California have millions of invasive species brought about by millions of immigrants along with the illegal hitchhikers from ballasts of cargo ships to crevices in the airplanes, name it, we got it! Our list is several thousand pages long if you care to read about those legislative actions. Sometimes innocent looking super clean boats that were dipped in the lakes in the east would simply spread notorious lake weeds and zebra mussels all over. some of the exotics were already naturalized and have equilibrated, but there are those new species that are always disrupting the purported balance. according to some point of view, humans are the worst invasive species, followed by their exotic crops planted in native lands.... Look at how gulf courses became so invasive on prime lands! Along with it comes excessive consumption of water, excessive fertilizer and chemical applications ... What an ecological disaster of all time.

Jean, the beginning of that recording is the first sound I hear every morning (at 5:10am today). I never knew it was a robin, until I went out one morning and actually saw it up in one of our trees. The last sound I've heard from a young robin that has been hanging around our yard. Every time the cat goes out to help me garden, there he is up in the tree, saying, "Incoming kitty! INCOMING KITTY!" LOL I'm sorry you had to deal with that situation, too, Bonz. I haven't had any nest raiders lately, but a couple years ago, I saw some combat between (get this) a hummingbird and a scrub jay. It seemed the jay invited himself to a party where he wasn't welcome. The hummer ran him off like nobody's business! Unfortunately, we also find some baby sparrows that have fallen out of their nests over night. Those are the ones I can't save, and I always get pretty bummed out when I find them in the morning. :( Brenda

You guys, the first launch I ever saw I was in Melborne on the beach at 6:30 in the morning with a bunch of on-line friends that decided to get together from all over the US, Canada and the UK! We all had terrible hangovers from the 3am partying the night before. I actually went in the ocean around midnight with all my clothes ON! The sight and sound that morning was most spectacular and did a lot to really sober us up. It was an awesome thrill to share with all these friends. The next day, the couple from England and I went to the space center, the rocket garden, etc. It was fascinating!

I found it. I thought it looked like a pheasant but nothing we have here. Your bird is FAR from home. It is the white-crested kalij pheasant. It is native to the Himalayan mountains. The kalij pheasant was also introduced to Hawaii in the 1960s.