Today`s Country Diary in The
Guardian, March 14th 2013 carries an interesting account by Phil
Gates of the feral macaws of the town of Kirkby Stephen in
Cumbria:
“From the moment the nerve-jangling
screeches – on a par with the sound of glass stoppers turning in the necks of bottles – were unleashed from the rooftops, it was obvious which of the shoppers
in the street were local residents and which were first time visitors. The
former went about their business without an upward glance; the latter stopped in
their tracks,stared upwards, then reached for their cameras. Kirkby Stephen`s
small flock of scarlet macaws has been a raucous feature of the town ever since
the late John Strutt (1) began to provide a refuge for unwanted parrots on his
farm at nearby Eden Place.As a dedicated animal lover and conservationist,
Strutt managed his 900 acres using low-intensity farming methods for the benefit
of birds, butterflies and wild flowers, and also indulged his passion for exotic
birds, which he could never bear to see confined to an
aviary.
Our first encounter with his feral
macaws was on a footpath near his farm, where a few feathers left under the
trees by a bird preening left us puzzling over who had been the owner of such
exotic plumage, all the primary colours from a child`s paintbox. For the most
part, the macaws stay close to home in the Eden valley, but they are regular
visitors to Kirkby Stephen`s rooftops, where they have become local celebrities.
There will be some who will point to the proliferation of troublesome, feral
ring-necked parakeets in London and frown on the deliberate introduction
of any non-native species, but this population has remained small, stable and
local.
As we crossed the road to the
bakery, a pair peered down at us from the parapet above, Technicolour adornments
to grey roofs on a grey day. Then they flew low and fast above cars and lorries
along Market
Street, trailing long tail plumes and ear-piercing
screeches – Amazonia on a bitterfly cold
Cumbrian afternoon.” (2)
There is a You Tube video showing
the macaws – see Ref 3.
Last month saw not one but two major news stories revolving around the subject of DNA analysis. In America, there was the long-awaited publication of the Bigfoot DNA results, first announced in a press release in November last year. 
Today`s Country Diary in The
Guardian, March 14th 2013 carries an interesting account by Phil
Gates of the feral macaws of the town of Kirkby Stephen in
Cumbria:
In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.
New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
On Sundays as regulars all know