Hi
As usual parakeets featured heavily in my garden bird watch. I still don't like them I know they are pretty BUT also noisy , I have seen them chase greater spotted woodpeckers both from feeders and trees and looking at the ones that nested on the Tilt at Cobham they have destroyed the oaks, they nibble the new buds , the trees are now dead. Tried to get info on line from RSPB and info from 2009 said we are monitoring them trouble is we now have them not just flying over Bookham and Fetcham but a presense all the time with bigger flocks seen. When do we decide they are a problem? and when we do will it be too late and in too greater number to cull.
Hi there, you don't waste any time in getting to the nitty gritty do you mum and 2 kids!
Firstly, the noise they make is entirely down to individual interpretation, personally i love to hear their calls. However whether you like or dislike an animals vocalisations, that really has no bearing on conservation matters.
There is no evidence to currently support a cull of ring-necked parakeets in the UK. Whilst some concerns over competition have been raised, both great spotted woodpeckers and nuthatches, hole nesting species needing similar holes that could compete with parakeets, have increased in recent years. Whilst it is important to monitor the impacts non-native species have on wildlife in the UK, unless a conservation problem has been identified, other than further monitoring no action would need to be taken. Culling is not always the answer and generally considered as a last resort.
I'm doubtful that by eating the buds of an oak tree they have killed it, that just doesn't make sense to be honest. Finches, pigeons and other birds have been eating the new buds of trees since before people set foot in the UK and the trees managed to cope with that just fine. Many of the trees across London and the south east that parakeets feed on get hit quite hard but still burst into leaf when the season arrives.
If the tree has died recently then it is a great resource for wild birds and invertebrates as standing dead wood provides nesting sites for woodpeckers and many other species of birds and beetle, fungi, lichen and mammals such as bats and dormice.
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Hi All
Would like to invite Ian to Bookham to see our parakeets agree entirely that a dead tree gives life to many other creatures but the parakeets roost was a large copse which I have passed for 10 years watched their numbers increase and now the tress are dead the birds have left. Agree in ones and twos they may be attractive but in flocks of 20-50 you wouldn't feel the same. They are now coming regularly to our oak copse in my wildlife garden will keep Ian at the RSPB posted on developments. Am interested to know other peoples views not on a like/dislike aspect but what impact are they having here in the south east (obviously not yet relevant in Bedfordshire)
Are you aware that there's a study being undertaken by Imperial College, London into the impact that parakeets are having on native wildlife and agriculture.
http://www.projectparakeet.co.uk/
Perhaps as you feel so strongly about these birds you might like to contact the project team to see if you can participate in some way.
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream