Yesterday, unbeknownst to me, there was an asphalt spill on the Eastbound 210 causing a virtual shut down. However, I headed east at approximately 3pm to volunteer at the mentoring/tutoring project I coordinate in Pomona. An hour-and-a-half later, still not knowing the extent of the problem, I exited the freeway to take side streets which as any self-respecting Southern Californian native knows is always a mistake. The side streets (roughly between Monrovia/Duarte) were even more congested than the freeway. It was utter misery.
As I sat in a complete standstill on Huntington drive, I saw, appearing much like a mirage or a dose of magical realism, the illusive and mysterious parrots of Pasadena. Yes, resting serenely in a barren tree in the median of Huntington Blvd, were five or six bright green parrots with red heads. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was actually seeing but when they took flight moments later, it was unmistakably them. Ironically, I had been thinking of the birds lately hoping to snap a picture of them (alas yesterday I was SANS camera). .
When I first started grad school in Pasadena, my friend told me about the Parrots. I thought she was crazy. I changed my mind a season later when I moved to Pasadena – I finally saw them (more truthfully I heard them). It was bizarre and surreal and at the same time even for me a self-proclaimed bird hater a wonderful moment. Over the years I have seen them many times, but yesterday stuck in traffic they were a sort of encouragement to me. Certainly, I would have likely felt differently about them if I had been taking off from La Guardia Airport. I have seen them as far east as Monrovia/Duarte and as far south as Downtown LA (Bunker Hill to be specific). It is very wonderful to come upon them.
For those of you who doubt it possible to see bright green parrots more suited to a tropical jungle in the trees of the quite suburban San Gabriel Valley, most specifically Pasadena; Pasadena’s website backs up the story about the parrots existence.
http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/facts.asp
PS – Tomorrow I have an interview at a restaurant in Old Town, keep your fingers crossed.
4 comments:
I hope the restaurant is one i like and been to! Let them know you're a people person.
A couple of loco bloggers have written about the little old Parrots from Pasadena in the last year.
Good luck on your interview!!!
We've seen the parrots very near our house ... a good 10 miles east of Duarte.
Or maybe they're distant relatives.
At any rate, they are interesting!!
this is a great blog. I'm a Pasadena native.
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