parakeets

[ACE]

I have spent a few weeks at Walton on Thames just recently. I knew there were a few wild parakeets flying about but the other morning there must have been at least 200 in one flock. Nice to see, but I bet they are a nuisance for anybody with fruit trees. Have we anybody in that area who can give some info on them being pests or not.

[ACE]

[ceres]

I'm very close.  They are an enormous pest.  They go for top fruit and can ruin practically every fruit - they don't eat the whole fruit, just give it a peck and move on to the next one.  It's very hard to net mature fruit trees to save them.  They also seem to have a taste for horse chestnuts while they're still on the trees.  They tear open the green spiky case to get at the nut.  They're very bold and not easily scared off.  I had some CDs hung over nets protecting some peas and had a parakeet perching on one of the supporting canes preening itself using the CD as a mirror.

There's a very big flock over at Esher Rugby Club, several thousand strong.  They've started visiting my garden now which is new so I guess numbers are increasing.  And they are very noisy.  There was talk of a cull a couple of years ago as they nest in holes in tree trunks and it was feared they're out-competing native species but nothing seemed to have come of it (yet).  You can shoot them as a pest on the General Licence with all the usual safety provisos but with 50,000 of them around, another one will be along in a minute.

[Flighty]

I see and/or hear them most days in small numbers. My plot neighbour has lost most of his figs with a bite being taken out of each one.
I stood and watched, from just a few feet away, one take bites out of a sunflower flower.  I'm also told that they'll go for sweetcorn! 
So good to look at but set to become a real nuisance, if not already.
Oh yes,  they have been sighted in every county in England in the past few years and don't suffer in harsh winters as they originate from the Himalaya foothills not the tropics.

[Flighty]

Ace this morning a plot neighbour told me that she'd watched one peck at her ripening orange tomatoes but not the still green ones.  She was too amazed to scare it off, but netted them afterwards!