Oscar writes: this was taken in May 2011, during my GCSEs. I spend most of the Spring revising so barely had any time for photography, but whenever the weather was good I would do my work outside at our garden table, with my camera beside me in case anything turned up. One evening I was sitting working when a Ring-necked Parakeet landed in the apple tree at the bottom of my garden in Southwest London. The parakeets are regular visitors to our peanut feeders but so far had always chosen particularly unphotogenic places to perch before coming down to the feeder. This time, however, it was perfectly framed by the branches on the left and right, but I had to stand on one of the chairs to get a better angle. The image then sat on my camera for over a month until my GCSEs were finished, and by that time I’d completely forgotten I’d taken it, so was very pleased to find it when I downloaded the card onto my computer!
Nikon D300s, Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR, handheld standing on chair!
Mark writes: what a peach of a bird! Super shot Oscar. My column in the February Birdwatch magazine is about non-native species including this one. I flicked through the pages of the Atlas and the maps of spread of non-native species made me think.
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A great picture Oscar, by coincidence I went to Teeside to day birding and one of the targets was this very species in Ward Jackson Park, Hartlepool where a presumed self sustaining population has been for years—– we saw a group of 6.
Thanks Paul, there are thousands around London now, and are on my feeders every day!
I also have have a photo of a ring necked parakeet about 150 miles north of london. It was taking no notice of a pair of mobbing magpies so was probably “wild.” Yours is a better photo Oscar, well done.
Thanks very much!