Wild Parrots

I went to my sister's house this evening on my way home; she lives in North Tustin. As I pulled out of her community gate, I saw two large green red-capped Amazon parrots fly by. Whoa! As I waited to pull across the road, another 10 birds flew in. I drove across the road and parked and got the camera out, and by then another 2 dozen birds had arrived. They made the biggest ruccus you could imagine; a lot of green and a lot of noise!

I was sure they were parrots, but in my dozens of years here, I've never seen them; I wondered if they were migratory. But according to an Orange County Register article, there are several flocks of wild green Amazon parrots in the County; and I did such a poor job trying to photograph these crazy birds (they move fast and the camera was on zoom), I borrowed the photos from the Register; the birds I saw where exactly like these; a little smaller than a crow. No one is sure, but there are a handful of wonderful "urban myths" about how the birds arrived here.

It was a wonderful, natural spectacle; my brother in law and I are sort of the birder-watchers in the family so we'll have to compare notes on this....