The Lyons Share

I new I wasn't seeing things!

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:51

This is the parrot I saw in my garden that woke me up way back on the 7th September. It's just been taken into captivity and has amazingly survived the coldest December on record! Here is the article on the Argus website and here is my blog entry from September 7th:

'Today has been weird, so this post is going to reflect that I'm afraid. Lying in bed this morning I was awoken by a sound somewhere between R2D2 and Predator. I thought it was Jo's new alarm clock but when I then heard a sound like something from Jurassic Park, I flung the curtains open and saw a massive green parrot! It flew off before a photo could be taken but I saw it through my bins. It had a very short tail, a pale eye-ring and small but bright red patches in its wings. Bright green with perhaps some blue-green in there too. It was not a macaw. Last seen heading south towards Fiveways'.

So for the past four months, this large parrot has been eking out an existence in the nearby Preston Park in Brighton. I saw a comment on the Argus website that said it had been seen as early as August. Apparently it is in the genus Amazonia but there are quite a few parrots in that genus and I don't know what species it is. (not that I would tick it!). The photo is taken from the Argus website from an article by Ruth Lumley.

Posted in aliens, birds, Brighton

2 Response to "I new I wasn't seeing things!"

Anonymous Says:

What a lovely picture! In the cemetery where my husband is.. there are about 15-20 pairs of these parrots! I hope that they too survived the winter! They certainly brighten the place up! :) x

19 January 2011 at 19:07

Graeme Lyons Says:

Just to be clear, the photo is from the Argus website, it's not mine. I would doubt that the parrots would be the same species as this (assuming you mean in the UK). They would probably be Ring-necked Parakeets. Sadly, they might brighten the place up but they are not native to the UK. I recently read that introduced species globally are now thought to be the second greatest threat to biodiversity on the planet!

19 January 2011 at 19:28