[Bon mots]

Monk Parrots are now living and breeding quite happily all over the Northeast USA, mostly along or close to shoreline areas. They are also known as Monk Parakeets. You can find them as far north as New Haven, Connecticut.

I've heard a million stories about where the colonies got started... one of them involved PT Barnum and the parrots escaping. They live in large colonies and make a lot of noise, although they are pretty to look at. I've heard they got their start in Bridgeport, Connecticut in a seaside area called "St. Mary's By the Sea".

Getting back to the main point - mosquito borne diseases... it's not hard to imagine them arriving on aircraft. Suppose a mosquito gets squashed on a windshield of a jet... the eggs inside would survive the six hour flight from Africa and possibly be washed off by the rain into a swampy area. After all, Tiger mosquitoes came over in the residual water in used tires shipped to America for re-treading.

However, if you want to pin this one on Castro and Saddam, hey, why not?

[hellinahandcart]

However, if you want to pin this one on Castro and Saddam, hey, why not?

But I don't want, I don't want. I think that's silly.

I was just shocked to see all the parrot nests this year in mr. hellinahandcart's old neighborhood, that's all. They weren't there last year. I just wondered how there could suddenly be such a number of parrots living wild. "Breeding quite happily" is an understatement.