April 4, 2004
We went directly from winter to summer, and the heat produced early blooming of citrus trees all over town. For about a week and a half, the air was heavy with the sweet, sensual fragrance of grapefruit and tangelos. Then, just as suddenly as it got hot, it got cold (fifties and sixties) and very windy and then rainy. Rainy! This time of year! Very unusual. Anyway, our backyard is littered with the debris of gazillions of citrus blossoms. At first they looked like snowflakes, but now they just look gross.

Lots of bird action over on the River Walk. More mockingbird skirmishes, hawks soaring, the Great Blue Heron flying around, goldfinches eating seeds. Lots of bird songs, too.

Saw a very interesting bit of non-bird action day before yesterday. A flock of four bicycle cops stopped, talked to a woman, got off their bikes, looked to where she was pointing in the riverbed. I saw a cop pull out his handcuffs… and use them to attach the bike to the railing along the bank.

Finally, yesterday I saw the first black chin of the season! A beautiful male, feeding from the feeder outside my office window.