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February 27, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 4 min read
February 27, 2026
Bird of the Day: hermit thrush. This is simply a really great bird.

Where: Lake Accotink Park

When: 1:30pm

Bird Species: downy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina chickadee, ring-billed gull, Canada geese, double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, hooded merganser, common merganser (lifer), red-bellied woodpecker, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, hermit thrush, hairy woodpecker, house sparrow

Things I Thought About:

  • It is very important to me and my view of myself that I fully work out my notice, that I continue to do my tasks until hand-off, that I do not just ride it out. On the other hand, it is simply beautiful outside. And I’d for sure have Irish goodbyed the workday at 2 if I hadn’t put in my notice, so. Here we all are.
  • They completely drained the lake in October to do some environmental studies, and I haven’t been back since it refilled even though I pass it every Sunday. It is brimming with gulls and cormorants today. I see about 14 double-crested cormorants way out on a log. I need to put this park back into the regular rotation.
  • If I think about the only President of the United States for longer than about six seconds, I genuinely get light-headed. It's so crazy. I cannot believe how crazy this all is.
  • I have heard there are nesting eagles somewhere in this park. I don’t think I’m going to find them today; I suspect they are on the other side of the lake and I do need be back online later, but maybe that’s a thing I’ll try to do this weekend.
  • Okay, well, those are common mergansers, and that’s a life bird for me.
about as far away as they could be and still clearly be mergansers
  • I have never had an experience like this. Normally a life bird for me means saying “what kind of bird is that?” and frantically trying to research while standing in the woods, or just taking as many pictures as I can and doing the ID later. In this case I just said, “Oh, common merganser, that's my guy.” It’s an ordinary duck, I've known exactly what they look like for a couple of years now, it’s simply that I’ve never seen one in person until now. Effortless. What a Friday treat.
  • I'd love this to happen with pelicans. I have been looking for pelicans in the refuges for three winters now and missing them, but I'm ready. I'd love to see a pelican.
  • Should I learn to kayak?
  • Ohhhh, a hermit thrush! I love a hermit thrush. I love this bird so much. I am doing things for this bird I ordinarily do not do, following at a quick-step, scrambling up a slope and having to use roots for handholds, squatting and having to hold the squat to use both hands to focus. He's being very cooperative, too. I was worried he might be a little skittish and I am making as much noise as a mid-size herd of deer.
way to completely avoid the sunlight, my guy
  • When I come back down onto the trail, I notice my camera setting is not on All Auto and I say "oh noooOOOOOOO" and "FUUUUU" in an extremely audible but not quite completely profane way. A mom with a toddler shies away from me like I am coughing up clouds of ectoplasm, but her older kid on a bicycle is laughing.
  • Now, this is good. This is great actually. There is a hairy woodpecker here, and he is posed perfectly for me to actually be able to talk about ID-ing this bird. I have mentioned before how tough it is to distinguish him from the downy, but this is prime positioning. If none of my thrush photos turn out at least I'll have something to talk about.
The coloring between downy and hairy are almost exactly the same, and hairy are overall taller, but it's hard to clock that at a distance or unless you see both kinds a lot. The deciding factor to look for is how long is the size of his bill in profile. A downy bill is short and kind of dainty, but the hairy bill is a spike and is almost as long as his whole head. They aren't always this obliging for an ID. They are usually facing the tree, after all.
  • What if someone accidentally learns something from my bird blog? Pretty neat.

BOTD: the hermit thrush. I love this bird. I love this one. They are solitary and shy little birds, and I was SO upset when I thought maybe my photos of him didn't take. Turns out, it was the speed setting that was off, not the light, and this guy is so still most of the time you could hardly tell.

Hermit thrushes have that thin solid light eye ring, so they always look a little wide-eyed and caught to me. When you see one backed up against a tree or a log, standing very still, they have a "You can't see me!" vibe which is very endearing.

This bird was not singing, which is a real shame because it is very famous for his song. It starts with a sustained high note, and then a bunch of little echoing notes that various field guides describe as "oh, holy, holy, oh" or "ah, sweetly sweetly, ee" and that should give you an idea of this bird's whole vibe. A very sweet and special little guy.

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