When it rained last month, and rained again and then rained some more, a little miracle happened here in Malibu. This triangle of land in the southwest corner of town filled up with water. No surprise, really, as it's a designated flood zone, part of an ancient wetland that, decades ago, got filled in to make solid ground for development.

But now it's been reclaimed by nature. Without a bit of human help, it's a wetland again. Well, biologists might argue it takes more than a persistent puddle to earn that title. Still, here it is, a boggy, marshy stretch where over the weeks we've seen ducks and egrets, herons and hawks who hunt and rest and swim.

It's shrinking, this little wetland, getting smaller as the dry days go by. But right now it looks like this, very real, very right.