'It's a parrot!' I shouted to my daughters as we trudged along the Greensand Way from Brockham to Betchworth.

To which both of them look at me and burst out laughing - 'Dad, you really should get your eyes tested!' - 'Dad, were you drinking last night!? and so on. But I swore I saw a bright green something fly out of the trees. But they would have non of it and it played on my mind for weeks.

My RSPB Book of Birds didn't have anything remotely like the bird I saw and it was only through casual conversation with a friend that I was told of the 'parakeets' in Brockham decimating the soft fruit orchards and kicking up a fuss.

The rose-ringed parakeets, Psittacula krameriis, are in fact getting a bit of a reputation, making a feature in The Times, and are also being studied at Oxford University.

The Rose-ringed (or Ringed-necked) Parakeet, , is a native of Africa and the Asian sub-continent and is not indigenous to Britain. Escaped birds have gradually established a feral population here.

Currently the most populous spot is Esher Rugby Club where the winter roosts now numbers over 3,000 birds (from LNHS Ornithological Bulletin).

Project Parakeet is a research programme being conducted at Oxford University.

The following are tentative maps (based on over 600 submitted sightings as well as my own observations) of the range of Ring-necked Parakeets in the UK. These maps show the extent of the three main populations - the SW London population, the SE London population and the Isle of Thanet, Kent population.
The Greater London Area:

As you can see, Ring-necked Parakeets extend throughout a large swath of Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire. Currently, there are three main roosts in this area.

1.) Esher RFC (Surrey) - There are approximately 4,000 parakeets that spend the night in the Lombardy Poplars at this location. The parakeets have roosted at this location for the last several years.
2.) Reigate (Surrey) - There are approximately 300 parakeets that spend the night in the area around Reigate. The roost at Reigate seems to move around quite a bit, unlike the Esher RFC roost.
3.) Lewisham (Kent) - There are approximately 900 parakeets that roost at the Lewisham Cemetery in Kent. The parakeets have consistently spent the night here for the last several years.

Ring-necked Parakeets have been slowly but steadily extending their range. Although this map shows two distinct populations, it is possible that the two ranges have now merged.

Needless to say I feel vindicated in my sightings! My daughters did concede further however, when we were out on two other occasions - as we were walking by Old Park Wood a pair of parakeets flew out from the wood in front of us; and last month on returning along the Old Coach Road, a pandemonium of parakeets flew noisily above us.

Nick Caddick
September 2003

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