On the morning of 3 Jan, my partner and I were woken up by raucous bird calls, which sounded different to the usual gentle dawn chorus we normally get from our neighbourhood birdlife. Our bird feeders attract quite a variety of birds (and squirrels), so at first we thought it was just some over-enthusiastic blue ***, some of which sometimes nest just above our bedroom windows. But this being mid-winter, we realised that it couldn't possibly be the cries of young birds. My partner looked out of our bedroom window (which, being on the third floor, was as high as the plum tree just outside) and imagine his surprise when he saw 12 green parrots, of different sizes and ages, perched around the bare branches of the tree, calling away to each other and all ooking down to the ground in some consternation. What had obviously caused the racket was that one of the bird feeders had fallen to the ground! Prevoiusly we have had green parrots visit our garden, but usually it's limited to one or two at most - never a dozen. It made our day and we felt it was a good omen for 2009. I know they are not natives to the UK; my partner is from Australia, which made this visitation even more extraordinary.