Le Dernier Mot: Birds of a Feather

Like so many of the noisier, trashier expats around the Med, they might be Londoners seeking better climes and respite from Brexit insanity! At this 50th anniversary of Woodstock it is intriguing to think they might even be descendants of Jimi Hendriks! [[wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain]] "Feral parakeets in Great Britain are feral parakeets that are an introduced species into Great Britain. The population consists of rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri), a non-migratory species of bird that is native to Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. The origins of these birds are subject to speculation, but they are generally thought to have bred from birds that escaped from captivity. ... • a pair were released by Jimi Hendrix in Carnaby Street, London, in the 1960s." In fact they are very successful invaders being found in many big cities worldwide, well outside their places of origin. Such as Tokyo: [[theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/jul/06/yoshinori-mizutani-parakeets-tokyo-in-pictures]] Seeing them in the south of France, perhaps feasting on mimosa*, would make an Australian homesick. Big flocks are common in all the cities in Australia, though they tend to be Rainbow parakeets (or lorikeet; Trichoglossus moluccanus) where they are natives rather than foreign invaders. But we have more than our fair share of noisy, trashy Londoners of the more usual two-legged species too. *unlikely as they feed on seeds not nectar.

When in St. Remy earlier this month, we saw a group of people looking up in a tree outside the coffee shop where we'd had breakfast and asked what they were looking at - yes, one of your flashy parrots made it all the way up to St. Remy!