March 2, 2026

Where: close to home

When: 11:15am

Bird Species: house sparrow, dark-eyed junco, tufted titmouse, red-bellied woodpecker, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, Carolina wren, white-throated sparrow, house finch, Carolina chickadee

Things I Thought About:

• All I do is bitch about my knees and the weather, but it is 34 degrees again and cloudy and we are expecting snow/sleet this afternoon. After such a perfect first day of March yesterday, this feels mean, but at least it doesn't feel personal. Winter is always like this, clinging by its icy fingernails.
• No matter who the BOTD ends up being, I should post a photo of this junco. Every day I expect them to have moved on for the year. Same for a white-throat, if I see one.

• Harrison Ford, who I have loved every minute of my life that I can remember, accepted a life achievement award at SAG-AFTRA last night and after watching his acceptance speech it is with a heavy heart that I must say I don’t think I’d fuck him now. I think my “oldest dude I’d fuck” list is getting lower in age as I get higher in age? That’s discouraging for my future sex life. It will be embarrassing to be attracted to 30-year-olds when I’m in my 70s. It’s kind of embarrassing now.
• Kurt Russell might be the top now, and he’s only 74. Ted Danson is on the bubble, but I re-watched season one of Cheers not long ago and I could make it work. 
• The squirrels are really making it tough today. So much of bird watching is just waiting quietly to hear a rustle or see movement, and the squirrels are everywhere making a lot of noise and shaking every limb. It's hard to zero in on the ones that might be birds, especially since in this chilly weather they are mostly hanging out deep in brush and hedges. This cardinal will probably be the best photo I get today. He, at least, is putting his best face forward.

• I have not seen Working Girl in a grip. What a great movie. I’ll be the first to say that Melanie Griffith is limited, but within that particular range she was absolutely incandescent. And Harrison is so sweet. 
• I wish I had liked his Sabrina better. Although, to be fair, I don’t like the original Sabrina, either. 
• Is The Fugitive his best movie? Beside Raiders, natch.  And starring two men who stayed on the “old dudes I'd still bang like a busted screen door” list until it was well past seemly. Tommy Lee didn’t fall off until The Mechanic: Resurrection, and that was mostly costume design.  
• I wonder how Jeroen Krabbé is holding up.

BOTD: Carolina chickadee. Honestly, not an especially interesting photo, but these were the only birds today that made me just stand still awhile and watch them. They are such small birds, and there was a little handful hanging out in the brush, so I spent a few seconds trying to frame one up on this cloudy day. They stayed pretty well socked in the brush, frustrating me.

Then that one in the photo was kind of in the middle of a tangle of vine and branches, and he hopped in the center and latched on to that dangling seed husk (maybe a gooseberry? I do not know the names of plants.) He was just pecking and chipping and nibbling away it, all the while rotating in the air, suspended from that fragile little husk and slowly spinning like an aerialist, occasionally resetting his grip, but not stopping his work. It was very soothing to watch.