When is a Parrot, a Parakeet?

.

I have to admit that I don't really

know the difference between

a Cockatoo and a Parakeet.

.

.

A little Mantovani number.

I do know that we have quite a lot of

these noisy, but colourful birds

in quite a number of areas,

including Bourne End.

I've been trying for years to get

photographs of them, but as soon as they spot you

they are off!

Just before Christmas I heard their

squawks very close indeed.

In fact they were next door, up in Norman's tree.

.

.

I tried hard to zoom in on them,

but from inside my kitchen

was not the ideal location.

.

.

Opened the back door carefully....

......and they were off like a shot.

Never mind, this below is what

they look like close up. 

(Not my photo)

.

.

Monk Parakeets.

Wiki tells me they are also know as

the Quaker Parrots.

So now I have 'Parrots'

'Cockatoos'

&

'Parakeets'

to choose from!

The population in 2011 is believed to be around 150 in the Home Counties. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced plans to control them to counter the threat to infrastructure, crops and native British wildlife by trapping and re-homing, removing nests and shooting when necessary.

150? Is that all?

There are about 50, 

in the Cookham/Bourne End area alone.

I put bird seed out most days in the Winter months.

I scatter it on the ground,

away from the house in an open position.

(Just in case cats are hiding in the hedges.)

Wesley is not in the slightest interested.

He just likes a sit in the sun,

as he did this last Friday.  

.

.

...until,

.

.

Someone found my seed.

.

.

"What are you doing in my patch?"

Wow!

What a difference a day makes!

.

.

"Ah, good!"  "No ginger cat."

"But shucks! No seed either."

That's because Unc B. was not going to go out

any further than his back door.

I put it on the small table this weekend.

.

.

I noticed all the papers are full of

all this cold and chaos, so for a change,

I have put up a wee video of the garden in Spring.

It serves two purposes.

Firstly, to cheer you all up and

secondly I wanted to remember my

next door neighbour who sadly passed away

in January, aged 80. 

.

.

We had been neighbours for twenty years,

almost exactly to the day.

Over those years we used to swap cuttings and plants.

All those red tulips you see above, 

are always referred to as "Norman's Tulips".

He dug them up by the bucketful.

He is not forgotten here.

RIP

.