First thing this morning when I raise the blind on my study window I was greeted by a Ring-necked parakeet sitting on the washing line. I assumed this was the usual intimidation as the apples had clearly been completely consumed earlier. A second parakeet swooped down on to the line pole where she squabbled with the first. Then a third arrived and altogether they flew off the line into my cherry tree.
This is unusual for them as they either swing from the washing line, perch on the telephone cable to my study or in my neighbour’s large pyrocanthus bush.
This year is the first year in ages when the cherries have ripened… usually the unripe fruit is stripped by blackbirds or wrecked by starlings.
Perhaps this is why, after many years of popping in for a feed on the apples we provide or on my seed feeders, the parrots started stripping the tree of fruit. Last time I saw Ring-necked Parakeets do this was in some sort of fig tree in southern India!