At the little restaurant where we get Sunday breakfast, there are a couple dozen eucalyptus trees in the parking lot.
Yesterday I found the entire parking lot littered with thin strips and patches of eucalyptus bark as the whole grove had decided to shed together almost overnight.
Eucalyptus are non-native to SoCal, but they grow well here and they’re everywhere. As invasive species go, they’re not terrible.
The fact that they anually shed their bark is a bit of a nuisance since the stuff gets everywhere and is a mess to clean up.
The bigger problem is that, either on the ground like this or still clinging to the trunk of the tree, this thin, paper-like bark is highly flammable. When a brush fire starts, these things go up like Roman candles.
What I was REALLY looking for as I got back to the car was the red tailed hawk that was making quite the racket somewhere in the treetops thirty feet above me. I never saw him, but the food chain is obvious. There’s a grocery store here, several restaurants, large trash bins spilling over with food, and all of that attracts seagulls. Fat, slow, well fed seagulls keep red tailed hawks well fed.
The laws of unintended consequences, urban shopping mall version!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 