August 31, 2026
Where: walking distance, but not the regular neighborhood loop
When: 5:35 pm
Bird Species: house sparrow, gray catbird, mourning dove, northern cardinal, blue jay, downy woodpecker, northern mockingbird, American robin
Things I Thought About:
- A bluejay was screaming all day outside my window, and naturally nowhere to be seen now that the workday is over.
- I am thinking about Monsters of God, the HBO documentary series I'm currently watching about reptile smugglers. It's incredible. Every Fish & Wildlife cop looks exactly like a Fish & Wildlife cop. There are so many fucking iguanas in it. Every scumbag reptile smuggler is worse than the one they're calling a scumbag. 100% pure, uncut Florida. 10/10 doc.
- I really like the look of these bushes, which I have come to learn are pokeweed. Those bright reddish-purple stems and shoots are such an eye-catching backdrop for birds.
- I can hear the blue jay again, and I have followed him to a thicket of trees and briars near the very end of a dead road. This area backs up to what is widely understood to be a pretty undesirable rental complex. There seem to be a lot of birds flitting around, but there is also a good bit of trash. Not ideal.
- I think this might also be a blue jay with a head molt going on, but I can't see him very well. There is the tiniest little footpath into this copse of trees. It may as well have posted signage, "This way to meet your least accountable unhoused neighbors." If I don't make it back, tell my television I loved it.
- There was a downy woodpecker buried in there, too, which I never would have seen if I hadn't been madly thwarted by that jay. Imagine a blue jay being good for something.
- That tree had the jay, a downy, the mockingbird, house sparrows, and the cardinal in it. Good tree. I wish it had been growing somewhere else.
BOTD: gray catbird. There was a healthy half a dozen or so flying around that same thicket. Like every other bird of late, these ones are not quite fully mature, but they are coming right along. When fully adult, their tails will be longer, but you can see the cap starting to fill in and clearly see the cinnamon-colored undertail coverts. They were yowling and miaowing like crazy.
