Chris Packham's 'barmy' parakeets documentary hits raucous note with newspaper's TV critic

LAST night's Channel 4 TV documentary, Invasion of The Parakeets,  did not best impress Anita Singh, the arts and entertainments editor of The Daily Telegraph.

What galled the critic was the apparent suggestion by presenter Chris Packham  that those who expressed dislike for the birds might be racist.

In today's edition of the paper, Ms Singh describes the programme as "a barmy documentary which draws a parallel between green parrots and asylum-seekers".

She continues: "Thankfully, the xenophobia argument took up only a small proportion of the documentary.

"Mainly, Packham wanted to provide us with evidence that the species isn't doing great harm either to native bird  populations or to crops."

She adds: "Racism claims aside the programme was quite jolly and even-handed."

Bygone birding: tame Puffin waddled about unmolested by cats and dogs which feared its 'tremendous' bill

                                              

The following is an extract from The Birds of Iona and Mull (1890) by Henry Davenport Graham.

As their mode of nesting differs from the Guillemot’s and Razorbill’s, Puffins are more local in their choice of breeding places. 

Many of the islands, however, provide suitable spots for them. Some, like Staffa, in holes and crannies of the rock.

Others are crowned by banks of soft, unctious soil, grown over with grass and sea-pink, which are honeycombed by burrows of the puffins which have inhabited them for generations and have reared their young within sound of the ceaseless roaring of the surf which ever rolls under the feet of the frightful overhanging crags. 

When intruded upon in these their dangerous haunts, they show little signs of timidity. 

The old birds remain sitting on their eggs, with their grotesque faces and formidable bills protruding from the doors of their holes, prepared to guard their nest and administer a most formidable bite to any intrusive fingers. 

Others continue flying uneasily past the intruders which they do in a very swift and undeviating line of flight, their wings vibrating with insect-like rapidity, their red legs and paws sticking out behind, wide spread in a most ungraceful fashion. 

They sweep past, close along the face of the cliff, within a few feet of the visitors; then, swooping out seaward, they make a circuit, and so pass and repass again and again. 

This they all do in the same direction (with or against the sun), and they never cease all the time you remain, giving the appearance of an aerial Puffin procession. 

They never, however, come actually over the land,so that though any amount may be shot, they all go whirling down the abyss into the ocean beneath where they may be picked up by your comrade in the boat. 

They are certainly the most eatable of their tribe, and, in St Kilda, form an important part of the islander’s sustenance. 

At Lochgilphead, I saw little of the Puffin, though they came early in May in thousands which scattered themselves over Loch Fyne, all disappearing by the end of the month. 

These were only a division of the grand army progressing north. 

At this time, I often observed them, towards evening, fly in small flocks right up Loch Gilp; then, reaching its head, they make a sweep round it and stand out to sea again. 

At this point, Loch Fyne branches out into two arms like the letter Y. 

One runs up 30 miles to Inveraray; the other, a truncated one only of three miles, now terminates at Lochgilphead, but before the pre-historic fall of the sea-level ran through Glen Crinan and joined the Western Ocean. 

Engineering has re-united it by means of the Crinan Canal, but it seems to me that the Puffin’s instinct forbids them to fly across the few intervening miles of dry land, and the attempts of these pioneering parties at discovering a north-west sea passage are futile, and so the great host must turn south again to double the Mull of Kintyre.

I have reared  young Puffins successfully.

One became very tame and attempted to follow me. He was unmolested by cats or dogs when he waddled about, as they had a proper respect for his tremendous bill.

 Before he entirely lost all his down, his appearance was, if possible, more comical, as a tuft adhered to his head like a chancellor’s wig.

Are Ring-necked Parakeets the illegal immigrants of the bird world? Chris Packham investigates

                                                       

Ring-necked parakeets are among Britain's most divisive birds, loved by some for their beauty but  blamed by others for harming native wildlife. In a programme to be screened tomorrow, Monday, on Channel 4 TV Chris Packham  investigates claims that they steal nesting sites and damage crops as he asks whether these newcomers are ecological villains or unfairly targeted outsiders? Here is the Q&A to promote the programme which starts at 8pm

Ring-necked parakeets divide opinion like few other birds. Why do you think people feel so strongly about them?

I think the first thing is that they're highly conspicuous and not a species that you can miss. They're bright green, they scream, and they fly around in daylight in public places. I think then there is a genuine underlying xenophobia in life which makes us fearful of change and new things. So, the arrival of a species like this, or at least the increase in its numbers, is something which triggers people's fear, and that's what we explore. Change, and a fear of change is something which underpins this programme, and so much more of our contemporary life, and I do think it's something that we need to address. If we address that, which is something of a side issue for many people, maybe that will stimulate them to think, 'well, I need to keep an open mind, or at least make sure that I'm very well informed before I come up with views about more immediate impacts within our life'.

What is it about them that captures your imagination?

It is there the fact that they've come here. I'm excited by the fact that we have a species which has come into the UK and has rapidly increased in numbers.

