October's Birds in Ashtead

With their emerald green plumage and crimson bills they’re spectacular birds. Even so, ring-necked parakeets (they take their name from the male’s pink and black neck rings) have their disadvantages. They make a frightful screeching noise, for one thing. Of more significance, they can cause damage to fruit crops and put pressure on our native birds, competing for food and nest sites.

Native to the Southern Hemisphere, they’ve been recorded here since the early 1970s, having escaped from captivity (from Shepperton Studios, according to rumour) and a small handful appeared in Ashtead at about that time. Now there are thousands of them in the Thames Valley alone. And whereas 10 years ago they rarely occurred on Ashtead Common, now they’ve taken up residence and are seen and heard daily, sometimes in flocks of 20 or 30. Little wonder that English Nature have just designated them a pest species, allowing them to be shot without a licence by ‘authorised persons’.