Dear Tweeters,

I'd probably never make a special trip down to Yacolt
to see the Monk Parakeets, but if I were in the area,
I'd try for them. I have to admit, having seen my
first ones in Florida a few years ago, I did not get
the same "lifer thrill" that I would have experienced
if I had observed, say, an Ivory Gull or a Colima
Warbler.

However, in defense of the Monk Parakeet, one might
view them as a sort of poor-man's Carolina Paroquet.
We humans wiped out our one native psitticine, and now
we go and introduce some others. It seems to me we
killed off the Carolina Paroquet, at least in part,
because they ate fruit off orchard trees. If Monk
Parakeets did become established, only to become
"orchard pests," there would be a certain poetic
justice to it.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com



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