January 26, 2026

Where: around my complex and the one next door

When: 3-3:50pm, as blocked on the old Teams calendar

Bird Species: house sparrow, white-throated sparrow, mourning dove, house finch, Canada goose (flyover), northern mockingbird. Heard but not seen: blue jay

Things I Thought About:

• I left my fitness tracker on the charger the entire time I was digging out my car; I am going to seppuku.
• I wonder if the poor white-throated sparrows, who are spending the winter here, in the balmy south to which they fly, are enjoying the ten inches of snow. 
• There are definitely birds around, but I am somewhat distracted in my mission today by a near constant mental drumbeat of “PLEASE do not slip and fall on the ice and break your camera, and also every bone in your rapidly aging body.”
• I really love tracking up a nice clean patch of snow. It makes me feel like I’ve really done something.
• Richard Jury, a melancholic fictional Scotland Yard detective (who is a well-known friend after 35 years of books; I worry about him) also has this compulsion. It’s never a clue, it’s just a handsome sad man stomping around on the pristine lawns of wealthy British suspects whenever he has the slightest pretense of looking for something. Good books.
• When Richard Jury quit smoking, it was a throughline in three straight novels. Never has an author’s personal struggle been so clear to me as in these three books. Jury had to leave the country to finally quit. Relatable.
• Oh, I hope I caught that lady house finch. I have been finch-heavy lately on the blog, but they’ve all been the males. I want to show those nice blurry streaks the female has, even if she doesn't have the red-orange coloring her husband has.

• Sexual dimorphism in birds tends to favor the males for vivid coloring, which is a damn shame. Female mallards are tragically slept upon for their beauty, as are female cardinals and female red-winged blackbirds. It's always the woman who suffers.
• I am going to plant my feet in this icy heap of snow, try to get a shot of that sparrow, lean forward a little too far to get the shot, crash through the collapsing snowbank, and snap my patellar tendon like a Pirouline. 
• The birds really do look super pretty today, though. The sky is incredibly blue, and those sparrows have found seeds somewhere. Resilient little guys. It is good to see them. I’ve taken a little break in the daylight to breathe fresh air and look at birds for a bit every day but two so far this year. I missed them yesterday.
• I am going to make Lipton chicken noodle soup from the envelope and a grilled cheese sandwich when I get back inside. That is Snow Day food.

BOTD: the mourning dove. I laughed out loud when I saw that big old Bette Davis eye through the viewfinder. I love these crazy birds.

I think I need to investigate this setting for low light a bit more. I thought I needed it, since she was all hunkered in under a bush, but it turned everything a little too golden yellow, maybe even slightly over-exposed? I'll look forward to experimenting a bit on a warmer day, and one when I'm not meant to be on the clock.