At least three of Mike Smith's parakeets did indeed arrive up north
(Maple Leaf), seen at about 7 pm tonight (Sunday) by my wife. These
immediately became Nancys parakeets by virtue of local zoning.

Actually, I had a neighbor's report of three early last week, and
Nancy heard several and saw one on Wednesday.

This arrival schedule fits our recollection of previous year's
timetables. They show up in late summer and stick around until early
February. While we still need to play some geography games to
(relatively) confirm the Seward group and the Maple Leaf group are
one in the same, a subject for speculation is why this intraurban
migration? There's plenty of food at either location. Perhaps it's
just habit, since our hearsay history is full of reports of
Aratinga-type parakeets from the north end (Carkeek, Ballard, etc)
going back five+ years. Maybe, over time they moved down to the
Seward gold coast to enjoy the good life, but have to come home
periodically to get grounded. I used to go to Connecticut for much
the same reason.


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Fred Bird fredbird at Halcyon.com
1249 NE 92nd St. 206-526-5671 - v
Seattle 98115 206-5226557 - fax