Parakeet Central

I am being eaten out of house and home. Not the children, though they are partly to blame. It is the hordes of Parakeets that descend on my feeders even as I am hanging them back up. The crafty so-and-sos have cleverly pried apart some of the wire cage in order to be able extract entire peanuts. This they do with remarkable efficiency - they have created a free-flowing tube of nut happiness - as fast as I pour them in at the hop the Parakeets pull them out of the bottom. I keep pulling the mesh back into shape but one quick tweak with their very stong beaks is all it takes to open the floodgates again. I went through 2kg last week, and the news is spreading fast. 

"Guys, there are peanuts!!"

"Whoa, look at those, they look great! Let me tell Jim!"

"Jim! Jim! They're back! That old sucker has filled up again! Can you let Stan know?"

"Stan! Gather the flock! We are back in business!"

"Wowsers, look how easily they come out!, it's almost like they are on tap!"

"Out of my way lads, I'm hungry!"

There is a clear pecking order, so to speak. One of the birds seems a little more grizzled than the others, and suffers no competition on the feeder - I have been watching them so much I can actually recognise this individual on sight. He's called Stan. More obvious however is his behaviour - as soon as another bird even tries to descend he moves up the wire to head it off with loud squawking and threat displays. I am surprised this bird is not enormously fat as I am pretty sure it would just hang there all day were it not for the family going up or down the garden. It is actually getting to the point where you can almost walk past and they'll just continue scoffing down huge beakfuls of peanuts, hanging delicately upside down and letting them run wantonly into their overflowing crops. 

This is the Boss. If a bird's expression could be described as cheeky, this is it.