Birdland in Castro Valley?

Your Boulevardier has been chained to his desk -- fortunately these days, not literally -- but today he did venture forth briefly to walk with the Trusty BoulevarDog to the post office and Trader Joe's.

The Chinese Pistache trees along the Boulevard near Redwood Road are about to burst into fall color. Their seed pods are already ripening to a torrid fuschia, and on Tuesday afternoon around dusk the trees were loaded with tiny singing birds, eating their fill.