The Nesting Instinct

With New Year's Eve falling on a Thursday, it's likely that many Castro Valleyans -- at least those with means -- have blown the burg and are settled in elsewhere for what amounts to a four-day weekend. Others are staying close to home, of course. Some of us -- Your Boulevardier falls into this third category -- find ourselves flitting about like overwintering birds between leafless trees, rather than settling into one spot for an extended period. While cozying into a nest may be appealing, circumstances prevent it.



The inviting small bird nest seen here is in one of the Chinese Pistache trees on the Castro Valley Boulevard side of the Safeway parking lot. For now it is vacant, but one can imagine that with the return of warmer weather -- and some leaf cover -- it will be reoccupied by some LBB. (Confused? See the third definition.) The aerie is much smaller than the photo seems to indicate; nothing is in the picture to provide viewers with a sense of scale. For the record, it's no more than 2 inches wide. That's the Sunflower restaurant in the background.

Sighting this nest the other day served as a reminder that now is a good time for bird aficionados to check trees for nests. Big nests high in deciduous trees are easy to spot in winter, and smaller nests near eye level can be mentally tagged for future checking when spring returns.

However readers are spending the first few days of 2010 -- whether nesting or flying about -- Your Boulevardier wishes you a happy new year.

Crowing about Rowells

Don, the fiberglass horse that stands guard outside of Rowell's Saddlery, has a new friend -- a large-headed scarecrow. Your Boulevardier does not know if the smiling new fellow is a temporary or permanent addition to the shop's publicity team, but we're certain Don enjoys the companionship on chilly days like today.



("Don," by the way, is Your Boulevardier's name for the horse; the handle was bestowed in honor of Don Guillermo Castro, who once owned the valley in which our town now resides. Yes, Your Boulevardier is aware that "Don" is, in this case, a title, not a name. Work with me, people.)

Boom Town

Your Boulevardier sat on his back deck for a while this morning, watching the thunderstorm over the hills east of Castro Valley. The storm is great free entertainment, though one suspects it makes the organizers of the Fall Festival a little nervous.

Addendum: The Subcompact Loaner is my houseguest this weekend, and on our morning walk we saw a white opossum. A bit of Googling reveals that "An albino variation is not an uncommon sight" in opossums.

Still, between the weird weather and the unusual wildlife encounter, it's feeling like a strange day already.

Traffic Gets One's Goat

Your Boulevardier was driving home from Oakland last evening around 9:45 p.m., but when he reached the mouth of Castro Valley -- just past the 164th Avenue offramp, and before 238 splits into downtown Hayward and west to San Lorenzo -- traffic came to a halt. Not just a slowdown, mind you; it was a shut-off-the-car-get-out-and-chat-with-other-motorists dead stop. After about 15 minutes it cleared, just as quickly as it had occurred. (We were allowed to continue east on 580, but vehicles were prevented from going on 238 in either direction.)

A traffic report on the radio a few minutes later announced the culprit: a herd of goats had gotten loose on the freeway! However, Your Boulevardier has not been able to find any other confirming media reports of this event. If readers hear anything, please post details in the comments.