Tweets,

Since I inadvertently goosed the issue this time, let me opine briefly.

While I certainly appreciate that introduced species are often a problem when they compete with natives or introduce diseases or cause other depredations, I think we needn't consider every introduction to be equally likely to cause problems. Monk Parakeets are well established on the east coast from Florida to Connecticut. Have they been shown to have caused problems other than a few electrical shorts there? Also, Los Angeles, Miami, even San Francisco are alive with parrots and parakeets, macaws, cockatoos, etc., of several dozens of species, a few of which have established self-sustaining populations. They are almost entirely urban or periurban and to my knowledge have not been implicated in the problems attributed to introductions of other species. Perhaps there is an open niche for psittaciformes, as there seems to be for Eurasian Collared Doves, which I don't believe anyone has proposed exterminating.

I must admit, when I'm down in LA or Miami I enjoy trying to identify as many of these exotic critters as I can. Those places otherwise are pretty plastic.

Gene Hunn
18476 47th Pl NE
Lake Forest Park, WA
enhunn323 at comcast.net