On the trail of our parakeets

To anyone who's visited certain parts of London recently, seeing a ring-neck parakeet is nothing out of the norm. Down there are hundreds of them flocking about, squawking and generally doing rather well but did you know we have our own growing population right here in Sandwell Valley?

My brief was to find the nest sites of these rather exotic birds and lead a filmcrew from the BBC to film them. On the face of it not an easy task especially as I had spent a long time looking for them already to no avail.

I was given detailed instructions of where to find the nests by our Sandwell Valley Warden, Stefan Bodnar. No problem he said - thanks I replied!

Fortunately these birds just can't keep quiet and the fact I had visited London the week before paid dividends, their calls fresh in my mind.

David Gregory, the BBC's Science Correspondent for the West Midlands and I carefully walked alongside the river Tame peering into the trees on the opposite bank, me with my fingers crossed and David resigned to doing a 'piece' without a shot of the main subject matter. Wait, was that a parrot squawk? Yes, there they were, sitting on a branch next to a nesting hole in a tree. This was exactly what we wanted to see. A pair of ringed-neck parakeets obviously at home here in Sandwell Valley and going in and out of their nesting site. A coop? I suppose it was for Sandwell Valley and certainly David and cameraman Simon were delighted with the footage they captured.

The filming will be featured one night in the week starting 28^th May “as part of Springwatch on BBC Midlands Today at 1830 on BBC One.”

David was as thrilled as I to witness the nest site and his site  www.bbc.co.uk/davidgregory will have a blogged version of the story with a bit more detail.

There will also be a video account of our 'expedition' appearing on the Midlands Today facebook page www.facebook.com/midlandstoday