Monday, January 10, 2011

Who Needs an Alarm Clock in Pasadena?

Who needs an alarm clock in Pasadena with wild parrots visiting in the early morning hours? Yes, they swooped down onto my neighbor's tree at 7:00am this morning in full grandeur. So much for my beauty sleep!

If you don't live in the Pasadena-Altadena-South Pasadena-Sierra Madre areas, you probably don't know that residents here have a natural alarm clock. The Parrots of Pasadena. as they are generally called, are a flock of hundreds of feral parrots, who migrate along the Arroyo Seco corridor in search of food and adventure. The Parrots are so notorious that they are even mentioned on the City of Pasadena's Wikipedia page as local icons!

According to the Los Angeles Parrot Project (http://www.californiaparrotproject.org/), there are at least five species represented in the flock, although the red lored Amazon Parrot seems to be the most common.  Many theories abound as to how this large flock has come to circle the city on a regular basis. Some say they were brought to the area years ago from Mexico and set loose; the most popular explanation suggests they were set free for their own survival from a large pet emporium on East Colorado Boulevard when the building caught on fire in 1959.

Regardless of their origin, the Parrots of Pasadena are a common sight - welcomed by some as 'local color' - hated by others as a nuisance.

In case you've never seen them in action, take a look and a listen here:





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1 comment:

Please be civil, brief, and relevant. Thank you!