PARAKEETS AT COATE WATER

I'd heard  recently that there were currently some parakeets at Coate Water country park in Swindon. With most of the population centred in London, their numbers have been steadily increasing and expanding into other areas, but these are the first I had heard of in Swindon.  On my last visit I failed to locate them, however, speaking to someone yesterday I was informed that they were still there and he described the tree in which they had a nest. So with a few hours spare this afternoon I drove over there to see for myself. 

To avoid parking charges I drove down through the  Broome Manor houses and came out onto a minor road which passes close to the country park, and allows parking for a small number of cars next to one of the entrances. I then only needed to walk a short distance to the area where the parakeets were to be found in a copse close to a bird feeding station area. I went in to the small woodland and stopped to look around, after a couple of minutes a passer-by stopped to ask if I'd found them as he'd been round twice today and hadn't seen any, and assumed they must have fledged!  Feeling slightly disappointed that I may have missed them,  I decided to walk along the path through the woodland to see if I could hear or see anything of them,  coming out by a bridge over a narrow part of the lake, beneath which, were a family of newly hatched cygnets and their parents so I stayed and I watched them a while.

Having had no sign of any parakeets, I  returned the way I came and stopped again at the place where they had been reported, hoping that they maybe would return. After watching a number of jackdaws flying around, I suddenly heard a squawk and then a parakeet  flew into the branches of a nearby tall tree. I was facing into the sun, so it was hard to get any photos but I waited and it flew off  and then returned a short time later to the same tree. It did this a couple more times, so I decided to see if I could find where it went. I walked twenty metres of so then suddenly realised it was feeding at the top of a bush close by, partly hidden and well camouflaged with its green plumage, but I did manage to get a few photos. It remained there for a while, appearing to be feeding from some seed heads.  Next it flew back to the copse where I saw it clinging to the underside of a wide bough together with a second parakeet and at one time  appeared to be feeding another in a nest hole.  Here it was even more difficult to see them as I was facing direct into the sun again but could just make out their silhouettes. They hadn't gone after all!