A little piece of paradise…
It means different things to different people. It has to do with a mindset sometimes. Perhaps just the ability to appreciate the smallest joys in life give us the greatest rewards:) Those wonderful little bits of nature hidden in the city and some kind souls as well. We call this the “zombie apocalypse block, without the zombies”…there is Myrtle, our 5th wheel at the end of the block, on the left, in a space that once probably held a trailer, that then had a house built over it, that was then torn down. There are many empty spaces here now that once held trailers with houses built around them, a few still exist, some have been replaced with actual small houses, beautifully kept, adorned with colourful Mexican tiles and no trailer, but the ones that are still here are very cool. Travel trailers from the 50’s and 60’s with porthole windows and curbed ends, throwbacks to a more artistic, rather than, “how cheap can we make them” time.
Now about the zombie thing, we are perhaps 95% of the time here on our own, not a soul on the block other than the security guard who rides his bike down the road a few times a day and an occasional group of walkers out for their morning constitutional chatting away as they pass us by….ah…I like that peace:) This is the low rent district, this street, of the Estero Beach “permanentes” where they have so graciously allowed us to back up our trailer and stay for months at a time…and only a short walk away…
…at the other end of the street, is the estuary. At high tide the small sand beach can be covered in hundreds of Marbled Godwits (who invented that name?) and Willets, often joined by a huge flock of Pacific Skimmers. At low tide you can walk for miles and mingle with the Egrets and Herons fishing in the tide pools with the curlews and sandpipers, so much nature, so close. At sunset the colours reflect off the water sitting in the pools, it is magic.
At the edge of the estuary the Kestrels nest with a Kingfisher close by, Terns fly over fishing in the shallow pools and the Ospreys are busy gathering nesting material. The Red Tail Hawks have been circling, you can hear their “kee,kee,kee” call from afar. It is a magic cacophony of bird calls filling the air on any given day, during the week mixed with the roar of the Mexican military “Texanos” planes, North American T-6’s that the Mexican military use here for training, they land and take off all day, buzzing about, man made birds.
The trees and bushes along the paths and between the rows of the houses are full of life. The “LBB’s”, little brown birds, better than “LBJ’s” Mike pointed out, could be taken out of context…dirty minds;) House Sparrows and Finches mix with the Doves, Kingbirds, Flycatchers and the ever chatty Mockingbirds.
Feathered life that is, although the other night a rather large skunk ambled across the small brick road here going from one house to another…oh, and those hummingbirds! We had Mr. Anna’s, and finally the ladies have shown up this week. A surprise visitor was an Allen’s perched in the trees a few days ago. A beauty. Waiting for the Costa’s to make an appearance before we head North now!
An array of dogs and cats share this space, mostly loose, they come by and visit. Some from the town, a mother followed by her pups ambling across the tidal flats. The small white dog down the road has made friends with Rocket, Gamora is still intent on killing him;) Benito, the local orange cat is a bit wary now after he tried to attack Gamora, both Mike and Groot put the run on him and he only slinks around a night, as well as a large black cat who makes his rounds. Nina the blue eyed super model cat lives down the road as well, she comes out to say hello when I have wandered by her abode. Our furry guys do love the beach, a giant Kitty Litter…should we warn the small children playing there;)…nah! All a a part of life!
Well, I’ve gone on long enough…I will be running into TLDR group soon…too long didn’t read….for the short attention span theater out there;) I did my rant a few days ago so, no more about that, I may have offended a few…ha! Hope you enjoyed the small slice of life here:)
Saludos amigos-stay tuned for some Baja food, let’s get ready to drool!!!
What an Amazing spot you have found to park Myrtle for the winter! The birds are amazing and as usual your pictures are totally perfect! I have been enjoying my winter birds that show up at my backyard feeders daily and I am happy to do what I can to keep them fat, happy and warm. We get a ton of enjoyment watching their shenanigan’s as they jockey for position on the feeders. Sadly we witnessed a cooper’s hawk attack a morning dove right at our feeder and gleefully pluck all the feathers then fly away with her spoils! It was an amazing site nonetheless! I have had a change of email address FYI. Look forward to your next post. XO