Alexandrine Parakeet

 

I see a lot of the parakeets.  They visit the feeders outside my kitchen window, several times a day and up to 14 at a time.  This one immediately stood out because of the red feathers on its shoulders, possibly the lesser coverts.  The red feathers are an almost exact colour match for the beak.

This bird stayed for long enough for a few photos but I haven't seen it since.  I assumed it was some sort of variant of Ring-necked or Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) but an internet search led me to the Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria).  This is larger, has maroon patches on its wings and a yellow/orange tip to the beak, so that's what my bird is.  The lack of a neck ring means it is either a female or a first-year male.  There are only a handful of records on iRecord in the UK and none this far north.  This bird was with the other parakeets and I suppose is likely to be an escapee.

The Alexandrine Parakeet is named after Alexander the Great who imported them from India to many European countries.  They were, and are, prized as captive birds but they escape from time to time and there are feral populations in many Middle Eastern countries.  They hang around with Ring-necked Parakeets, as my bird was doing.

News from WaterShrewCam

It is a week since the water shrew turned up in the camera box and took a mouse I had left for the weasels.  The video caused a lot of interest on the Mammal Society Facebook page with speculation that she is still feeding young.  The shrew came back an hour later, and again that night.  The video shows her searching by smell in the dark.

She was back again on the following two mornings so I put out another mouse and she took that on Sunday night.

Since then I have had no more mice so I have been leaving casters (fishermen's casters, blowfly pupae) which I had in the freezer, as you do.  And as fast as I put them out the shrew takes them away.

The shrew comes back twice a minute (I edited out the gaps in the video) so her nest or food cache can't be more than 12s travel time away, so only a few metres.  I set another camera outside to see where she goes but she moves so quickly that it doesn't pick her up.  Water shrews give birth to several litters up until August so I reckon this one will have young close by somewhere.  I'll keep feeding in the hope that the youngsters will turn up on camera as well.

One interesting thing is that there have been only two weasel visits in the week since the shrew first appeared, compared with previously about two a day on average.  I don't know if that is just coincidence or if the weasels would be put off by the shrew.  That seems unlikely - I would have thought the weasel would be a threat to the shrew.