Sunday 15 January 2012

What could be more wintery than parrots?

So, a few mornings ago, in my usual early morning delirium, I noticed, through the skylight, a very pointy feather stuck towards the sky, out in the olive tree. Thinking that was a bit odd, I looked outside, to be met with a small flock of parrots sitting in the tree. Yeah, nothing says British winter like a bunch of parrots hanging upside down in a tree. Apparently, the story goes, they were either released from Shepperton Studios during the filming of African Queen, or are the descendents of released pets. Another story says that they were released by the King, at Hampton Court, sometime back in the 1600s (I think). Anyway, they are all over London - about 30000 of them, and they are increasing to the point where they are considering a cull (whereas with grey squirrels they have been giving them birth control pills (how???) and with Canada Geese, stealing the eggs. Anyway though, I thought it was kind of fun to have a flock of parrots in the back yard. How exotic.

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