July 31, 2026

Where: Cross County Trail at Wakefield Park

When: 5:15 pm

Bird Species: house sparrow, northern cardinal, eastern kingbird, osprey, blue-gray gnatcatcher, downy woodpecker, mourning dove, gray catbird, northern mockingbird

Things I Thought About:

• It is the final day of July and needless to say I neither changed my life nor established strong new routines this month. We'll get 'em tomorrow.
• I haven't been to this park in a grip, and I have just remembered it is because I have mislaid my mace and there is a section of the trail here that I don't like to traverse without it.
• The ospreys are up there, and no one will be able to tell in the photos but the one out there on the corner is an adult and the one in the nest is the juvenile. It was very obvious when they were both on the nest.

• Earlier today I typed the words "Rotary Club" and since then I have been trying to recall a joke that an elderly bridge player told me at the country club where I used to work. The punchline was, "No, dear, my husband was a Rotarian" and I simply cannot pull the set up. It's making me crazed. I have a memory of being told this joke, and thinking oh, no, she thinks this is a smutty little gem of a joke, this old broad loves this joke, but I cannot remember the joke. Maddening.
• It is may not be noticeable yet unless you are outside at the same general time every day, but we are losing daylight at a noticeable rate. Don't misunderstand, the days are still very long, but the difference in how 6:30 looks on the CCT between last month and now is quite striking.
• Once again, there are back to school supply sales everywhere, summer slipping away, tomorrow is August, and I have not been on a boat.

BOTD: Eastern kingbird. I wondered at first if it was a phoebe, but those white underparts are a giveaway, when I finally got to the correct side of the road to see it in the light. The song is also definitive, quick and high-pitched and squeaky. They actually sound quite a bit like bats. They also have those wings that go round and high at the top, like shoulder pads on 30s gangster's jacket.

There were two playing around on the edge on the creek, where the sky opens up for the CCT to run under a six-lane road. They are county birds, and "Likely" everywhere around here in the summer, but they are not really backyard birds. I never see them in the neighborhood. They are flycatchers, and they crave wide open spaces.

Something I just learned, finding that audio clip, is that all the flycatchers around here, the pewee, the phoebe, the kingbirds, the Acadian and willow flycatchers, all belong to a family known as Tyrant Flycatchers. Their Latin name is Tyrannidae. I find this to be badass.