Is the cold weather making people grumpy?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Instant cure for grumpiness

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[teamsaint]

and those of Queen's Park and Willesden

I thought their British base was Feltham.

[Anna]

Instant cure for grumpiness

Thanks Rob, that really cheered me up! I'm not really grumpy - just fed up and not wishing to possibly have to dig myself out again tomorrow morning .......

[Flay]

Is there good eating in a Rose-Ringed Parakeet?

[Mr Pee]

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Excellent.

Quite a rapid tempo there! Do you know whether that is a "scratch" ensemble or are they drawn from an Orchestra?

[Richard Tarleton]

Is there good eating in a Rose-Ringed Parakeet?

Smaller than a magpie, and a lot of it is tail, so no, not worth the bother I'd say

I'm not sure what their natural predators are where they come from, but nothing seems to have tackled them yet. They're roughly the same size as a sparrowhawk, plus noisy and gregarious so good natural defences.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Quite a rapid tempo there! Do you know whether that is a "scratch" ensemble or are they drawn from an Orchestra?

I don't know: it says "Musiciens de l'Emperi" at the end, so they may be performing at the Chateau de l'Emperi Chamber Music Festival. Large Wind ensembles like this tend to be ad hoc groups, although this lot do seem to know each other: I love the way the female Horn player grins at the antics of the Basset Horn/Oboe duet at around 1' 50".

[Nick Armstrong]

Excellent.

Quite a rapid tempo there! Do you know whether that is a "scratch" ensemble or are they drawn from an Orchestra?

If you watch it on the youtube page itself, various people have added comments identifying players, e.g. "First Oboe Francois Leleux et Second Oboe Francois Meyer (brother of Paul Mayer Clarinet)"... and the bassoonists are from the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris... As ferney says, a scratch Festival band of crack players

[Nick Armstrong]

I love the way the female Horn player grins at the antics of the Basset Horn/Oboe duet at around 1' 50".

Can't see that... although she does grin at the 2nd clarinet around 1'00 but I reckon she fancies him with his leonine French locks.....

[teamsaint]

Can't see that... although she does grin at the 2nd clarinet around 1'00 but I reckon she fancies him with his leonine French locks.....

They are a good thing, are they?!

[jayne lee wilson]

I would certainly agree with you about the novelty of parakeets soon wearing off Richard - having been involved in counts of several thousand at winter roosts. They are indeed a spectacular sight, but the cacophany of screeching rapidly becomes an irritation.

For anyone interested, this is a short film of the Wormwood Scrubs roost in West London - although the full impact of the noise does not really come across and the commentary is rather ' rose tinted '.

http://www.wildlifewhisperer.tv/videos/shorts/1706

Research into the effects of the birds is being carried out by a PhD project out of Imperial College :-

http://www.projectparakeet.co.uk/

Nice film, thanks.

The RSPB's policy is balanced, as it was during the Magpie-hysteria.
One rarely-mentioned point about this kind of rapid increase in numbers is that it can't go on indefinitely, the food supply won't support it. Many birds would have to move further north or west etc., so the population may become more spread out. But it's down to us of course, creating ideal conditions for such birds to thrive and then moaning about it. Remember the Collared Dove? 20 years ago, the commonest bird in the garden, flocks of 20 or 30 juveniles were a frequent sight in August. Now we have just a pair or two. Nearby, someone culled -trapped and killed, that is - 31 Magpies (in a parkland neighbourhood) about 10 years ago. What happened next? Jackdaws and Feral Pigeons took their place, then the Magpies returned after a few years...

Farming practices have pushed more large birds into gardens, especially Wood Pigeons, Jackdaws and Jays. Get quite a lot of refugee Pheasants too...

[Richard Tarleton]

Agreed for the most part jayne! I suppose the big difference with collared doves is that those got here of their own accord, spreading from Turkey and the Middle East right across Europe in a very few years after 1950 - they weren't introduced. I'm not sure if the population dynamics there are fully understood. I saw my first in Oxford in 1969. Whereas the parakeets have jumped a continent, with our help. They have yet to strike a balance with their environment and their natural neighbours, predators have not yet adapted to their presence.

Culling is nonsensical, of course, you just create a gap for more to move into.

[AmpH]

Monitoring of Peregrine nest sites in London last year certainly showed that Parakeets are on the Peregrine's menu - but along with many other species - feral pigeon , moorhen , redwing , various waders and even pheasant etc etc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can't see that... although she does grin at the 2nd clarinet around 1'00 but I reckon she fancies him with his leonine French locks.....

Yep, that's when I meant - can't think where the extra minute came from! (Suggestions on a postcard to ... )

[jayne lee wilson]

Agreed for the most part jayne! I suppose the big difference with collared doves is that those got here of their own accord, spreading from Turkey and the Middle East right across Europe in a very few years after 1950 - they weren't introduced. I'm not sure if the population dynamics there are fully understood. I saw my first in Oxford in 1969. Whereas the parakeets have jumped a continent, with our help. They have yet to strike a balance with their environment and their natural neighbours, predators have not yet adapted to their presence.

Culling is nonsensical, of course, you just create a gap for more to move into.

One of the nicer shaggy-bird tales was that Jimi Hendrix released his parakeets to make the garden more colourful, and then...
... but probably originating from the foothills of the Himalayas they have no problem with the cold really...