Last week, to counter the continuing anticyclonic gloom, I took myself for a lovely wander around Cardiff’s Bute Park, admiring and photographing the beautiful autumn colours (I’ll post those tomorrow), and was entertained by five raucous Ring-necked parakeets and their companion, an Alexandrine parakeet, the first I’ve seen in the city.

Due to the grey misty weather and having to look straight up in to a tall tree, my photos are not the best (please excuse the dreadful chromatic aberration) but I think you can see the difference in the two parakeet species. The Alexandrine, which is in the centre and was probably someone’s pet before it escaped to live life on the wild side, is quite a bit bigger than the Ring-necked parakeets. The Alexandrine also has a much longer tail and, though it’s not easy to see here, it has red patches on its ‘shoulders’.

I’m not sure the Ring-necked parakeets were very happy with the Alexandrine’s presence as it seemed to be a bit of a bully. And the Carrion crows were not at all happy with either species of parakeet being in their woodland, but I think the parakeets are probably here to stay.