Parrots, and in particular ring-necked parakeets, are now a common bird where I live in South-East England. So common, in fact, that even while I was thinking about painting some for the Blog Action Day I heard, and then saw, one on Bookham Commons. Though parrots have been seen in the UK for over 150 years (as a result of pets being set free - by Jimi Hendrix among others it is said), their populatiom has exploded in recent years because of a succession of mild winters. The North Indian birds are unmistakeable, being an order of magnitude louder, brasher and gaudier than even the showiest of native species.
The recent huge increase in numbers in parakeets here seems to be just one example of rapid, climate related, changes in animal populations across the globe. Most of them are sadder and more worrying than our parakeets, such as the fate of the polar bear. What we have yet to see, but which is potentially even more devastating, is the impact of climate change on people. This will hit the already disadvantaged hardest, and we need to act now to avert this catastrophe.
