From my bedroom windows and from the balcony bordering the den I can watch a dozen tiny, brown birds bathing at the edge of  the kids’ wading pool below then shaking themselves dry and preening in the three small pine trees which are very close to the apartment. The palm trees of various species, with fronds waving in the wind, aren’t suitable perches for the birds. They favor the textured, skinny, horizontal branches of the young pines which aren’t moved much by breezes.

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