And I Would Squawk 500 Miles -

The Squawkers are Coming, the Squawkers are Coming!

I was visiting friends in London and I heard this cacophony in the garden and when I looked out I saw green parakeets in a drove screeching and squawking in the trees behind the house. I couldn’t believe it but a few escaped birds had ousted the local avian wildlife and they were the dominant species in the area. They woke everyone up early and now the green menaces, officially called ring-necked parakeets, are heading for Scotland. It is said that the winged muggers escaped from film studios in west London during the production of the 1951 Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart adventure film The African Queen.

Escapees from Humphrey Go-Cart Film

After the southern capital the flying beasties invaded cities across the Midlands and northern England, colonising woodlands and gardens in Sheffield, Nottingham and Birmingham. Outfliers have now been seen in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The birds are not popular with many conservationists because they force out native birds and they are evolving. They originate from warmer climes but the birds are able to adapt to cooler temperatures and being quite big with nasty curved beaks they bully smaller native birds.  

Invasion Set for Scotland

In 2012 in London alone there were some 17,000 green thugs concentrated in the southeast and especially in leafy London suburbs such as Barnes, Dulwich and where I was in Chiswick. In Richmond there is the densest population where flocks of parakeets strip fruiting trees, ripping off buds and small branches, hooligans! The latest figures suggest a threefold increase, with more than 50,000 of the birds sighted across England, outnumbering very many native species. Bird experts are very worried about the impact of these invasive species in Scotland as these ring-necked parakeets like to nest in spaces favoured by other birds like starlings and woodpeckers, pushing them out of their own habitats.

Historic Cracker

So here at James Pirie it is nice to turn to the past with a very special handmade gift inspired by history. It is some mouth blown handmade air twist Royal Scot Crystal Whisky Glasses which are a reproduction of a mid 18th century Jacobite Dram Glass. The air twists in the stem are created by making 4 pin pricks allowing in air before the stems are hot twisted to create this wondrous historic design. They aren’t customer rated as they are new to the ranges, but they are half price. A cracker for Christmas I would say.

https://www.jamespirie.com/whisky-gifts/2-jacobean-air-twist-whisky-dram-glasses-gift-boxed-new.html