April 20, 2026
Where: around my complex
When: 6:05 pm
Bird Species: American robin, house sparrow, house finch, northern cardinal, American crow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, pileated woodpecker
Things I Thought About:
- The young miscreants who live in the complex are playing soccer in the courtyard again, shirts and skins, which I did not think you did with soccer. It is 48 degrees.
- The grass is too long. It's official: I'm now an aging biddy who wishes to hound the condo association about the grass.
- I miss cutting the grass. It's wonderfully mindless. When you cut the grass, you can really see that you did something.
- Vacuuming floors is similarly satisfying. Maybe I'll do some vacuuming tonight.
- Oh my God I'm washed. It's 4/20, and I'm going to unwind with chores.
- Oh, soon there will a robin's nest. Nice!
- In the winter people pick up mittens and stick them on trees near paths, but like all things that change with the seasons, now it is hair ties.
- A large bird flies by, and I double-back through the courtyard to follow, just as one of the Shirts proclaims, "Gwenda said his dick tastes like ketchup potato chips." It is quite possibly a sentence I will remember for the rest of my life, and I remain absolutely granite faced as I turn the corner again in silence and hear their howls explode behind me.
- That's so gross, but I bet I post it anyway.
BOTD: pileated woodpecker, right here in my complex, the closest I've ever been to one, and in the worst possible lighting. Nice silhouette, though, don't you think?
