Tijuana River Valley is Cooler Than You Think

As part of my little run-the-whole-coast project I was back there today - very green and woodsy, which I miss. Highlight: I saw three of the following gorgeous (and talkative) birds:



They were black-throated magpie jays, principally found in northwest Mexico. Since I was only about a mile from the border at the time and I couldn't make out the color at first, my first thought was that the U.S. was getting colonized by quetzales. But these guys are just as cool. Always neat when you see a critter that you've never seen before (even in photographs) and weren't expecting bio-novelty. Credit to LoveYourDog on Flickr not only for the picture but posting it with the species name so I could figure out what I'd seen.