Their numbers have exploded in recent decades. Should this be of concern?

I don't think we should be concerned. We need to look at the science, and what is it about this species and Britain's environment which has facilitated the species' success.

Do we have enough evidence to know what impact parakeets are having on Britain's native birds?

We have growing evidence, and we are working with the scientist Dr. Amy Leedale, who's doing most specific targeted work on that. The evidence that we do have isn't specific to parakeets in particular, and their impact. It's looking at broader data, not that that shouldn't be a means of understanding the basic ideas about what's happening, and equally perhaps it should be an early warning system, but the early warning system shouldn't lead to us jumping to conclusions. It should lead to more scientific research, and that's what we say in our programme. 

Your film features people who are taking action against parakeets. Were you surprised by the strength of feeling they provoke?

Very sadly I wasn't surprised because I see that in our everyday life where people act through fear and ignorance and take extreme action because they are ill-educated or ill-informed and that again is why we've made the programme. We want to draw a line in the sand with this and say, look, this is the situation as it is at the moment, from a from a purely impartial, independent scientific perspective. This is what you should be formulating your opinions on. And was I surprised? No. Was I sick of? Of course I was, because what we're looking at is just wanton acts of vandalism. 

How should we approach the question of controlling a species that many people have come to love? 

It's not just about the biology and the ecology, it is about the cultural impact and the cultural connection that people have with species. An enormous number of people like the grey squirrels in their parks and gardens,  and the foxes, because they are entry-level wildlife for them, that's what they have in their environments, that they don't live in an extraordinarily rich biodiverse environment, and none of us do. Our  research shows  that people have a strong connection to them - they fill their lives which otherwise wouldn't be there.

After making this film, where do you stand on the future of Ring-necked Parakeets in Britain? Should we celebrate them, manage them or simply learn to live alongside them? 

We should certainly learn to live alongside them. I think it would be reckless, culturally insensitive, and economically unviable to remove them, so we have to learn to live alongside them. In fact, I think that we should celebrate them for the time being, and if it turns out that at some stage in the future they, the changing population and or its behaviour means that they damage that natural human interest then we would have to learn how to manage them hopefully in a passive way, but if not, then in a humane way. But I think we're far away from that. 

Do you think there's an element of what some have called "ornithological xenophobia" in the way parakeets are portrayed?

I do - I think it's an ugly side to life which we see  in broader society. There's very, very definitely a tendency towards that. 

When we describe species as "native" and "non-native", is there a risk that the conversation becomes more emotional than scientific?

Yes, language is incredibly important. Native and non-native, I think, are perfectly valid terms. So is invasive, so long as we understand what they mean and why we use those terms again in a scientific way, and not in a way which is designed to stir up antipathy and cause divisiveness or fuel hatred  without any proper access to the truth. Language is incredibly important in our culture. That's why it's used so skilfully by those people who do want to generate division, and so on and so forth. We have to be very careful with the way that we use our words.

Do you think the debate around parakeets tells us as much about people as it does about birds? 

Very much so  And I think you can see in our programme. You can see hatred and you can see love and you know it from someone who loves life and all life, everything in the creeps,  stings and slimes. You  know, which side I'm going to fall on, and ultimately when it comes down to the individuals, it's not the squirrels' fault or the parakeets' fault that they're here. We should look at our behaviour, our attitudes and practices, and not focus our ire on a bird which has, against its will, been transported to the UK and established itself here. It simply wants to do what all other life wants to do, which just survive. 

Huge billboard was obstructing nest cavities of Alpine Swifts until public pressure led to its removal

Happily this giant billboard on the side of the Albania  Palace building  in Belgrade has been removed after the the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia - plus residents - pointed out that it was obstructing the openings of cavities used as nesting sites by Alpine Swifts. Citizens reportedly gathered in the centre of Belgrade to celebrate the removal with applause and relief.

                                            

A career spent campaigning for nature - especially Curlews - earns prestigious award for Mary Colwell

Hats off to Mary Colwell for being awarded the MBE in the King's Birthday Honours List! This prestigious accolade results from her many years spent serving nature in numerous different ways but specifically in founding the conservation and campaigning organisation, Curlew Action. Ms Colwell, who is also a nature writer and former producer of wildlife programmes for the BBC, says she is "very honoured and moved" to receive  the award.

Curlews - in need of all the help they can get

 

The cruel and the kind - two sides of human nature as revealed in today's national newspapers

                                                                 

What a contrast! Some people behave badly to birds  and some behind kindly. Reports that appeared today in the pages of The Sun (above) and in  The Daily Telegraph.                                          

Birds were seldom prominent in the art of David Hockney, but two studies in particular stand out for their impact

                                                          

Birds seldom took centre stage in the paintings of acclaimed Bradford-born artist David Hockney, who sadly died this week, but there were notable exceptions - notably in his study of a multi-coloured macaw and a black-and-white of a boy within the egg of a Raven.