backyard birds

July 21, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 2 min read
Share
July 21, 2026
Bird of the Day: Carolina wren, singing. As always, impossible to focus on these cloudy days.

Where: Ranger Road Park

When: 5:40 pm

Bird Species: American robin, northern cardinal, Carolina wren, downy woodpecker, mourning dove

Things I Thought About:

  • My hand is tingling a little. Obviously, this means I have ALS.
  • People who do not know me very well might find that in poor taste, but I have standing here. My mom got ALS out of a clear blue sky, and while I have no reason to think I will get it because she had it, that is now how my brain defaults.
  • Tingling wasn’t even a symptom for her, just slowly she couldn’t turn a car key, couldn’t hold a mug by the handle.
  • This is almost certainly carpal tunnel. I spent all day doing website updates.
  • You should see me when I trip.
  • ANYWAY.
  • This robin had one worm when I first saw him and now he has like five worms. He's disgusting. I respect it.
You can never eat just one.
  • Here I am chasing wrens in the woods without a stupid bandana. How do you not follow that sound, as close as it is?
  • This kid I’ve been following on Instagram while he hikes the AT was off trail for a couple of days with babesiosis, a tick-borne disease. I never see him in a bandana.
  • The main symptoms of babesiosis are exhaustion and muscle aches, which I'm afraid my menopausal ass has all the time already. This is why one must cover one's head.
  • My unquestioning faith in the bandana reminds of the Doonesbury cartoon cigarette, pointing over his shoulder at his filter and saying, "Nothing gets past this baby!!”
  • I feel like everything I know about American history, Watergate through Bush 41, I learned from Doonesbury.
  • I also feel like RFK jr is about a week away from, “You can smoke.“

BOTD: Carolina wren. When I first got out of the car I couldn’t hear any bird; it was genuinely eerie. Then I heard that gorgeous, crystalline song, the one that made me download Merlin to begin with, my spark bird, and tracked it down. There were at least three of them, chasing each other, with the biggest one singing the whole while. A lovely, lively bird.

Read more