Yegparian: There’s a River There

Now that I’m commuting to work by bicycle almost every day, I get to ride beside the Los Angeles River for more than seven miles of my trip. The very notion of this river may elicit snickers and visions of frothing toxic flows accompanied by insufferable stenches. But it’s not so.

The river has mostly been channelized—a polite way of saying entombed in concrete. But I’m lucky enough that much of the portion I ride beside is natural bottomed, though it’s flanked by concrete—sloping or vertical—banks. Result? Trees and riparian growth that host quite a bit of avian life. I’m no birder, as you’ll be able to tell by the next sentence. But, there is quite a variety of feathered life that is there regularly, from the little birds you might see in a backyard; to ducks and things that look like oversized ducks; the ever-present urban crows; various wading birds with their long spindly legs; and seagull-like critters. I’d heard the river was quite rife with avifauna, but I had to see it to believe it.