Polly Wanna Nother Chance. Squawk. Cracker. Squawk. Sad Reminder About Nature On Yesterday's Walk with the Dog

Um, this is not a parakeet. It's a parrot and if you look hard enough you
can see it has a tag on its leg. I didn't have my camera, so had
to improvise.

I heard a story that a truck on I-95 was tipped over, releasing parakeets all over southern Connecticut, so that in the summer, spring, and fall, wild glimpses of green and gold can be see in the pandemonium (that's what they're called in their groups) along the Long Island sound.

On Fairfield's campus, the parrots act somewhat like starlings and they rarely sit still long enough to get good glimpses of them. They are loud, however, so you're always aware their around.

In Stratford, the wild parrots have built a next on Conner's lane by the Bunnell High School and I love seeing their pandemonium tendencies, as they build enormous next and live in them like they're condos on Melrose Place. They get extra loud when Glamis and I approach their tree and in the spring, when they're feeding their young, I love seeing them hand upside down and sideways feeding the beaks coming from the nest.

Yesterday, however, one of the parakeets was lying dead on the sidewalk and its colors, magnificent, caught my attention. I needed to get a grip of the dog before she tried to pick it up like it was a colorful popsicle.

Poor bird that looked like the one above. I wondered what caused its demise as there were no marks on it: old age, a parasite, bullying from the other birds, a broken heart?

Oh, I found an article about the parakeets of Connecticut on the NY Times as evidence I'm not making this up. I have house sparrows, but I think I'm be more welcoming with the parakeets.

It's Monday, and although I'm already feel bird-brained, I'm going to go forth in hopes I can add vibrancy to the world as they do. I just hope to do it with two feet on the ground and not in the air.