April 13, 2026

Where: the neighborhood

When: 2:00pm

Bird Species: American robin, house sparrow, house finch, common grackle, European starling, pileated woodpecker, blue jay

Things I Thought About:

• I love what a universal leveler Taskmaster is. I love that it looks like Kumail Nanjiani might be bad at doing tasks (complimentary.) Only once in 21 series have I actively disliked a contestant at the end of a series, which is kind of remarkable when you consider that's 100 comedians, which as a group can be a trial.
• Two birds I absolutely did not see or hear in the national wildlife refuge were the house sparrow and the house finch. Perhaps aptly named after all.

• I used the expression "enough to make a cat laugh" yesterday and that's another one that I guess I and no one else has ever said out loud.
• I walked around a building in my own complex and scared off a pileated woodpecker that was right there, on a beautifully picturesque felled tree, not fifty feet away. Now he is right there, across the ravine, on a picturesque playground, behind picturesque chain link fencing. This blows.

• I have been following a kid who is posting every day of his Appalachian Trail hike. I know four thru-hikers, and two more from online, which is a pretty high body count for someone as chuggsy and disinclined to sleep outside as I am.
• I am interested in these videos, from a day-to-day perspective. He's about a quarter of the way in and I feel like I could have done some of it? It looks super pretty, and only a few sheer drops to certain death so far. Some days it looks relatively flat, green and gorgeous, and I say "I could have handled today" and then he closes the video and it says "19.2 miles" and no thank you. I did 24,313 steps yesterday and my hip is killing me.
• I am very prone to this syndrome. Watching a guy hike the AT: should I hike the AT? Watching Physical:100: should I take up combat sports? The only follow through I've ever mustered is watching GBBO: should I bake a cake? Right now, this moment?
• See, this blue jay right here is the perfect example of the difference when I say "I found this blue jay" versus "I found that king rail." This guy was screaming his head off, and completely hidden from me in a tangle of branches and brush, and do you know what I had to do? Walk over and circle the tree. It took like a minute and fourteen seconds. I staked out that rail for almost an hour.

• I...did not file my taxes this weekend.
• This is heavily cutting into my plans to be asleep in the bed with a heating pad by 9:00pm.

BOTD: the common grackle. I had a really sweet half hour watching them this weekend, but there were so many other birds that are difficult to find locally that I didn't feature them, though they had probably earned it. They are really climbing the charts with me lately, especially since I reliably see them in town as well as around here. This one was just especially eye-catching, glowing all satiny midnight blue on the spring grass. It's startling how vivid that bright yellow eye can be, even at a fair distance like this.