The parakeets are back! Bossman heard a racket in the snug, and got there just in time to see one fly out through the door. It rejoined its mate in Eladio's pine tree, and they have spent the last hour there, gorging themselves on pine seeds as the cones expand in the heat, and making their unmistakeable squarking! Last year we had as many as eight in a flock, but the long wet winter must have taken its toll. That these escapees have survived and bred for so many years around our hill must be down to the number of pine trees that still survive the spreading construction, although as they survive in England and Holland as well, they must be fairly hardy.