squawk squawk!

it was only a little while ago that i posted a blog wondering where the green parrots had gone. well that has dramatically changed, and we hear them and see them almost daily. and for whatever reason their numbers seem especially high this year.

from the city of pasadena website:

Naturalized parrots are frequently seen and heard around Pasadena. According to local legend, many were released during a 1959 fire which destroyed Simpson's Gardenland and Bird Farm in Pasadena. Some of the parrots were probably pets that escaped or were set free. Some may have been released by smugglers attempting to avoid arrest. One common breed is the Red-crowned parrot.

i spy, something that is green

how many parrots do you count? this picture is from last year - but it just occurred to me that i haven't seen any parrots around since before the recent fires. could the two be coincidental? maybe it just isn't their season...

parrots and a crow

more from my parrot experience the other day. this tree looked beautiful in the daylight. i thought it was interesting to see this big black crow hanging out with all of the parrots. a few are almost visible if you click on this image.

a pandemonium of parrots!

i've posted about pasadena's green parrots before, but until a few days ago i had never seen a flock as big as the one i found on sunday. i found them while riding my bike north of orange grove on los robles.

the first image seems like that parrot was almost posing for me. second was part of the flock in flight, and the third is a good example of how packed together they were in those trees!

oh, and did you know that a flock of parrots is called a pandemonium?

better than a rooster

this isn't the first time i've posted about pasadena's parrots. lately we've been finding our neighborhood parrots to be especially squawky. they seem to know exactly when people don't want them to be making noise. can you see the parrot in this photo? he's in the upper half, right about the middle looking down at me taking his picture at the bottom of this tree. click on the image for a closer look. i don't think we have any fruit trees around, so i'm not sure why they like our building so much.

pasadena's parrots

a little known fact about pasadena is that it is home to many flocks of parrots. rumor has it that these foreign birds escaped into the wild during a fire at a bird farm. last night at the super bowl party, I got my first opportunity to snap a few pictures of these red-crowned parrots. I've seen them before, but never with camera in hand. this tree was loaded with these squawking birds.