July 16, 2026

Where: the neighborhood

When: 5:48 am

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

Things I Thought About:

• Last night I got a strawberry Frosty, and it was not very good. I thought it would be, you know, a strawberry Frosty, but it was a vanilla Frosty with a strawberry swirl. Not right. They had an orange frosty a couple of summers ago that I still think about.
• When she was about 7 or 8 I told my niece that there were only chocolate Frostys when I was her age and she said, "Is that because you were born before vanilla?" which I also still think about.
• It is a little bit earlier than I usually hit the block, and the quality of light is very strange today. Orangey and hazy and low, from the Canada wildfires, I suppose. I wonder what these photos will look like.
• There are five blue jays in this one tree. This must be that family I saw at Hidden Oaks, which isn't very far from here.

• I have been doing a bit this summer that every time I step outside into the malarial swamp of northern Virginia, from any indoor space, I say "UGH" loudly, because it is so very gross out. I do this only for the entertainment of myself and my sister, but any number of random people standing around have appreciated it, I think.
• It is the best kind of bit, one that I started doing consciously as a bit, but now do almost involuntarily and completely sincerely, and now it's even funnier to me, knowing how authentic it is. The authenticity is now the bit.
• My favorite long running bit is solemnly saying, "Her name means 'Big Spider'" whenever someone mentions Ariana Grande. It is fun to watch the moment of confusion, followed hard upon by the moment of them deciding whether or not to call it out. I love getting pushback on that one. Simply saying, "yes, it does" and not giving an inch is insanely powerful. You should try it.

BOTD: Song sparrow. This one was not singing, which is almost unprecedented. It was being quite noisy, chirping away, but not calling or singing at all, which made me wonder if it was very young. He was quite small, but the coloring looks...done? I don't know how else to describe it, that pattern of lines leading to the chest patch is very distinctive and this one doesn't look especially immature, but he was behaving like he was young, shy and quick, and not singing.

I really can't decide if I think he was full-grown and just not awake yet, or if he's too little to sing yet. It's hard to think about the latter option without wondering what that will be like for him! One day, all of the sudden, you can do it. You couldn't sing yesterday, but one morning, what the hell, you throw your head back and suddenly those three piercing notes come out and then the brrrrrring, clanging song. You were born to do this, and now you can.

It must feel perfect.