March 1, 2026

Rabbit Rabbit

Where: Lake Accotink Park (full loop)

When: 10:00am

Bird Species: House sparrow, ring-billed gull, downy woodpecker, northern flicker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, Canada geese, hooded merganser, double-crested cormorant, blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, northern cardinal, American robin, fish crow, mourning dove, belted kingfisher, Carolina chickadees, common merganser, mallard, gadwall. Something talk-to-text translated as "red children hog." No idea. (Note: I mentioned this at game night and my sister instantly said “red-shouldered hawk,” which was correct. Incredible work from the bench. Has been listening to my demented southern accent all her life.)

Things I Thought About:

• Morbid shit. In the literal, etymological sense. A beautiful Sunday morning, and me out here thinking about death and disease.
• And I guess President Sex Criminal started a fucking war in the middle east this weekend?? Cool, cool. 
• The “my knees are very sore today” to “I’m getting old and nobody loves me” mental pipeline is progressing with shocking rapidity this morning. I haven’t even made it from my car to the lake yet.
• If I am going to continue like this as the days get nicer I need to invest in much better shoes for this. My cardio is fine but I am carrying quite a bit more weight than I was the last time I did this loop, which I think is about 4 miles. My knees and feet are tired today.
• Well, this is going to be one of the nicest photos of a yellow-bellied sapsucker I've ever taken. Normally they are way over my head. And I see you, too, flicker. TWO flickers! And a downy. The woodpeckers are out in force today.

• I found the eagle nest! There are no eagles in it today, but I know where it is now, which is exciting enough. You won't believe how often I simply give up on specific quests like this. I had just thought "It won't be a surprise if I can't find an eagle nest in 500 acres" and then I went around the next curve and saw it. This happens often enough that it could feel a little mystical, if one were inclined to signs and portents. I suspect I am, but mostly of the I know a bad omen when I see it variety.
• "Are you KIDDING me?," I think, and also say out loud. Two people passing say "We heard him, but where?" just as a belted kingfisher splashes down in a diving miss. The three of us stand on the bridge, trying to find him again. The couple moves on eventually, but I guess I'm built different (stubborn.)
• So, that was worth it! But after wandering off trail, scrabbling through mud and brush for a second day in a row, I am now ready to be done for the day, and I am so far away from my car it's stupid.
• Oh, lovely! Here’s a little mixed flock of titmice and chickadees, and a healthy handful of both. They are a tough capture just from being small and busy little birds, what a treat to have so many buzzing around so close.

• I can hear goldfinches. That’s definitely what I’m hearing, but they are much too high to spot. It’s kind of early for them to be back at full strength. Same for the kingfishers. Did they read a calendar? It's like first day of March hits and everyone came out to celebrate. And what I mostly hear today are frogs, who will be spawning along the Cross County Trail at great volume for a few more weeks. Then the bluebells will pop this month, too.
• This was a good resolution. I'm glad I'm getting outside every day, stupid joints be damned.
• The cormorants on the log, out of the water, are too far away for me, so I won’t be able to show their cool webbed feet, but there are few diving by the shore. A still photo simply cannot convey what a funny little weirdos these guys are. They are constantly looking around all over, craning their necks around, and when they dive they go completely under for a long time. You can try to guess where they’ll come up again and not believe how off your guess is; they travel yards under water. I like them an awful lot.

• It only just now occurred to me that the phrase "craning your neck around" is probably about actual cranes.
• People should be allowed to dump cremated remains just wherever. If it isn’t private property, if you see a place that looks pretty, why not.

BOTD: belted kingfisher. They are incredible birds, fast, stocky, great haircuts. Uncommonly, the female has the bold splashes of color on the breast. They are great fishers, and they do it by diving headfirst into the water from low hanging branches on the banks.

So I and the two strangers see this one make a dive and then fly back up to a tree that we only had the slightest view of, she was so small and far away, and when they left, for the second time in a week, I did something I rarely do, which is go off trail to try to catch a better angle. I still didn't get a great shot, but in a few weeks the bushes will start coming back and I would never be able to get even this close to the water here. So I'm finally near, took that top photo, and then she dove, missed, and took off like a shot down stream. A nice moment with a bird I haven't seen in a few months.

I return to the trail, which crosses over the stream, and she's still doing that constant rattling call, and close, and I finally see her a good way off in a tree, and then damned if I don't hear another one. The two of them chattering like the loudest crickets you ever heard. I stay on that bridge and finally see two little bodies plunge down and come back up, this time to the same tree, a male and female. It was fantastic. If you think you could never get into birds, watch a kingfisher fish for a while.

The loop was 6.2 goddamn miles.