If you've seen the film "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill", you can appreciate what a rare oddity it is that a huge flock of these exotic birds lives in and around the Coit Tower in San Francisco. (and if you're from the area, you can can also appreciate the even greater oddity that a Telegraph Hill couple (read: $$$) allows a random homeless dude to live in the "in-law" apartment on their property and feed said parrots. They cynic in me can only the calculate liability...).
Anyhow, down here in "God's Country" we calibrate our interaction with nature to a more mundane scale. Grey squirrels. Raccoons. The occasional possum. Turkey Vultures and Roosters.
But, behold! Today -- at the Sunnyvale Trader Joe's (the one across from the Haunted Toys R Us) -- there were two parrots hanging out right over the front entrance. I've never seen them before, and have no idea if they are regulars, or simply on a little jaunt from SF to get away for the weekend.
Sadly, I had my camera -- but in the time it took me to wrestle it out of its case, they had flown over the backside of the OSH and were gone. So I had to thieve the above pic from IMDB.
So if you're a Sunnyvalien, be on the lookout for these (new?) Amazonian friends.