One of the unexpected perks of my new place is being able to sit outside and enjoy a bit of Mother Nature. Even though I live just a few blocks from a major thoroughfare and freeway, the neighborhood feels surprisingly peaceful…for LA County anyway.
Most mornings I take my iPad out before sunrise and try to read.
The keyword is try. I rarely make it past a few pages before getting pulled into the 24/7 spectacle that is The Birds of Pasadena.
I don’t know the full backstory, but my place is only a couple of miles from the LA Arboretum, home to a menagerie of exotic birds—including peacocks.
At some point, some of those cocky peas wandered (or escaped) into the surrounding neighborhoods and decided to stay. They’re now protected…and I think they know it.
My street is crawling with them. Dozens of peacocks—males, females, and their chicks—strutting around like they own everything. Their calls are impossible to ignore—loud, screechy, and prehistoric.
Watching them, I often feel like I’ve wandered into a deleted scene from Jurassic Park.
They’re beautiful, magnificent—and loud as fuck. Every time one lets out its signature scream, it’s less a “pleasant bird call” and more a “velociraptor about to eat you alive.” After a little over a month of living here, I’m almost used to it now. Almost.
Balancing out the chaos are the hummingbirds. Tiny, shimmering, impossibly fast—they hover like little miracles, wings a blur as they sip delicately from flowers.
But don’t let the elegance fool you. These little birds are also scrappy as hell, fighting each other mid-air and dive-bombing any rival who dares invade their turf. Territorial to the ninth degree.
If the peacocks are dinosaurs, the hummingbirds are fighter pilots.
And then there’s the goddamn rooster. Because what urban neighborhood doesn’t need a fucking rooster? I hate him. My roommate hates him. Every neighbor I’ve met so far hates the rooster.
Morning, noon, midnight, the clueless motherfucker crows like a broken alarm clock. Oh, how I would love to toss him on the grill at El Pollo Loco. Cuz this crazy bird needs to fry in hell for waking everyone up and being so damn annoying all the time.
But I digress…to birds I actually enjoy and like: The flocks of wild parrots that streak across the Pasadena sky in sudden, squawking waves.
Families of Amazons, cockatoos, macaws, and African greys—likely refugees from the pet trade—have made Pasadena their home for decades. Or so the stories go….
When they swoop in formation and descend on a tree, it becomes a deafening riot of color and chaos, equal parts magic and mayhem.
So that’s my new morning routine. A little reading, a lot of birds, and a daily reminder that Pasadena is both paradise and pandemonium—sometimes at the same time.
Birds of a feather…let’s keep flocking together!
Clint 🌈✌️
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FOR YOUR (SUBSTACK) CONSIDERATION
ON THIS DAY = AUGUST 18
BIRTHDAYS
1750 = Antonio Salieri = Italian composer and conductor
1834 = Marshall Field = American businessman and Marshall Field's founder
1855 = Alfred Wallis = English painter and illustrator
1896 = Jack Pickford = Canadian-American actor and director
1901 = Harold Jackman = British-American teacher and model 🌈
1904 = Max Factor, Jr. = American businessman
1906 = Marcel Carné = French director and screenwriter 🌈
1920 = Shelley Winters = American actor
1936 = Robert Redford = American actor and filmmaker
1952 = Elayne Boosler = American actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 = Patrick Swayze = American actor and dancer
1957 = Denis Leary = American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1957 = Ron Strykert = Australian singer-songwriter
1958 = Madeleine Stowe = American actor
1961 = Bob Woodruff = American journalist and author
1962 = Adam Storke = American actor
1969 = Christian Slater = American actor and producer
1969 = Edward Norton = American actor
1970 = Malcolm-Jamal Warner = American actor and producer
1975 = Kaitlin Olson = American actor and comedian
1978 = Andy Samberg = American actor and comedian
1983 = Mika = Lebanese-born English singer-songwriter 🌈
EVENTS
1737 = The Salon de Paris art exhibition opens at the Grand Salon of the Louvre.
1783 = A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain.
1868 = French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.
1903 = German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
1920 = The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
1958 = Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the US.
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
PORTRAIT + QUOTE + VIDEO OF THE DAY
“The stage is my territory, my boxing ring. That's where I'm free.”
Mika
Indeed, Interesting!! When you think and see these exotic creatures, you can think "Paradise", although loud. In the Middle East, the peacock is the symbol of the Soul! I like this idea as the feathered intense highly coloured tail manifests itself when in full display!
That blood curdling screech…I can’t remember the last time I was so rattled! 🤬