HERE THEY COME AGAIN!

San Diego is a city noted for hosting the U.S. Navy and Marines. In short, it is a military city. There is however, a small group which also resides here. While it is not quite as visible, it can easily be heard throughout the area. I am referring specifically to the Parrots of Ocean Beach. These spring visitors are quite comfortable as they descend upon us in small groups, of between two and twenty. I will stop teasing you and identify these characters as migrating Mexican Parrots. No one is quite sure how they first got here. Some say they escaped from a pet store during a fire, but good authorities say this is untrue. I do not care how they got here. I am simply delighted to see them each year. According to those who study these parrots, they have remained here all year due to the pleasant climate, which suits them quite well.

They are most visible here during the spring. I always hear them before I see them. They have bright green feathers with a touch of red and yellow. They are amusingly loud squawkers which fly overhead, announcing their arrival with an apparent large measure of parrot pride. Of course it is not possible to determine if they have such emotions as pride, but I am going to share them with you in this story as if they have the same traits and speech as the rest of us, who remain earthbound. Using your imagination always makes a better story, I suspect. Did you know that the Spanish word for parrots is loros? I saw some in a tree outside my window one afternoon. It is true that they are loud, but they are also playful and very entertaining.

Some people don't like them because they wake them up early in the morning and can be very noisy. I don't care. I love them. I wonder what mischief these rascals can get into. Let's see.

I will begin by giving them names and personalities. As the story develops, you will see how they get along in our special neighborhood. The first character is Marisol, a female parrot, who is the leader because she is the smartest. There is Burro, who is as stubborn as a teenager and must be convinced to follow directions. He's young. He'll learn. There is also the very aged and wise Carlos, who though old, is very capable of giving excellent advice. He arrived a little later this year because he needs to rest more, along the way. There will also be other characters as time goes on, to whom you will be introduced. I hope you will enjoy this temporary escape from reality, for a while and enjoy the adventures that are about to happen.

NOISY NEWPORT

My friends and I were walking down Newport Avenue one morning, when we heard this loud squawking noise. Suddenly a group of four or five green, Mexican Parrots flew overhead. It was as if they were in the middle of a noisy argument during which they all squawked at once. They didn't appear angry, but excited as they flew by, flapping their little green wings rapidly. We had to laugh at this site. They appeared to flap their wings at an accelerated speed as if their round, fat, short bodies required more than the average effort of other birds. Maybe that's why they were squawking so much. They may have been thinking,

"I hate this! We're birds aren't we? Why is it so hard to fly?"

We wondered where they were headed because the street ended at the beach, where they would encounter large, hungry seagulls, which will eat anything. They surprised us and flew off to the left heading in a direction which left us wondering where they were headed.

HUNGRY PARROTS VS. BARKING DOG

Now we are ready to approach the subject from the point of view of the parrots. Let's see what they were thinking. Marisol, the leader, had to talk loudly because they were all making so much noise. She had to shout to the others, "Follow me, so we can find a fruit tree. I'm starving and I just love those Kumquats we had last year. They were delicious!" They all did as directed and followed Marisol up the hill. "There it is!" yelled Burro. He decided to head right for the Kumquats without even waiting. Marisol knew he was headstrong and yelled, "Stop, you little Burrito!" There is a dog in that yard!" Burro paid just enough attention to swoop up over the dog's head as it leaped into the air, just inches from Burro's little legs. He almost got caught by the jaws of the barking beast. Then they circled the tree and landed on the top, to avoid being caught by the dog. Carlos said, "Burro, you have got to listen to Marisol, when she gives us directions. You were almost a snack for that puppy!" Burro responded with, "Hey, I'm fine, no problema." He appeared to be quite full of himself.

Later, one of the younger parrots started moaning. "Oh, I ate too much.... I have a tummy ache." This parrot had a tendency to complain and Marisol once told Carlos that she believed that Leticia seemed to enjoy poor health. They laughed at that time, but now Marisol advised her to eat slowly and relax. That seemed to help, for the time being. So they all settled down to eat and relax. After all, it's a long trip coming from Mexico.

Meanwhile, the frustrated dog shouted to the birds in the tree, "Hey, who said you could eat my fruit?" Burro replied, "We don't need to ask, we just eat what we want. It's free for us." The dog answered, "We'll see about that. I'll just bark and my master will come out and scare you off with the hose!" Burro was feeling very brave, since he was at the top of the tree and well out of reach. He replied, very sarcastically, "Oh, I'm so scared", he said weakly. Marisol had enough of Burro's annoying behavior and shushed him.

Suddenly a man came out of the house and spoke to his dog. "What's the matter, boy?" The dog barked and looked up at the tree. "Oh, I guess they're back, huh?" The man patted the dog on the head and the dog wagged his tail, signaling appreciation. Next, the man got the hose and started spraying as high as the hose would go. Naturally, the parrots were way out of range.

Marisol announced that it was time to go Leticia squawked at Burro saying, "Thanks a lot, bigbeak! I was just eating a delicious Kumquat." Marisol said, "I thought you had a stomach ache, Leticia." "It went away," Leticia responded softly. They flew away to look for another fruit tree, which would be no problem since there is an abundance of fruit trees in Ocean Beach. The man put the hose away and went back into the house with his watchdog.

WHAT'S THAT SOUND?

After soaring and squawking for half an hour, the family of parrots found a suitable tree in which to rest, for the remainder of the evening. The following morning as the sun came up, Marisol heard a mournful sound coming from another part of the enormous tree, in which they had settled for the night. She began to wonder, "What is that pitiful sound? I hope Leticia didn't overdo the eating and has developed another stomach ache." she continued listening and flew over to the section of the tree from which the sound was coming. She spotted a pair of doves. One of them was making the mournful sound. "What's wrong?" she asked. The two doves looked up and on said, "Nothing's wrong. We're just singing." Marisol told them she thought they were sad because of the mourning sounds. "Yes, we get that a lot" replied the other dove. "We are Mourning Doves and that is the sound we make upon getting up in the morning." "Actually, we're on our way to make our...