July 17, 2026

Where: right around the complex

When: 6:30 pm

Bird Species: house sparrow, American robin, mourning dove, gray catbird, northern cardinal, brown-headed catbird

Things I Thought About:

• I am in a pretty deep rage today, I think, the kind that is so calm and matter-of-fact and lived in that it feels like "I am wearing my eyeglasses today" or "I got dressed before I left the house today."
• I am enraged about the wildfires, and the data centers, and the water, and the national parks, and the diarrhea lettuce, and the way Taco Bell is taking the hit for it because we'd rather not spend a minute talking about deregulation and oversight, and how America is demonstrably less safe in every aspect of being a living human on this earth than it was 20 years ago, for the first time in the span of human history, and how talking about just makes you a bore and a scold, and the idiots on the news saying they'd never wear a mask again regardless, and the literal smog that has me outside in my glasses and a N95 mask even though I am 100 miles from the closest fire.

• I am angry that we had a Women's ERG meeting today and people were acting like it was a safe space even though the chief of staff was in the call. And also the biggest bitch I've met there yet. There is no such thing as a safe space at work! I do not believe in it.
• I am angry that I wake up every day hoping more of them will die.
• I wonder how many little decisions, how many tiny tweaks, would have had to happen to make me progress past "give LinkedIn sociopaths a very hard time" into "throw a stick of dynamite into a board room" levels of anger, just kidding FBI
• We have fucked up so bad, and it should have been so easy, and I think a strong argument can be made that when you have a time machine you should kill Reagan first.
• ANYWAY. What birds can I see within 500 feet of my apartment?

• And why am I so bad at guessing distances? A football field is 100 yards, I think, which is 300 feet? Why does 300 feet sound so much shorter than 100 yards?
• Maybe football fields aren't actually that big? It has been three and half decades since I walked my saxophone around one.
• 1000 feet from my front door, lets say. And one day when the air is clearer, I'll walk over to the high school and see how long a football field is.
• Now I remember that last night at pub quiz we had a question about Hockey Statistics and pulled the answer directly out of our asses by being good at words, not sports.
• Fine, here was the question: Mario Lemieux, with an even strength goal, became the only player in MLH history to score five goals in five ways in one game. Name the other four on-ice scenarios, which are recorded as PP, EN, SH, PS.
• "Don't panic, we know some hockey words that start with P," was our starting point. We missed SH, but you only needed three to get your wager.
• I can't believe how bad the air is out here, and yet I still feel better than I did before I came out. It's so good to be outside. We just...we just really need to do something about all this.

BOTD: a juvenile brown-headed cowbird. I have been low-key grumbly about how cowbirds are interesting birds but tough to get a good picture, so of course I get a great look at a juvenile female, where you can't even tell it's a cowbird.

I for sure couldn't. I just knew it was too big to be a finch or a sparrow, and didn't look quite right to be a juvenile robin or starling. I had to look it up in a few places to confirm. This sighting doesn't get me any closer to an adult, because of their unique and terrible upbringing.

Cowbird juveniles are gross! They are brood parasites, meaning the female lays her eggs in another species' nest and it out-competes the others for dominance. It's nice to have a bird that hasn't been BOTD before, but I'm still keeping an eye out for an adult male and female to talk about. I'd like to take them to task for their poor parenting.