June 14, 2026

Where: Lake Accotink Marina family game night, Springfield, VA

When: 4:30 pm 6:00 pm

Bird Species: house sparrow, northern cardinal, mourning dove, gray catbird, northern mockingbird, brown thrasher, American robin

Things I Thought About:

• Oh, it is much hotter than I thought it would be.
• The marina lot is full. If I want to see the lake and check for good birds, I will have to park out here and walk over in the direct sunlight. I think...I think I will not do that. Sorry, I just showered and put on blue eye makeup as a pick-me-up. I don't need it to melt off my face.
• There will be birds at game night.
• Jane has a new birdbath, even. And look at that catbird.

• I miss having a yard. Too bad I moved to northern Virginia, where I will never have a yard again. I'm lucky I can even see a tree.

BOTD: northern mockingbird, juvenile.

This is the home of my sister's sister-in-law, or my brother-in-law's sister, however you want to describe it. I think I most often describe it as The Other Aunt's house. The niece loves it because the dogs live here. They get a lot of good birds here, too.

I wish I had caught a nice shot of the brown thrasher. I have never gotten a good photo of one, and tonight is no exception. The catbird photos were good, though. I love a bird with a mouthful of bug.

I went with the mockingbird for BOTD because I've done a catbird recently, and because it has been a big week for juveniles and fledglings. I've actually never seen a juvenile mockingbird before, or at least this closely. It already has that very distinctive posture and proportion of a mocker, but the gray breast streaks were a nice surprise. Not a bad looking bird, even in the awkward teen stage.