March 10, 2026

Where: District of Columbia, around 14th and F

When: 12:35pm - 1:00pm

Bird Species: house sparrow, American robin, European starling, mallard

Things I Thought About:

• Even if I don’t have a chance to download pics until after trivia (note: we won) I will still be happy to report that there are birds in DC, and walkable green space near me. I really do suffer when I have to stay inside a building all day, but on this, my very first day in a new office, it seems like it won’t be a problem.
• In fact, I can see the Washington Monument stepping out the front door of the building. This is in no way doxxing myself, in that one can see the Washington Monument from almost everywhere in the district and from the other side of the river, too, but the point is, it’s close.
• Or it would be close, if most of the paths and the sidewalks here weren’t currently fenced off on the Pennsylvania Ave side.
• I am thinking about the most redacted scenarios you ever imagined in your life.
• Oh. It occurs to me that I’m going to dox myself in the second item of the post. That’s okay, though, I think. I suppose you could try to guess which individual building, floor, and office in three or four blocks of downtown DC someone is in, but you’d still need a key fob to get in and murder them.
• I think the city birds will be starlings and sparrows most often. They are the opportunistic omnivores, regardless of season, and extremely comfortable in suburbs and cities. I bet they eat like kings in tourist-heavy spots. I prefer more bird variety, though, so I hope as the days get longer I’m not dependent on a lunch hour rotation.
• I kind of thought I’d end up taking a photo of a rock pigeon today, but do you know, I haven’t seen any? In my experience, as far as sidewalk and parking lot birds go, you are 100 times more likely to see a house sparrow than an actual pigeon. I promise if I do see one, they will get a feature, if only so I can post Animaniacs links.

• I am the only person with a camera taking a picture of birds on the ground instead of the architecture. 
• There is a mallard in the water of the World War I Memorial. “How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.”

• This one is doing a really nice job of showing how their heads look purple sometimes, depending on the light. I think that it is good that he is here.
• One thing, I need to wear sneakers for the commute, for sure. Tess McGill forever.

BOTD: European starling. It is such a bummer that this bird is an invasive species and I am honor-bound to wish they weren't so ubiquitous, because it’s such a terrific looking bird. You see that these ones have lost those white feather tips that make them look polka-dotted in the winter, so you can clearly see that ornate and stunning bronze pattern that has grown in. More and more of the bronze feathers will grow in through the spring, mostly obscuring that fun iridescent green. They probably look their dullest in the summertime, but the European starling is, on the whole, a stunning bird.