Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Excuse Me, While I Kiss the Sky


It seems there are 40,000 ring-necked parakeets in and around London.  Originating from the Himalayas, they bully smaller birds, take up nesting space, and descend on crops "like a plague."

Authorities have added the parakeet to a list of birds that can be shot with a general license, including Egyptian geese, Canada geese, and monk parakeets. The response:  a claim that ring-neck parakeet shoots are "racist" and that the birds are "'as British as curry."

It's not clear how the ring-necked parakeets were introduced.  One story is that a pair escaped from a container in Heathrow airport, another that they are escapees from a sound stage during the filming of the African Queen, and a third that they are the progeny of two birds supposedly released by Jimi Hendrix at a concern in the 1960s.
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