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.
