I've been living next to this bush for 7 years and I don't know what it is.
Yes, that's a douglas squirrel on the railing, but the bush behind him with
the red berries is a mystery. It survives the summer droughts, and the
winter floods (when we get the pinapple express rain), and it's spreading,
via the red berries. Nothing eats the berries, not even the deer mice, but
in the summer it's covered with bees, wasps and yellow jackets or hornets (I
can't tell them apart
going for the nectar. I've even seen rufous
hummingbirds try for the nectar from the little flowers, yet I can't smell a
thing (and I don't smoke).
This is a recent photo, the leaves fall off in the winter, most of them.