August 7, 2026
Where: Hidden Oaks Nature Center
When: 5:25 pm
Bird Species: American crow, white-breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, red-bellied woodpecker, house finch
Things I Thought About:
- When I was 40 years old, I had never made $40,000 a year. "Do what you love and the money will follow" is such an enormous crock of shit.
- People should not and must not care about their jobs.
- TGIF amirite
- I didn't think I'd be going anywhere today, so I am hitting the trail in terrible low light, no socks, and an immensely stupid bill-less snapback cap. I cannot even describe this head covering to you, it's so stupid. It's like what a white rapper would wear in 1991. Nevertheless, it feels nice to be outside.
- I feel like this has been a long week, but tomorrow I get to go to the farmer's market, and perhaps to a thrift store. Perhaps to HomeGoods, if I'm feeling posh.
- I may have spoken about this before, but in low light, when I use auto-settings, there is a big delay between shots. You can't just click, click, click. If I take a shot, and then immediately try another, I'll get a message that the camera is BUSY, writing the image to the disk. I can click, click, click if I turn off the flash, but that makes the photos look or weirdly lit or shaky, and often both.
- We have all seen this scenario in the movies, where the hero of the movie is down to his last magazine, and must conserve rounds. Wait for it, wait for it, perfect shot, bang. The issue here is that I am not the hero in these bird walks. I'm barely even the protagonist. I'm barely the narrator.
- MISSED CONNECTIONS: an uncommonly vibrant and beautiful male house finch, dazzling on a gray day.
- I like checking the weather and seeing "Heavy rain expected to start in 29 minutes" when I am about 20 minutes away from my car.
BOTD: downy woodpecker, and his wife. I will confess that when it really starting clouding over, I went up and staked out the two trees closest to the suet feeders by the visitor center. It's been a long week, and it was nice to see a lot of different birds, even if photos were a challenge.
I wish I could have shown you that finch, though. Hot pink, blinding, in the failing light.
But it's always nice to see a woodpecker.
