Last Saturday I met up with some birders and one of the women told me about a colony of monk parakeets that were living in Winter Haven. Winter Haven is the next town over from where I live. This morning I took a ride determined to find them.

I went to the South Lake Howard Nature Park. Once I got out of my car, I started walking towards the various paths. Then I stopped. If these birds like transformers, there wouldn't be any in the woods. I turned around toward the street and saw this.



As I got closer I noticed a small (but not as small as I thought they'd be) green bird poking its head out from between the sticks.



A few minutes later it left the nest and was joined by a second bird. They sat on the wires for quite a while complaining about my presence.







Eventually they took off and perched in a tree about a hundred yards away. They were joined by a third bird and I could still hear another one inside the nest.

I decided to investigate the area they flew off to. The park sits on the shore of Lake Howard, a medium size lake located in Winter Haven, FL.



I didn't see a lot of other birds but there were red-winged blackbirds, a limpkin, a tri-colored heron and this wood duck.



Not the best day for taking photos. The milky white sky and some fog don't help your pictures.

I wandered back to the nest and took a few more photos.







What a fun place to see. I'm looking forward to doing some exploring the next time I go there.

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I love parakeets. I have had 3 in my life. We have a cat now so I haven't had one in a long time, but after the cat is gone, I would consider another one. They are so sweet and social.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

They are so cute, now if only someone would install a webcam on that nest to see the babies. LOL

thanks for the pics :-)

I have a blue quaker parrot which is the other name monk parakeets go by. I got my baby from a breeder though - she was not wild. I know we have a colony on other side of 19 near us. I've seen their nests but not any quakers yet but I haven't had time to go over there long enough to watch for the birds themsleves.

They are very smart birds- wonderful talkers and about the same size as a cockatiel. My baby Sea talks more like a person than a bird though.
This is my Sea. She's only 9 months old. You have to watch where you live with quakers and monk parakeets- they are illegal to own in some states.

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Mom to Katie 1/95 and Sara 5/97

I guess I didn't realize that there were different kinds of parakeets. We had a small blue one when I was young, for probably 8 or 9 years. My father found him in an alley one night in downtown St. Louis, sitting on a packing crate asleep. Pete the parakeet. He was a lot of fun. He had a vocabulary of about 90 words if I remember right.

My brother was not too fond of him. His cage was near the door to the basement where my brothers room was. My mother would yell down the steps, "James Edward, get up here now!" and Pete could copy her word for word and it drove my brother, (probably about 8 or 9 then, wild. Of course I thought the bird was hilarious which only made my brother madder. That little bird gave us all a lot of laughs, even my brother at times. We should have named him Personality Pete.