I had a funny experience yesterday: it was snowing quite heavily in Brussels too, and when I looked outside into my neighbour's garden, there were some bright green parrots sitting in their snow covered apple tree!
The parrots live wild in the parks of Brussels, but they really didn't seem to belong in the middle of a snowy landscape. The colour contrast, bright green on white, was incredible!
Annie_in_exile wrote:I had a funny experience yesterday: it was snowing quite heavily in Brussels too, and when I looked outside into my neighbour's garden, there were some bright green parrots sitting in their snow covered apple tree!
The parrots live wild in the parks of Brussels, but they really didn't seem to belong in the middle of a snowy landscape. The colour contrast, bright green on white, was incredible!
Parrots in snowy Brussels. Did they look like this?:
Annie_in_exile wrote:
The parrots live wild in the parks of Brussels, but they really didn't seem to belong in the middle of a snowy landscape.
I think it's this bird:
And it's a problem because they don't belong in our "wild" Belgian ecosystem. But that's another discussion . You can see where they are living in Belgium at: http://www.instnat.be/Soorten/Broedvoge ... rakeet.htm ... it's even in english .
Thanks ! You’re incredible – how did you find the "suspects" so quickly? I didn’t take a photo of them and don’t remember all the details but I think it was what Airis suggested, a Myiopsitta monachus. Bhoyeb, I didn’t see any dark ring around its neck (but on the other hand, it was cold and the birds were sort of huddling in the tree top, trying to lose as little body heat as possible; maybe I just didn't see it.) Your link presented Psittacula krameri, but "my" bird´s tail seems to be a bit too short to fit the picture. Anyway, I’ll try to pay more attention to the details if and when I see them again.
And if we are to continue on the "wonders of nature" theme, last night a saw a fox almost on my doorstep! This is getting scary. What next? Pink elephants?
Annie_in_exile wrote: how did you find the "suspects" so quickly?
Because I know those birds are living there .
Annie_in_exile wrote:
And if we are to continue on the "wonders of nature" theme, last night a saw a fox almost on my doorstep! This is getting scary. What next? Pink elephants?
COOL I know there are foxes migrating to the city but I've never seen one myself there (I'm into nature ). It seems that some "wild" animals adapt to live in a city more and more these days.
Probably, the fox is looking for food. It has been cold for the last weeks and in a city, it's more easy to find food as long as the fox isn't scared by humans anymore.
Sorry, bhoeyb, I made a typing error (guess who is a perfectionist and hates them)
Your explanation was good, but how did Airis track the right kind of bird? Has he got some inside information concerning the Belgian ecosystem?
You're into nature? Ok, when the spring comes and I start my mad mountain bike trips again, I'll tell you about all the deer and tiny bunny rabbits I meet in the forest. (Or a trip to the Ardennes and an encounter with a wild boar - that would be just my luck.)
I'll go home now and whistle the "Belle and Sebastian" theme on my way... Maybe I can tame the fox. Haha.
Myiopstitta monachus is (according to my source) found only in Italy, Germany, Austria and Slovakia, while Psittacula krameri is breeding in Germany, Benelux, England, Spain, Greece, Israel and Egypt.
The Ring-necked Parakeet is also abundant in my former home town Düsseldorf, where up to 200 individuals are counted in winter. If you don't see the dark ring, it is probably a female bird, only males have the ring.
ag_pt wrote:Be envy!
Today in Portugal, with a nice blue sky:
PORTO - 14º C; LISBOA - 16º C; FARO - 17º C
Are the characters minus signs? Then I'm not envious - if they are dashes I am very envious!
Hamburg 16h: -1°C and ~2cm of snow (mud)
this cities rarely have minus signs except for Porto, this year we had already -2ºC , but in Faro I guess it was +3or+4ºC in those days..
Faro had already one day with +25ºC max (one of the last days of January), people run to the beaches.. everybody misses Summer.. but this was only one day! normaly the first days with full beaches only happen in March, and of course after that there are still many cold days, but this year weather is just crazy....
bn
ps: but today was a cold and rainy day.. temepratures +7º-+13ºC in Porto..
Annie_in_exile wrote:
Your explanation was good, but how did Airis track the right kind of bird? Has he got some inside information concerning the Belgian ecosystem?
I didn´t know that parrots live in Europe so I wanted to know more about this. So I used Google.
BTW Our fifth season ´Kaamos´ (the dark winter months November, December and January) is finally over. It´s is nice with a lot of sun light again. Still 3 winter months, but it feels like the spring is coming. Today the sun is shining and the temperature is -11 °C.
BossaNova wrote:
Faro had already one day with +25ºC max (one of the last days of January), people run to the beaches..
Incredible! How warm is the water? Did people swim in there? A friend of my parents from Portugal told that her family has no heating in their house. I begin to understand why...
My new avatar always shows the current (always bad) weather in my place.
micro wrote:
Incredible! How warm is the water? Did people swim in there? A friend of my parents from Portugal told that her family has no heating in their house. I begin to understand why...
My new avatar always shows the current (always bad) weather in my place.
I don't know how was the water temperatute, because I live up north, I only saw on tv the traffic jams in the beach direction, and many people in the water, lots of english folks there in Algarve (but this was only one or 2 days, now is cold again).. as to the heating, mine also doesn't have, as the majority of the houses in Portugal, but there are some days when we really miss that..
but too expensive for just some days in the year... some blankets do the job..
bn
but the nicest weather in portugal is in the island of Madeira..