...to have fallen in love with parakeets

[ohhereweareagain]

that's it really. went armed with sunflower seeds & cut up apple in search of the secret path that leads to a parakeet haven in central london. My heart has been warmed

I love all parroty type birds - the sheer amount of personality they have is amazing, they all have so much character and are so clever. I used to have a cockatiel and she was such a funny character and she lived to be 25 years old! My parents got her when I was about 8 years old and she came to live with DH and me when I was pregnant and I remember her climbing up my pregnancy bump and standing at the top looking very puzzled, like she had just mountaineered up Snowdon and was thinking 'this didn't used to be here'. So affectionate, nuzzling me with her beak, loved to be stroked, used to gently nibble my earrings, sometimes she would 'preen' me like I was a bird too. All of her squawks meant different things so you could tell what she was feeling. I remember her interest in our laptop, I used to think she was teaching herself to surf the internet. Birds are just amazing. All of them. Love the feathers of them!

Baby crows are also delicious. I love their little wings.

I heard it was the African Queen but from Twickenham studios! Who knows, they're obviously here to stay and have done pretty well.

Honestly, why would you encourage them?

All this eating of blossom: decimating the pollen for bees, the fruit doesn’t grow so another food source for native birds....

And please don’t feed the squirrels, either. It is really horrible to walk through a park and have a squirrel run up your leg and cling to your neck in pursuit of your sandwich. Do you want this to happen to your toddler or have them on your pushchair?They are aggressive little fuckers . Wildlife is best NOT ‘tamed’ and it isn’t good for their health.

ianrushes where in Lincoln is the parrot sanctuary???? Would love to go and often go to lincoln

Here you go: www.lincswildlife.com/the-sanctuary/charity/

It's about 30 mins from Lincoln, if I remember correctly. They take in unwanted pets - they have literally hundreds of African greys, cockatoos, macaws, galahs etc that either couldn't cope with captivity or where their owners have died/moved. You buy bags of nuts for £1 and they all fly over to the bars and shout to be fed. It's quite something to hear 100 African greys all bellowing, "hello! Hello! Hello!" at you. One or two of them will do it in a funny voice.

Obviously I'd much rather see them in the wild but these are birds that can never live in the wild, so seeing them in big flocks and interacting with each other is miles better than seeing one desultory parrot in a zoo (not envy).

Then they have a big walk in aviary full of smaller birds - some budgies, some ring necked parakeets (all colours!), some conures etc. These all fly over to you for food. I'd go when it's a bit cold and not school holidays as then there's nobody else there and all the birdies come to you!!

They also have rescue peacocks that follow you around begging noisily for peanuts and I think they've also built a meerkat home.

It's not a big place; only takes an hour or two, but if you combine it with a trip to lovely Lincoln it's quite unique for a parrot lover. And I like spending money on a sanctuary - what would happen to unwanted pets without places like that, as parrots are not easy to rehome!

LBOCS2 I used to ride through Littleheath Woods but that must have been pre parakeet days! I lived in the Edenham side of Shirley then and there were plenty near my house.

Dusty, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve got 4 of my own birds. Love them.

I volunteer for a parrot rescue charity and before I worked for them, I had absolutely no idea just how many birds were actually handed in to the charity, some of them abused. 2 of my birds are adopted from the charity.

We have the most northerly colony here in Peterborough. They can often be seen in the bushes by my works gatehouse.

ianrushes many thanks for that. i love lincoln and usually go for the summer airshow although sadly raf scampton aren't putting one on this year but will certainly try and do a visit next time the airshow in on hopefully 2019 if not before (i like going to hemswell centre nr scampton when the lincolnshire showground antique fair is on). would really love this place

Fingers crossed you get there one day soon enough Op!

They make far too much fecking noise for my liking and scare all the native birds off. We've had flocks of them here for years and they're a pain in the bum.

Loads in Sidcup and in the Kent/Greater London surburbs.

There are loads in our bit of Woodford - since the only wild birds they seem to have pushed out are the fecking wood pigeons and magpies, I don’t mind at all! Looking out my window and seeing them in my trees makes me very happy in the morning. And I like their screeches, much nicer than the bastard foxes who scream all night in my garden and shit on my decking. I hate foxes.