While walking the dog yesterday, I saw and heard an unusual bird. My mind had to make mental leaps and jumps to get there, given the anomalous nature of it. I’m pretty sure it was a ring-necked parakeet. I’ve seen them in the south east where they are well established in large numbers, but to see one here was, well, unexpected.

I told a neighbour who got on the internet and told me they are in Bristol, so they have spread further afield.

From an ecological impact point of view, I’m not sure I want them setting up shop around here. I don’t know what effect they have on our native species. But then when does a naturalised species become native? Little owls are a good example as an introduced species. We have them around here and I like to see and hear them and think of them as native. Although, they are not a flocking species so aren’t as obvious as the parakeets are by a long shot.

As a post script, I’ve just had a look on BirdTrack, and a sighting of a ring-necked parakeet was recorded yesterday ten minutes up the road. So that pretty much accounts for the 5% of uncertainty for my sighting.