April 6, 2026

Where: the neighborhood

When: 8:00am

Bird Species: house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, European starling, American crow, blue jay, fish crow, common grackle, American robin, dark-eyed junco, white-breasted nuthatch, northern flicker

Things I Thought About:

• I read where there was some reliable indicator on how to tell a fish crow from an American crow and it's basically like their forehead is a little slopier? Literally impossible. Fish crows sound like "NYUCK NYUCK" and American crows sound like "CAWWW CAAAWWW CAWWWW" and that's all you get.
• There is an abundance of huge black birds flying around all over the place today, fish crows and American crows and grackles, and I love them to pieces, even though only the grackle takes a nice photo. It's especially great to see them all on such a blue and green sunny morning. They remind me of a kid's edition of Poe stories I treasured as a child, that had an amazing drawing of the guy showing up to the ball in The Masque of the Red Death. Macabre and spooky and disruptive to the party atmosphere, in a delicious way.
• It's because they are so uniformly black that crows are a tough photo. Not a lot of variety in the colors, which is why the oil-slick black birds are easier, something for the light to grab onto.

• I have read that animal shelters have reported a steep decline in adoptions of black cats since the advent of Instagram, for exactly this reason. Instagram was a mistake, except for Keith Hernandez and Fig the tortoise. And my personal friends, naturally.
• Now, I won't say this robin looks like Charlie Brown, but he does have Charlie Brown vibes.

• Loving that it is 4o degrees again when I just bought two pair of new summer sandals. This pedicure needs some attention, though. Might be for the best.
• I hope this is the last of it, and I can put my plants back outside soon. I attempted to overwinter a rock trumpet, which is an annual and meant to die, but it does still have a few little green shoots and I'm dying to see if it will take off again on the patio.
• HA. HAHA. See a flicker, post a flicker! You see how he tries in vain to shield himself from my watchful eye! No camouflage tree trunk can veil you! Speaking of Edgar Allan Poe!

• This was good. I think I simply need to decide that no one cares when I start my workday as long as I don't miss any meeting invites and live my life accordingly.
• I haven't filed my taxes yet. Fuck.

BOTD: the white-breasted nuthatch. This is one of the pair nesting in the tree in my complex. The tree is now in almost full flower. They are such cute, busy little birds. There's a variety called a brown-headed nuthatch, which is exactly what it sounds like, but I've only ever seen them at Blackwater in Maryland, where I am very overdue for a visit.

After work I went on a real scavenger hunt, knowing that the blog draft was ready, to find the wren that was singing, with my binos but not my camera. I didn't find him, but a male finch flew by right at eye level, just a streak of magenta on his way up to the hedgerow. It was awfully nice. I worked pretty hard, but also it was a pretty good day.