Parrots, Peacocks, and Pasadena

Yesterday I looked out our window to see several parrots on the telephone wire. This afternoon when Kevin and I were at a nearby park, we were distracted from our reading of The Giver by a loud flock of birds. I thought they were some kind of blackbirds, but Kevin swore they looked green. Sure enough, when they rose from the trees and flew overhead, we realized they were nothing other than a whole flock of parrots. This hardly seems like a jungle/parrot friendly environment. Local legend says that many of the parrots escaped from a 1959 bird farm fire. Some also probably escaped or were let loose by their owners. Since then, or whenever the parrots went wild, they have formed into 5 flocks –get this—a total of around 1200 birds! (According to the Parrot Project of Los Angeles) So we have parrots in Pasadena.

But then that could be fitting. In Arcadia, the next town over, wild peacocks wander the streets. When I have gone to visit the Brennans, I have seen several wandering through yards in a nearby neighborhood. Apparently they were imported from India by the founder of Arcadia in the early 20^th century and found the town a great place to live. The city of Arcadia even puts out a pamphlet entitled “Peafowl in Arcadia: Living with Arcadia’s Wild Birds.” It includes sections like “What do I do if peacocks keep returning to my yard?” and “In the Garden: Peafowls dislike these plants.”

So yes, it’s an interesting place to live.