July 7, 2026

Where: the neighborhood

When: 6:30 am

Bird Species: house sparrow, gray catbird, European starling, American robin, mourning dove, house finch, American crow, northern cardinal

Things I Thought About:

• Experimenting with mood enhancers by getting up and throwing on music instead of a podcast or audiobook right away. It's good.
• No skips on "Comfort Eagle." Extremely slept upon album.
• There is not a hint of sun today, and quite a bit of haze; I wonder if I'll see any bird at all.
• I am reading my second David Nicholls novel, and he names his chapters, and they have great names. I feel like this is something you don't see that often of late, and I'd like to see more novelists bring it back.
• "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" was the theme for the television show Chuck, a show I watched at the time and attempted to rewatch a couple of years ago and WOW, does that show ever not hold up at all. Truly infuriating lessons such as "If a girl doesn't like me, I'll just keep being entirely in her face and in her business until she does."

BOTD: Northern cardinal. Pretty much the only bird who posted up where the light was sufficient to focus. A very dark morning, but not a glum one.

"Love You Madly" is a great tune. I have no memory whatsoever of anything I might have thought of besides "I haven't heard this album in a grip" and "Dang, this is a good album. Why don't I listen to albums in their entirety more often?"

I like the tremendous amount of variety you can see in cardinal coloring.