One of the delights of living in California's San Gabriel Valley, is that you don't need an alarm clock. If you live in the town of Arcadia, then every morning at 7:00 a.m., what I call the "Yammer Boys" will wake you from your slumbers with the most aggressive cacophony of screeching this side of Twitter.
The "Yammer Boys" are Red-Crowned Amazon Parrots, or Amazona viridigenalis, and although they have been waking me up (and ruining my fruit trees) for years now, I never really got to know them.
This morning, the crazy crew in the above snapshot came a bit early, so I decided to use a few spare moments to learn a bit more about their story. I quickly found that the story of their introduction is the stuff of urban myth, variously attributed to parrot smugglers (we have quite a few of those in Southern California), a fire in Bel Air (alternately, a fire at the zoo), and irresponsible parrot owners. My vote is with the last.
These birds occasionally find themselves in trouble, and when they do, the Arcadia Bird Sanctuary steps in to give them help. I see they do very good work, so may I suggest we step in to help them help the Yammer Boys with a donation?
I'm going back to sleep now.
On the parrots, there are flocks of them all around SoCal. Whatever the source, they presently nest and live wild. Since they're nocturnal, people don't see them all that often - but police officers (often nocturnal) see them flying and chattering at night in large flocks - often over 100 strong.
ReplyDeleteFYI.
Just checked in on your blog. I'm glad you are doing well.
LL