Area Description

On the west side of the red-tailed hawk's property is the Guadalupe River. It's actually a creek, which could turn into a raging river during a heavy winter rainstorm, but used to run dry in the summertime. It is now stream-sized, fed by waters originating in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and then transported by channels carved throughout the Sacramento Valley. The Guadalupe River serves as a corridor for a host of migratory and local animals. Within its waters are crawdads and frogs. As soon as the engineering corps completes its project to create a greenbelt along the banks, the Guadalupe will revert to being a run for salmon and steelhead trout, as it used to be many years ago.

Besides robins, white cranes, mallards, acorn woodpeckers, California quail and Canadian geese that come and go, the stable bird population includes hummingbirds, mockingbirds, mourning doves, owls and the raucous scrub jays. Our back fence is a runway for squirrels that our cats attempt but can rarely catch. The squirrels been seen in every color from blond to black, with reddish or gray tones being most common. It's not unusual to have raccoons or opossum visit us at night, especially if we forget and leave out the cat food. I've seen peacocks hop the fence during the day and, while drifting off to sleep, heard coyotes or smelled a fox as it made its rounds. Smaller critters abound, like gopher snakes, lizards, salamanders and toads.

The blue gum eucalyptus trees shed leaves and bark so much that it covers the ground directly beneath them. But beyond, the ground is covered with grasses. Especially during the spring months, I've seen yarrow, buttercups, clover, lupine, mustard and scarlet pimpernel. The California poppies, I even encourage to grow in my garden. The dandelion greens are too bitter for me, but the miner's lettuce is edible and yummy in salads.

The grounds near the Guadalupe used to be an orchard; so volunteer plum and olive trees find it easy to grow. So does poison oak, if the ground is not tilled. Some California Black Walnuts have now attained heights even taller than the towering eucalyptus. After this year's wet spring, there were a zillion little acorns sprouting, the progeny of the nearby Coast Live Oaks. Hence the name of our neighborhood park on the east side: Thousand Oaks.