Parakeets wreak havoc at London vineyard

A flock of tropical parakeets has added insult to injury for London’s “only commercial-scale” vineyard, denting a harvest already severely impacted by this year’s April frosts.

There are thought to be around 50,000 brightly coloured, rose-ringed parakeets living in Britain.

As reported by the Evening Standard, Forty Hall Farm in Enfield was hit by flocks of the birds feasting on its grapes at harvest, which this year started on 19 September – “unexpectedly early” – due to the hot weather in June.

“In spite of strong winds and a late downpour last Wednesday, our volunteers successfully picked, weighed and transported over a tonne of Ortega and a further 400kg of Bacchus,” the team reported at the start of the harvest.

The Forty Hall Vineyard comprises 10 acres of land behind the Grade I listed Jacobean manor house, Forty Hall.

Speaking to The Standard, vineyard manager Liam Burgess said the cold weather in April had led to “a big drop in the volume of grapes growing”, with the arrival of the parakeets having the “same level of impact on the yield”.

“March was really warm, which meant that there was stronger growth than usual early in the year. But a sharp air frost in late April killed 80 to 90 per cent of the new shoots,” he said.

There are thought to be around 50,000 brightly coloured, rose-ringed parakeets living in Britain, with the majority based in London and Kent. While there are many sub species, their native home is the sub tropics in India and Africa.

How exactly they came to exist in England is still a mystery, with sightings increasing significantly in the mid-1990s throughout London and its suburbs, however there are three enduring theories.

One is that parakeets escaped from the branch of Ealing Studios used for the filming of The African Queen — Isleworth Studios — in 1951. Others believe some of the birds escaped from damaged aviaries during the ‘Great Storm of 1987’, while a more fanciful, but no less appealing theory, centres on the idea that a pair were released by Jimi Hendrix in Carnaby Street in the 1960s.

Forty Hall produces a range of organic (and is moving toward biodynamic) English wines made from grapes including Bacchus, Chardonnay, Ortega, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, as well as an English sparkling wine made in the traditional method. Of its whites, the vineyard produces two still white varietal wines: a Bacchus and an Ortega.