h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You are so right WS, I remember watching a Magpie follow a Squirrel around lawn and dig up the peanuts it planted shortly after and even while the Squirrel was still on lawn.

Hi SS Idid go to look on Who's Online for Bel but couldn't find her st ill all's well now .

Just went over to Obachans house to get some potato's as we had run out, of course I didn't take the camera ,when I got to the gate I saw a Semi just outside on the floor laying upside down and very still, first thought was wheres the camera then had a good look at the striped white and dark brown stomach , then tried to turn it over , as soon as I touched it the legs kicked so I tried again this time successfully , within a second of it being the correct way up it flew away, no chance for a picture even if I had the camera , made me feel good

It sounds like it flew into something and was stunned Moonraker. It is a good job you turned it over as may have suffocated with weight of body on lungs, so well done!
We often get birds flying into windows here, mostly Woodpigeons that literally bounce off ok even with thuds so hard I jumped up out of sofa once! But they are always ok and leave a white dust mark of wings and body on window.
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Sadly a juvenile Green Woodpecker flew into window of a flat here and died, I ran down but its head flopped to one side and it died, I suspect from a broken neck. I too examined it and was surprised at how dense and heavy it was for something that flies. The juvenile spotting was interesting and claws quite big.

You are not going to believe this!
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I had my window open to watch the Blackbirds on lawn and heard a Green Woodpecker so stepped back from window to see if it would land on my waterbowl. I was only 3 feet away from open window and a Parakeet landed on it!
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It first had a peck at rubber seal on my double glazzed window and thought no way buster your out of here if you do it again. But it clearly didn't like taste so we had a stare each other out competition and the first to blink loses!
We looked at each other for a minute as I stood dead still as knew slightest movement meant it would go, which eventually it did
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I am no Parakeet fan due to their non stop top volume screaching as they are doing now in tree next to my flat were they live, sigh, but it was a fantastic moment in an English suburb!

That sounds exciting . I have never seen one in the wild before, but are hoping one day that I will .

Nigel

Hello folks! Strangely strange, those parakeets are not native to Africa. Just what do they look like - maybe I can tell you where they come from.

Over here in South Africa we actually don't have many native parrots and parakeets. We have the little lovebirds, though - the rosy-faced lovebird lives in desert and semi-desert in the west of the country as well as our neighbouring country Namibia. Isn't it strange thinking of these lovely little parrots living in the desert?! They find shelter in the huge nests of sociable weavers, that are usually built in the rare desert quiver trees. They live together with the weavers in the same nests, in peace!

Other parrots we have include the Meyer's parrot, the Cape parrot, and the Brownheaded parrot.

Our parrots are nowhere common though I've seen most of them in the wild. They're not as spectacularly coloured as the Macaws and many other parrot species in South America, Asia and Australia.

Over here we have ring-necked parakeets, Psittacula krameri, actually - that have been introduced from elsewhere. They occur in India and North Africa - but I think these ones have been introduced from India. They are not common, I think mainly around the city of Durban. I've never seen them in the 'wild'.

I can't remember if I mentioned this but the juvenile Green Woodpecker is back and on my waterbowl, how simply wonderful!!
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Pillowcase,
I checked Collins Book of Birds Guide and my Parakeets are Rose Ringed Parakeets.
THe come from Central Africa and S Asia. And have a bright red beak, orange eye, bright green underneath and a very slightly darker green on top. In the guide they say female has a narrow blue neck ring, the male has a bigger bright pink neck ring and a bigger blue neck ring.
Both have grey legs. The are VERY,VERY NOISEY and fly in straight lines a lot and always very fast looking a bit like rockets as so stream lined. They pinch the old nests of Woodpeckers.
They are known to raid orchards en mass and strip them of crops so disliked by farmers here.
I understand that the neck marking can vary in UK and some have non at all.
I understand one UK sports field is reported to have, I think, 20,000 in all the trees there, it sounds a lot but even here there must be hundreds if not thousands around here.

Hi, everyone,

Some info. for you http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/species/parakeets.asp

http://www.vino.demon.co.uk/fong/parak.html

The parakeets have spread as far north in the UK as Sheffield and Leeds, so they must hae by-passed me

Websailor

Strangely tapes up a box of, while not over joyed at the trip, Parakeets looking forward to food 'a' plenty at a nice garden feast at Webbies Bistro.
Hark I hear "Sqwarkalot and Sons" delivery company in the drive and quickly pass the box to the driver saying that the 36 Parakeets will be quiet as a mouse, he he! And bid my feathered fiends a fond fare well and settle down to a truely nice quiet cup of tea......

