One of my favourite classic films was The African Queen, with the wild and uncouth Humphrey Bogart and the prim, proper and very neat Katherine Hepburn. Their journey through the wildest of Africa on an open boat - from river rapids to swamps was filled with drama and romance - a perfect film as far as I’m concerned. I remember many years back when I visited the Florida Keys seeing the original boat outside one of the hotels - much smaller than I imagined. Pretty wonderful nonetheless.

About 18m ago I moved to Twickenham and discovered there are a number of small islands in the middle of the Thames. One, Eel Pie island, is close by and has a nature reserve on it where thousands of amazing, bright green parakeets live. Of course it’s obvious that parakeets aren’t native to the area so I did a little research….

Apparently they’re a legacy from the film itself! I read that some of the swamp scenes were actually filmed at an island called Brentwood Ait and to lend authenticity to the filming a number of these bright birds were brought in - and decided they’d stay. They must have chosen to nest at Eel Pie because of its nature reserve.

With my burgeoning interest and fascination for filming all I come across while I’m out on my meditative walks along the stunning riverbanks I decided to see if I could create a mini documentary about these startlingly vivid
birds. Even though there are so many of them and you can catch sight of them all over the area, they’ve been surprisingly challenging to catch on camera. They seem to wait long enough for me to turn it on, look through the lens and then teasingly off they fly.

This morning I saw one high up in the crook of a tree and I thought maybe I should just ask if I can film it. So in my head I sent my telepathic request. I got some footage! I think this one has a nest and is feeding some youngsters so I’ll keep an eye on that. Then, blow me down, a few hours later, one turned up outside my window, calling to me to attract my attention. He then gave me a couple of lovely minutes watching him eat.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.