Those flocks of green parakeets which fly around SW London and Surrey etc

[Fauve]

Are they a pest to gardeners? There is a flock of 6 or 7 in the garden two doors away which seems to be pecking all the blossom off a cherry tree. Are my apple trees safe?
I've always enjoyed watching them fly around but it's only this year that they've come so close to home.

I am in SW London too.
I have have not had a problem with them in garden or allotment. I wonder what they eat

Er, you might want to keep an eye on your apples.

Saw parrots of various kinds feasting on apples on a tree in Australia two weeks ago. They were thoroughly enjoying them.

OH, thanks, girlfrommars, just what I was looking for. Yup, they do eat apples. They are practically destroying the blossom on the cherry tree. I have such mixed feelings about them - I love to see them; but I think I'd better discourage them from invading my own garden. They shriek quite a lot too.

They seem to be having a war with the wood pigeons which usually eat all my seedlings.

Claricebeansmum, they have flocked in our local cemetery and green areas for some time, but have now adopted a neighbour's garden because it's full of bird feeders.

They'll eat the cherries too when the time comes. They're beautiful though - I love watching them flock in the trees outside our house.

We have them too in the fields/trees behind our house

Do we know how other birds feel about them?

I didn't know about this. Where have they come from?

oh ds2 bangs on about these endlessley (we're in Devon but he was born in Kent and is obsessed). If anyone gets a photo can you send us one

I saw some parakeets in our local park, no-one believes me and my Dh teases me endlessly about it. I'm so glad it's not just me. They are ferral pets I think.

I've seen them quite often in Battersea Park.

we have tons here, blinking noisy things.

There have been flocks of these birds in the Thanet area of south east Kent for over thirty five years. They were certainly around when I was a girl. We used to string up monkey nuts for them in the garden. They've obviously really increased in numbers since.

The theory is that they escaped from collections over the years but didn't become a sucessful breeding poulation until 1969 in Kent.

Yurt1, would this help?

Sorry, linked to page not search. You need to select 'Parakeet Ring Necked' in the 'any species' box.

There was a short TV programme about them recently. I think the number given on the programme was about 350,000!

They had decimated the crop of a Kent vinyard and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Hallgerda is an expert on them - she has been monitoring them for a study, I think! I have seen fllocks in Brockwell Park and Hornimann Park, in S London.

I thought that there were around 4,300 adults? They're protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

I thought they had escaped when they were filming the African Queen at Shepperton
Or is that an urban myth

I think that it's one of many theories, but there have been parakeets around in the wild since at least the 1890s.

It could be a myth or it could be that some did escape then, but they wouldn't have been the only ones around.

Why are there a pair of black swans on a lake a few miles from Arundel? Or ruddy ducks in Surrey? Birds escape from captivity and adapt.

My personal favourite is the American 'house finch'. Linnets were exported to the USA and sold as cage birds in the early 20th Century. Some escaped and flourished and they're now called house finch and thrive in vast numbers over most of North America.

OH YOU would HAVE PARAKEETS IN FIRGGIN LONDON
THE REST OF US HAVE SPARROWS

And what exactly is wrong with sparrows?

Are you calling us common?

shoo! shoo SHOOOO SHOOOOOO

Oi, get out of my regional backwater! Those are my fruit buds.