesterday and I saw what I thought was a group of people doing Tai chi. On closer inspection they had their arms outstretched with handfuls of sunflower seeds. Parakeets were settling on their arms, and in some cases heads, calmly munching away on the food.

[Ian H]

What surprises me is that they haven't spread further in the years that they have been naturalised in the UK.  You might think, for instance, that the South-West would have suited them perfectly, but there are none down here

[toontra]

I was doing my morning run in Gullane Park (Istanbul) yesterday and heard an unmistakable squawk. Sure enough -  several of the green buggers here also!

[SteveC]

What surprises me is that they haven't spread further in the years that they have been naturalised in the UK.  You might think, for instance, that the South-West would have suited them perfectly, but there are none down here

There are reports of some in Topsham but I've not seen them.

[PeteB99]

I remember seeing one on the Norfolk/Suffolk borders in about 1988. Only the one and at the time I assumed it was an escapee from someones aviary.