March 11, 2026

Where: Eakin Community Park

When: 6:15pm

Bird Species: bald eagle, northern cardinal, downy woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, red-headed woodpecker, some other fucking birds but your guess is a good as mine. Heard but not seen: flicker, chickadee, robin, red-shouldered hawk, goldfinch, titmouse, at least two sparrows. The pits.

Things I Thought About:

• I left it late today but I think I still have a chance; there are always birds at Eakin and it’s between the metro station and home.
• There are no birds at Eakin. There are Little Leaguers at Eakin. And the turtles are up.

• Oh, huh! I have never seen a bald eagle here before. I wish he’d perch up somewhere.
• Yep, definitely left it too late. There are birds everywhere, but I couldn’t tell you who they are. Except the Carolina wren! The wren is a good beginner bird. They are so loud and their song is very identifiable, and they like to go up to the top or the end of branches when they sing. They aren’t hard to find, but they are hard to photograph at this time of night.
• It’s not even that the light is bad, this is just one of those evenings where everywhere I look I’m a second too late, or the auto-focus can't get a bead on it, or else I surely must be looking right at but can’t see a bird at all. 
• Well, there are THREE pileated woodpeckers chasing each other around and I can’t get a photo of them for love or money. I'm framing up photos of the air where a bird just was.
• What if I pivot the bird blog into hard core menopause content? I could tell them how I fear I am going to pee on myself trying to take a picture of a bird. I kind of thought I would be spared this since I never had kids, but, get this, all your lady tissues get thinner and less elastic regardless.
• I sound like a Republican senator, like it’s news that babies don’t come out the pee hole.
• A jogger who passed me in one direction is now returning and stops to ask what I’m doing. It’s a bit of a mystery to me at this point as well. Then one of the goddamn pileated woodpeckers flies right past us and I basically turn into Yosemite Sam. Stamp my little foot, raggin fraggin dabnabbit, split myself in half like Rumplestiltskin levels of OH YOU LITTLE BASTARD.
• For all I talk about the calm and centering effect of a birdwalk, I should be grateful that I don’t have total busts like this one more often. And at least this kind of comic rage is easily broken by noticing how ridiculous I am, especially when the nice lady jogger laughs out loud at me. We have a nice laugh together.
• The woodpeckers were absolute dildoes tonight.

BOTD: It had to be the eagle, the first bird I saw. Adult bald eagles have a certain something, but that something is not visible in this photo. Doubtless I’ll talk about them more when I get a good shot. Just know that the juveniles look like absolute hell, and I wish the national bird has been the wild turkey like Ben Franklin proposed.

In the interests of sharing the authentic experience, here is every other picture I took today.

Excelsior. Better luck tomorrow.

Hey, I have an email. It's skwbotd@gmail.com. If you want to send me a photo of a bird and tell me about it, maybe I'll have a little reserve of Guest Birds for days like today.