On Memorial Day weekend my neighbors noticed a tiny leak coming from their retaining wall.  Within a day the leak had grown and caused the land to subside near the wall.  The city-water pipe is leaking from the area near their water shut-off.

Since then the leak has grown into a creek while we wait for the water company to dig up the street and replace the pipe.

The neighbors aren’t happy but the birds are loving it.  Grackles, robins, starlings, mourning doves, song sparrows, cardinals, and house sparrows visit the water feature every day.  They bathe and drink and run through the stream.

They’re the only ones who will miss it when it’s gone.

(photo by Kate St. John)