Yesterday morning I woke up in a hotel room near the JFK airport in New York. I was on the 12th floor, the top floor of the hotel. As I opened the curtains to let the morning light flood into the room, I looked out over the city scape and the airport. Then the most incredible thing happened.
From above and behind me, presumably from the roof of the hotel, a swarm of birds, maybe 30 or 40 in all, fluttered out and dove down and away from me. They were all large, green parrots with yellow beaks. I had to pinch myself to make sure it really happened.
I didn’t know parrots flocked.
I didn’t know there were wild parrots in America.
I didn’t know there were swarms of parrots in New York City in cold November.
But there they were.