Free-range Parrots - a meeting with John Strutt in Cumbria

By Dorothy Schwarz, Article appeared in 'Parrots magazine' October 2001

Scarlet macaw hanging around in the gutter.I'd first heard of John Strutt in 1999 via an Internet Forum - For the Love of Greys. I was seeking advice on free flying my baby CAG hen but the subscribers advised me to clip Artha 'for her own safety.' In one message I was told that someone in UK free flies a flock of greys. The writer doubted whether it was possible. Fifteen months later, I had tracked John down via The Parrot Society and he had invited me to Cumbria to see for myself.

So in June, we were driving from the railway station down blossom-edged lanes through the nearest village. Four blue and gold macaws swept past our car going in the same direction. It was like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
'Some of ours going home,' said John. Artha on my shoulder, wearing a harness, might have looked wistful if parrots can show that emotion.

John Strutt has kept a mixed flock of freeflying parrots and macaws for the last thirty years. His large house is situated outside the village and is backed by what was once its own farmland. John has turned the 600 acres into a conservation trust, which will eventually be open to the public.

Free ranging African Grey parrotThe parrots and macaws come and go freely over the property and the surrounding countryside. At present the flock of free flying birds is about 50. There are twenty macaws, nine African greys, seven Amazons and several other species. There are family groups, some bonded, others single. A Galah and an Australian king hen are both waiting for John to acquire mates for them.

The house is surrounded by its landscaped gardens with the aviaries 100 metres away. John designed them in the late eighties. Each enclosure is 20 foot square. Four on either side of a passageway. The feeding stations in each aviary are open at both ends and in the middle. 'You must have escape routes. I could have 100 parrots and they would be safe.'

Peanut the Arican Grey Parrot sitting on a lamp posIn addition there are some closed aviaries containing cockatiels and canaries. Another flock of cockatiels nest wild in hollow trees. During my visit I saw a crow pick off a baby cockatiel that had fledged out of doors. John was visibly upset. 'They have to learn to escape the crows.' He has no fear of predators for the larger species.
What began as a simple hobby has now become John's ruling passion. He is shy, modest man in his mid-sixties. He comes from a wealthy background but conservation has always been his dream and now he has realised it.
How had he started to free fly birds? This started simply enough in 1956.
'I had a pair of budgerigars that I kept in my parents' attic in Derbyshire. The female escaped. A week later she flew down to her mate that I had left in his cage in the garden.' From that small beginning he began to free fly all manner of small birds canaries, finches. He had about one hundred.
'I never had a role model,' he says. 'I learnt as I went on. In the beginning I made plenty of mistakes. I was on a learning curve.'

Cockatiel fouraging in the gardenHe came to live in Cumbria in 1968. 'I lost some of the budgies to hawks and realised I had to shut them up. I longed to free fly birds. I started with a pair of Rosellas brought from Henry Sissons which had been aviary bred. The pair was already bonded. My system was to let the hen free and let the cock call to her. I would leave out the hen until she was hungry. Once she learns that there is food in the aviary she will return within a day.'

He has used this system successfully to accustom other pairs of aviary-bred birds for free flight. But it doesn't work every time. 'There is such a thing as a non-homing parrot. They are bad fliers. They have to fly accurately and have controlled flight. If a bird can't turn easily - it can either be genetic or through the environment, it can lose its way home. I tend to believe that not being allowed to fly at the crucial moment - leaving the nest box or the nest is the cause of this. They can't relearn. They MUST be allowed to fly.' John calls these parrots 'brain-damaged.' They cannot readjust to freedom.

He showed me the beautiful Nijinsky, a scarlet macaw with a majestic bearing. Nijinsky stays all the time in the aviary although the side panels are not closed. 'I bought him having been told he was a good flyer. He had no ring. I don't know his history. He came over 18 months ago. He never flies.'

Yellow naped amazon watching the activities in the gardenWhen he started the free flying over 30 years ago he had some failures. He lost a pair of blue and gold macaws bred in Gloucestershire. He has found that wild-caught birds can be trained to his system readily. 'In the days when it was legal to import wild caught birds, they adapted far more readily to my system because they are accustomed to returning home.'

In 1972 John bought his present home Eden Place. He had enough capital to stop farming and develop the land as a conservation area and to increase the number of birds.

'People criticise me because I have inherited land but my system CAN be adapted.' John admits that the macaws and the African greys can be destructive. He has had to fortify his own windows with plastic guards. 'I get complaints that the macaws bite through TV aerials countless number of times.' He accepts responsibility and pays for any damage his birds do. 'To save endangered species by letting them free fly you have to consider their range. The macaws can fly for miles. Twelve is nothing to them and the greys sometimes go, too.'

Had he lost many birds?

'In the early days I've made mistakes but I don't lose birds now.'

