And so it is new year...2009. The year began for me in a suburb of Detroit, where it snowed a few inches, beautifully. I took a walk on New Year's Day, and the streets of Royal Oak were empty; there was cold wind at my back. Most of the stores, of course were closed for the day, though a few were shuttered for good. Not a bird or woman or man on the streets. A kind of loneliness that's entirely foreign to Los Angeles, which is lonely in different ways.

But in some ways, Detroit's winter desertion is our gain: I got back Friday night to find the following email in my inbox from Chicken Corner's inveterate waterfowl correspondent, Martin Cox:

The Bufflehead joined the Northern Shovelers on a new years day bird fest AND! ... a Black necked Stilt was seen at the boat house AND the first 5 mallard chicks, the earliest Ever in the year. It's bird madness here.

That's Echo Park Lake birds, some of them visiting from up north (perhaps even Detroit).

Speakingof which, tomorrow morning, Jan. 4, is the annual bird count at Echo Park Lake. Judy Raskin, birder and community activist, posted on a neighborhood list:

Echo Park Lake, meet at the Boathouse at 8:00 a.m. I did a preview walk/run through and discovered some goodies that I hope will be around on Sunday -- Vaux's swifts, ring-billed gulls and herrring gulls. Your eyes may be better than mine and we'll find some other rare-to-the-lake species.

After a week in the far north, Chicken Corner was glad to get back to Cali. I took a walk to reacquaint myself, saw that the grass on Kite Hill had grown about two inches, many of the walnut trees had lost their leaves but still dangled walnuts, which had turned black -- a counterpart to the dead Christmas Trees, with their lively, colorful ornaments. All over the neighborhood Christmas lights are still on display, some lit even in daytime. In my absence (I think) the restaurant named 15 turned into a restaurant named the Allston Yacht Club. Read it again, if you blinked -- the Allston Yacht Club in Echo Park. One thing hadn't changed: Magic Gas gas station was still out of gas, with "no gas" signs taped to the pumps. The graffiti that has been popping up on walls up and down Echo Park Avenue -- and on streets nearby -- had been painted over and not renewed. Before Christmas, people had been saying the high number of tags and tag-outs between two local gangs meant we could expect a shooting very soon. I haven't heard of that happening, so far. Other things I saw: people walked their dogs, and walked their own bodies. They walked to and from their cars. It all looked normal circa 2009.