Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

little green birds

The parakeets are much bolder now, although their habit is to fly high and swift, they have taken to one of our apple trees in a big way.

They still make a shocking noise, when they are approaching and surveying their target, but once they have decided to go for it, they are strangely unconcerned. You can walk right up to the tree, and within ten feet of a bird before they stop chomping , and start gazing with suspicion. Tonight I was watching a bird, and squeaking at it until it flew off, shrieking abuse, and walked on up the garden to pick some plums. It was only as I was picking my fruit that I realised that there were still three parakeets eating away, totally unconcerned. So we had a little moment; I ate my plums and watched them, and they ate their apples and watched me.

They are quite messy eaters, holding the apple in one foot, they carve chunks out of it, and mumble it around in their beaks. Rather a lot falls out the sides, like a friday night drunk with an overstuffed kebab.
Curiously, they only favour one tree, a James Grieve, all the others are ignored. All the apples are quite a long way off ripeness too, but I guess their little tummies can cope in ways that humans can't.

Some of our other fauna are still here too, the woodpecker (lesser spotted, I can now confirm) was drumming on the dead tree today, and there is a massive and very noisy flock of various tits who were eating greenfly off the golden gage as I came in.

posted by Lampy @ 8/15/2005 06:27:00 pm