It's a Parrot!

This morning, I was walking Sprocket the Amazing Weasel Dog around the block when I heard what sounded like children laughing … in the trees.

The sound came again. This time it sounded like a crow with too much trill.

I looked up at the almost completely denuded maple tree and saw three green-cheeked parrots sitting on the top-most branches. Another sat on a palm tree across the street.

It laughed.

One of the three in the maple laughed back.

Parrots.

In the wild.

In Southern California.

Who knew?

Apparently someone did. I found on the Internet the California Parrot Project, at natureali.org/parrot_project/Parrot_Project.html. It is a study of the “naturalization” of parrots into the wild “urban jungles” of Southern California. Imagine that.