February 12, 2026

Where: my complex

When: 4:45 pm

Bird Species: house sparrow, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, American robin, mourning dove, European starling, American crow

Things I Thought About:

• Hmm, note to self: in order to enjoy the longer daylight, there must be sun out. 
• I feel completely wrung out today from writing two very important, intensely stressful emails. I'm a decent communicator and can occasionally turn a deft phrase, and when I say these were painstaking emails, I mean "pains" literally, in my guts and butt. 
• See, there's one of those deft turns of phrases I mentioned.
• Speaking of words, there goes a murder of crows overhead. A great collective noun, but I only ever think of them as a murder when they’re on the ground, where they might literally murder me. Conversely, I only ever think of starlings as a murmuration when they’re in flight.
• Of course, they’re all “flocks,” but I learned a murder of crows, a parliament of owls, a flamboyance of flamingos when I was a kid. This was about liking words, not birds; I also loved a crash of rhinos, a shrewdness of apes, an array of hedgehogs.
• I have learned lately that there is also a charm of finches, chime of wrens, bouquet of hummingbirds.
• The lighting got spooky early today! Look at this fussy hussy, coming this close to me when she knows I can’t get the shot.

• Remembering this excellent episode of The Neighborhood Listen, where they talk about "a murder of crows" in several different contexts.
• The kids next door have their plastic saucers out again, now that the snow is getting soft again, and one of them just slid off and rolled about 17 times. Good stuff.

BOTD: house sparrow, a species especially esteemed for always being present in the bush right by my front door. Surprised I don't post them more often. This is another species where I think the female is much prettier than the male, with the added bonus of she doesn't act like she's better than me.