Rain Boot Weather and Birdies

I'm back to California living. I thoroughly enjoyed the rain. It was big news around here, which made me smile because it was NOTHING compared to the thunderous rain of Haiku Maui or the perpetual sogginess of Portland Oregon. After being here for 3 months with rain only twice I started to miss the moisture. I would pop out of bed at 5am and gleefully watch the rain fall, as if it were as exciting as snow. But in California it seems that people treat the rain like snow--the roads get backed up with slow (!?) drivers, people pull off the roads, and there is minute-by-minute coverage and updates on the "conditions."

Ponds and lakes temporarily formed and I now understand the need for our neighborhood footbridge. I see now that this housing area was originally a swamp. Oh, and the earth is so much happier! When we arrived it was raining ash, and it was very brown. Now the grass is green and the trees have perked up. Birds are singing, frogs are croaking. I even put on my pink rubber rain boots and sloshed around in it.

And I've developed a brand new interest: birds! I've never given them any notice--other then shooing them out of the dog food bowl when growing up. But we're not talking sparrows, mynah birds, and withered old sea gulls here. No! Even the seagulls here are charming: they have a polished, classy look, unlike the sky-rodents to be found on Oregon's beaches.

I thought it was a stork, someone told me it was a crane, but after doing a bit of research I can confidently identify this creature found lurking in my garden several days in a row as:

A GREAT WHITE HERON (But the one I saw was bigger). I really love the groovy way it walked, with its long goosey neck.

We have hawks looming about too. With all of this wildlife I've seen some interesting exchanges: On my walk to the gym I saw a hawk swoop down and pick up a ground squirrel which was screaming its life away! Poor little guy was yelling for help. Then the next day I saw a comical looking vulture sitting on the sidewalk, casually working its way through a ground squirrel. And then last week a seagull dropped a rat in the street in front of our moving car!

Today I road my bike to the beach (which is a wildlife preserve) and saw an awesome sight. About 30 of these:
were chilling in some tide pools with a bunch of easygoing seagulls in the mix as well. The California Brown Pelican is an endangered species and nests on Santa Barbara island.

My hummingbird feeder has sprung a leak, but I still can watch those tiny darling things dart and dance around the courtyard just beyond our balcony. Who needs TV?

After being in the rural beauty of home and making fresh squeezed juice every day, I was fantasizing about finding a cabin in a nearby citrus grove and relocating. But this place is really growing on me. I might even break out the binoculars one of these days (I just don't want my neighbors to think I'm spying).