Ring Necked Parakeets, Ipswich cemetery - Dec 2019

 

 

I heard them long before I could see them, an exotic chirping that identified the birds I was looking for. In the old cemetery of Ipswich, amongst centuries old tombstones and statues of weeping angels, I came upon some of Ipswich's newest residents. Four RING NECKED PARAKEETS, perched on a tree and surprisingly hard to finally see. However they didn't stay long and flew off into the distance.

 

 

I started my search for the parakeets on a nice sunny morning. The light on Weds 4 Dec was amazing, at around nine o'clock, the golden hour, a low sun cast deep shadows through the gravestones. Winter thrushes were abundant, despite it being a poor year, it was so peaceful, easy to forget that this was in an urban area.

Ring necked parakeets are common in London, numbering in the thousands, and is easy to come across in many of the city's parks, but is not normally found in Ipswich. Rumour had it that Jimi Hendrix released some, but a recent article on the BBC website disputed this. Another rumour is that some were released from Pinewood Studios, after the finishing of the filming of the African Queen in the 1950s. Wherever they came from they are here to stay, for good or bad.

 

The simple question is do we want them to expand here, in Ipswich? They are a pest, and they outcompete native wildlife. So there is that dreaded word in conservation: cull. Be sure this was never the bird's fault, it is human's. But these birds spread like wildfire when given the chance, and although it will give some exoticness to Suffolk wildlife, something spectacular, is it really worth it?