The Lincolnshire Bird Club

At 1.40pm today, a buzzard flying over Wainfleet Bank, Wainfleet St Mary was being noisily mobbed by three parakeets.

The fields and boundary hawthorn had plenty of redwing and fieldfares.

Other sightings in the area included one peregrine, one kingfisher and a flock of about 50 golden plover. Lapwings were also abundant.

Hi, Were these escaped domestic or Rose-ringed Parakeets?
Cheers Mel

Sorry, Mel, I'm not too good on parakeet identification. I'm not sure if there are populations of wild-living parakeets in the county. I couldn't find any reference in the Lincolnshire Bird Report.

Perhaps they came from the nearby Parrot Zoo, now known as Lincs Wildlife Park.
It's just down the road and I believe they have had escapes before.
Just seen this below on their website:

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Russell, I think that's probably cracked it.

What are the odds some of the free-flying Friskney birds don't disperse and breed in other parts of the county - to the detriment of our native birds? Not necessarily an encouraging prospect given what's happened in parts of Surrey and Middlesex.

I always thought it was illegal to introduce non-native species.

Incidentally, has anyone ever been to The Parrot Zoo, as it was formerly known? I've heard various reports - both good and not so good.

"I couldn't find any reference in the Lincolnshire Bird Report"

Have a look at, for example, page 95 of the 2013 report or page 106 of the 2014 edition. The latter says

Records in the Friskney and Wainfleet area and possibly elsewhere are considered to involve birds escaped from the Friskney Parrot Zoo. One was at Lincoln on Jan 1st and one was at North Hykeham on Jan 15th. One was at Friskney on Jan 2nd, two were there on Feb 4th and two were at Wainfleet on Feb 10th. One was heard at Market Rasen on Feb 16th and one was at Gib Point on the 19th. Four were at Friskney on Oct 12th, three were at Wainfleet on the 29th and a party of c20 flew south at Gib Point on Oct 30th. One was at Gainsborough on Nov 6th-7th and one was at Irby in the Marsh on Nov 24th where apparently there had been a colony of six present for some time, perhaps an offshoot from Friskney.

I recommend the reports as a good read. There are even jokes if you look for them and there may be more in the 2015 report.

Thanks Andrew - I completely missed the reference in the 2014 report. I didn't expect to find rose-ringed parakeet slotted between peregrine falcon and golden oriole.

No mention of it in my trusty Observer Book of Birds

It will be interesting to see the extent of the species' Lincolnshire range in future reports - and whether there are any county breeding records beyond Friskney.

They're attractive birds, but I wouldn't want to seem them out-competing native species for feeding/ breeding habitat.

On the other side of the coin, I suppose we' ve got used to collared doves - but at least they arrived here under their own steam.