CITIES OF THE DEAD IS ACTUALLY THE WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES

For the creatures who call them home, cemeteries are not gloomy places, rather, they luxuriate with life.

• Foxes trot past the crypts at Palo Alto's Alta Mesa. Western bluebirds soar over the grassy lawns of San Jose's Oak Hill. Swallows flit through Calvary Cemetery in East San Jose. In Saratoga, deer wander through the elegant gates of Madronia Cemetery.
• After mourners depart Santa Clara's Mission City, mischievous squirrels steal silk flowers from headstones and use them away to build cozy silk-lined nests.
• Then, with winter's gusty winds, "we see flowers raining out of the trees," says operations superintendent Larry DeJanvier.
• Preserving acres of open space, the region's burial grounds are swaths of green in a sea of concrete and asphalt. With spectacular shade trees, winding walkways and fountains, they are sanctuaries not just for the dead but for nature lovers and history buffs.
• Their headstones tell tales of things both illustrious and illicit, many bearing familiar names that identify today's streets, schools, buildings and landmarks, such as Bernal, Overfelt, Curtner, Lawrence, Eichler and Packard.
• But they are remarkable not only for their stately monuments, but also their natural habitats. The mature trees provide seeds and nuts; lawns hold tasty grubs and other insects; water sprinklers create puddles, quenching thirst.
• This spring, Audubon Society volunteer Kate Gudmundson peered into one of Mission City's many bird boxes and discovered bluebird eggs — five of them! — small and oval-shaped, smooth and glossy.
• And so springs a new generation, in this land of the dead.

Source: Mercury News