I spent this morning birding the southern edge of my Circle. I started at Hoo Mill on the river Alne just east of Alcester. I suppose I was hoping to bump into a newly arrived migrant, but only Chiffchaffs and a singing Blackcap fitted that bill. However, a flock of 60 Fieldfares also count as migrants.
However I did locate the three Parakeets which have been present around here for several years. John Coombes, upon whose patch I was gatecrashing, had managed to establish that they formed a bizarre inter-species menage a trois, consisting of two female Alexandrine Parakeets and a single male Ring-necked Parakeet.
Alexandrine in front, Ring-necked behind |
Ring-necked Parakeet |
The Alexandrine Parakeet is considerably larger than the Ring-necked, and has a purple shoulder patch, but no ring around its neck (a male would have a ring). Only the Ring-necked Parakeet is countable as a tick because the species has been naturalised (breeding in the wild) for several decades. Alexandrines are still treated as escapes although they too occasionally breed successfully in the UK, so maybe one day they'll get upgraded.
A less obviously naturalised species (but still introduced) is Little Owl. My one "reliable" site is in the Alcester area. I'd visited it three times this year without success, and tried again on the way down to Kinwarton, again failing.
However it was a case of fifth time lucky when I called in on the way back and blow me it was there. Initially sitting in branches on the east side of its tree it then chose to drop to the ground allowing me to snap a distant record shot.
It's not clear why Little Owls are in decline. It's been happening for decades. The most likely culprit is a shortage of one of its favourite food supplies, moths. They seem happiest in isolated trees in fields, just the kind of habitat where larger moths are in decline due to overuse of pesticides. Other possible reasons are the expanding Buzzard population (proposed by one old Warks birder who reckoned Little Owl corpses were regularly found in Buzzard nests), or maybe nest competition from Jackdaws and Stock Doves, both of which have increased in numbers in the last thirty or forty years.
There is a school of thought that over-zealous photographers (toggers) may have played a part. I'm not at all sure about that (and I didn't get near at all, as you can probably tell from the poor quality photo), but just to be on the safe side I'll be keeping the exact location to myself. Although I should say its pretty well known to birders in Alcester.