A Lightning Strike and Noisy Parakeets

Yesterday afternoon we experienced a fierce lightning storm with torrential rain. I was in the kitchen when I saw out of the kitchen window a red and orange fireball followed by an ear splitting crash of thunder.

You can imagine how fast I departed that room! Looking around outside today, we saw the tree that the lightning had hit. It was in the vacant lot below us. Bark had been stripped from it, some of which was blown onto our property.

Here’s the tree - you can see where the bark has been stripped off:

Debris on our patio walkway:

The strike even blew a piece of bark around the corner of our house, where it landed on this bush:

On a less scarier note, last week a huge flock of parakeets landed on this same tree and held a noisy convention for a good while. As you can see from the video I made, they are hard to identify because they blended so well into the green leaves. My best guess is that they were crimson-fronted parakeets, the most common parakeet in the Central Valley, where we live. If anyone can make a more definitive identification please let me know.

Turn up the sound!

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