Galah Carl enjoying the country sideA recent exception was two male roseate cockatoos. 'But I bought them in as mates for Narnia, my freeflying hen.' They did not adjust to freeflying and got lost.

Narnia is not only freeflying but very tame. She comes up to visitors for a head scratch and will follow you around the garden. 'She's really looking for a mate,' says John. He wants an adult bird that is a good flyer. Most of the birds in the present flock he has bred himself. They are parent-reared for the most part, although some are hand reared.

Does he lose any to strangers? 'No because they will only come to me or my helpers and friends. A few like Narnia the Galah, or Bubble, the hand-reared macaw will be friendly to strangers.

Having so many birds at liberty hasn't harmed John's relations with the local people. They enjoy seeing the birds; he's known as the parrot man. At the moment a macaw is nesting in the village in the chimney of an empty house. The cock returns each evening to bring food back for his family. John is hopeful that the chicks will fledge before the house is reoccupied.

African grey parrot relaxing in the afternoon sunshineThe flock are not considered from the DOE point of view as an escaped exotic species gone wild because, although they are not in cages, they are not self-sustaining and return every evening for feeding.

Their feeding system is carefully organised. Each aviary contains a central feeding station, a log and tray covered by a plastic canopy. A constant supply of sunflower seeds is maintained. This can be costly because of the numbers of starlings, jackdaws and other British birds who nip in for a quick snack. Every evening John goes down to the aviaries to welcome the birds back and distribute what he calls his 'porridge' with added treats like grapes and fruit and monkey nuts. John believes that this 'porridge', which he makes up every day, makes his birds fit enough to withstand the English climate. It consists of two sorts of egg food. Shelled sunflower seeds, cod liver oil, calcium, kelp and wheat germ powder.

Red bellied macaw in the shade of the treesSome of the birds fly around and garden and perch in the trees for most of the day; others fly off in the morning and return home in the evening. It was a spectacular sight to see family groups or couples perching in a tree, Mum, Dad and the young ones. When you walk in the garden the parrots are curious, friendly, not aggressive but less hand-tame than caged birds. John's attitude is that he is keeping the birds not for his pleasure but for theirs but the bond between them is clear to any observer. 'They come to me when they want to.'

During my visit I kept Artha free in the conservatory. Outside a mixed group of greys, Amazons, Narnia, the Galah and a macaw strutted on the patio, perched on the railings and pecked on the grass in mixed groups with additional doves and Mallards.

Why are the aviaries not closed at night? The reason was amazing. They were originally locked at night but in 1989, over a period of a couple of months, a stream of continual burglaries took place. At least nine birds were stolen. In spite of police watch and burglar lights no one was ever caught or charged. John has now instituted a system where the birds roost high in the trees from where they can't be stolen. The birds were prevented from roosting in the aviaries by the removal of the electric heaters and the nest boxes.
Up till the present only one has been lost to cold - one of a pair of amboynas kings got frostbite. He has no medical explanation of how the birds are able to adapt to the winter climate. 'They are fit, they fly and they are well fed,' he says. He showed me photographs of birds feeding on the patio with snow on the ground.
'They have their own internal clock. They arrive for their tea around three pm in winter and couple of hours later in summer.'

Several macaw flying at libertyMost of the 50 strong flock now consists of birds he has bred. There are about ten species. The African greys are eight in number, a couple of bonded pairs and some singletons. One of the Greys, Peanut, is bonded to John himself and will rush into the conservatory at the slightest opportunity and perch on his head. When he sits outside in the garden, the birds surround him and some sit on his knees. During my visit I watched William and his wild caught mate feed their chicks in a nest box high against the house wall. John won't know how many chicks there are until they fledge and leave the nest.

Blue and gold macaw with it's breakfastThere are other nest boxes built high up in old trees. Does he have any interspecies rivalry? 'It is never a serious problem because each feeding station has several exits; any bird can get away from bullying. One grey Joseph, however was killed by entering a macaws' nest box.'
Eden Place is now a charity trust. 'My aim is to have a flock of endangered scarlet macaws at liberty. It's not for profit. Any young will remain. When I am gone the trustees will sensibly decide what to do.' He hopes they will continue the breeding programme. The freeflying flock is not considered wild because they are not self -sustaining. They have to return to Eden Place for food.

After the raids in 1989 John brought in a pair of birds one of which carried parrot-wasting disease. He believes that the disease has worked its way through the flock and the present birds have developed immunity. One scarlet macaw is unwell. 'Her friend feeds her. I hope that she will recover. If she doesn't I will have a post mortem.'

He is confident that his methods work. 'I honestly believe that too much enclosing will end up with the birds losing the ability to breed. There is nothing for them to do. I truly believe the only way to preserve birds is to let them breed freely.'

African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) landing on the rooftop