Keets galore
Thursday February 15, 2007 at 9:36 am
Many people are surprised to hear we have a colony of feral monk parakeets (a.k.a. quaker parrots, Myiopsitta monachus) living at the lake. That’s an unusual bird for North Texas, and certainly not native. It’s true that domestic parakeets escaped and found the area to be inviting, and the rest is history. There’s now a rather substantial group of them hanging around the water all year long.
In my recent wanderings, I stumbled upon them one day as they raucously lounged in the afternoon sun atop a very large tree.
Keep in mind I could never get close to them, hence the poor quality of these photos. The tree was on top of a hill, they were at the top of the tree, and the only clear shots I could get were from a position down the hill in a clearing. Still, I think you can see they’re a thriving bunch, and if you’d been there you’d also know they’re a rather loud bunch, boisterous and rowdy.
I promise next time I’ll try to catch them in a better position that will enable me to get more presentable photographs. For these, however, the larger versions linked to are the best I got.
jason
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February 15th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
We have more than a few wild flocks of quakers here in Florida too. They build huge community nests and when people leave them alone they do quite well raising young.
They are very entertaining to watch.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I agree: They’re great fun to watch!
You know, I’m not sure if there are other colonies in Texas. This is the only one I know about. I guess I should look into that.