Wed 10/05/17

Now here’s something I didn’t realise. I know about the rose-ringed, or ring-necked parakeets – they became naturalised in the London area relatively recently, especially around Kew Gardens, where they have been a familiar site for decades. The population has been gradually spreading out from there; I always see some on the outskirts of London whenever I go up there, and I saw my first example in Gravesend in April 2009. Then today we were in Birchington, just west of Margate at the far eastern end of Kent, and I saw this one in a tree in someone’s garden. I had no idea they had spread so far, although according to Wikipedia, there is a separate established population down there. Another thing I didn’t realise is that only the male has the well-defined ring on the neck.