Today was a lovely rainy day. Lovely to stay home and not do much of anything, with time to watch the bird feeder I made last week. A pole with a tray on top stuck in a very bushy rose bush. P was home as well and he first noticed the birds. Last week in Malibu we bought black sunflower seeds on purpose to have a real gourmet treat for the birds, but until today there was little interest. The first guests were house sparrows and white-crowned sparrows and they are great fun to watch.
Later in the day we had a larger critter looking for a snack: our neighborhood squirrel, who also loves sunflower seeds, and can quickly eat a whole dish full. I chased him off about seven times and am now thinking about how I can make a cage for the feeder so he can’t get to the seeds anymore. There are lots of trees in the neighborhood with fruit for him to munch on and he even likes to eat roses.
In the afternoon we went for a quick walk on the beach since it was dry for a while. Of course it started raining right away when we got there but luckily not very hard and we had a nice walk. Here too lots of birds.
Birds must like rainy weather. I’ve never seen so many plovers and sand pipers, with the occasional tern and gull. Also geese in the water and a few pelicans flying by. (even an airplane now and then).
Tomorrow I’m going to show you some of the pictures I made this last weekend in San Clemente, where we stayed at the state park on the bluff above the beach.
cliffhangercarol 
Hi! I have a random question for you. The picture at the top of the page has red checkered plates with green trim. I have been looking all over for those exact plates! Where did you get them? Lol!
Hi Megan, they’re melamine plates that I picked up in a thrift store (in Ventura CA) a number of years ago. Unfortunately I don’t know where they came from originally. I’d never seen them before and haven’t seen them anywhere since. I hope you’ll find them and if you do, let me know!