SS, you are a rogue

I shall await the parcel with great interest. I do hope you paid the postage or they will be coming straight back

"Sqwarkalot and Sons" Oh, I do like that I hope you packed them gently, with room to flap their wings, and a drink for the journey not like the illegal dealers in wild birds who do unspeakably cruel things to them. I wouldn't want to have to send the bird bods after you!

Thanks for the laugh. I must go and get some and toast before the parcel arrives by Pigeon Post.

Websailor

Hey what do you know ... those are indeed the same kind of parakeets that have been introduced here in South Africa! And there are some of them that are native to north-central Africa ... but like I said, the ones introduced here (and there in Britain as well) originate from India and are a different subspecies, though the same *species*.

P.S. I echo Websailor in hoping Sir Sqwarkalot and Sons give the noisy blighters a pleasant journey!

P.P.S. speaking of 'echo' did you folks know the Echo Parakeet of Mauritius which is one of the rarest of the world's parrot species is very closely related to the Rose-ringed Parakeet? In fact genetically speaking it, too could best be considered a subspecies of the rose-ringed parakeet.

I hadn't heard of that one Willem, I confess. So much to learn and so little time. Speaking o which I will get round to reading your own thread asap, but I want to concentrate and too many other things are going on at the moment.

Websailor

Believe me I paid double postage, just in case.
Have a drink? They have a 24 hour bar with happy hour from 5-8pm, and a booze allowance.
They have sleeping nests with duvets, feather duvets naturally, and the best organic mixed feed.
The delivery company has a very strict no returns policy, I made certain of it so basically you have got the bird(s)!

Fancy giving me the bird<s) It won't be the first time or the last I expect.

What a pity I shan't be able to take a photo when they arrive it would be against Flickr policy though I have put some fox photos up today.

Websailor

I was watching some pigeons and started to wonder why they are walking across grass aimlessly pecking at grass?
However I started to observe closely and realised that they are actually eating the grass, I also saw one eating the very, very tiny leaves of a small plant as leaves were gone after it pecked.

Hey Strangely Strange! Over here, we have doves rather than pigeons. I see them sometimes pecking at my plants, most particularly, mesembs - small succulent plants. They like the juicy leaves. I don't really mind ... the ones they like most, grow quite rampantly and they do little overall damage!

We have a pigeon over here ... *one*! It is what laypeople would call a 'white dove' but actually it's a lovely white domestic pigeon that seems to have escaped the person trying to own it. It rests most of the time sitting on the roof of the house, just above the kitchen door, and comes down to feed each morning and afternoon when we throw the bird-seed out. This pigeon has been with us for a long time now ... several months at least, or maybe as much as a year. I always enjoy looking up and seeing it on the roof when I go out!

That is lovely, I get the same Squirels in my garden all the time around 5 and love it.There is the mummy Squirell who I like!

Well the Jackdaws are providing me with hours of enjoyment! The Jacks seem to have amazing flying abilities and make fantastic air turns in very small spaces turning their wings up and using them as airbreaks. There was a mass invasion of 30 today as there often is, once again with just one arriving followed by the group arriving from the same direction but at differant angles as arrive in garden. They do arrive for the bread from neighbours and sometimes forage on lawn but often arrive just for water bowl as word has got arround of a bowl suitable for drinking or bathing as can stand up and splash.
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I went to nature reserve as a lovely day and although very few birds there was a Green Woodpecker.. One the water was a Little Grebe and two young. I didn't know it was a Little Grebe at first as not really into water birds however the young were very cute and reminded me of the amazingly cute humbug young of Great Crested Grebe but with less stripes.
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What was fantastic was I had walked around where damp grass was looking for a Grass Snake and as always I have never found one in reserve, however I met a chap I sort of know and said that someone had move the corrugated sheet onto a sunny bank as better for snakes, etc. He said he had moved it as better there I said good as love Grass Snakes and he said there was one there now at other sheet so I rushed there and a baby Grass Snake was there! What a joy to see it as only second one I had ever seen, the other was in Cambridgeshire. Altogether a fantastic day for assorted reasons and sunny too, a Grass Snake, how fantastic!