March 3, 2026

Where: the row of trees across the street

When: 2:12 -2:35pm

Bird Species: northern mockingbird, mourning dove, northern cardinal, house sparrow.

Things I Thought About:

• A whole new emotion I have unlocked is “I don’t really have time to look for a bird today, this feels awful.” It is a bad one.
• I have back-to-back-to-back transition and handoff meetings today, and I am doing laundry, and I have pub trivia tonight, so I won’t be able to go after work, so I have the 17 minutes until the dryer is done to do this.
• Oh, neat, it’s gray and chilly and raining a little outside, for a change.
• I can’t even hear any birds. 
• Mourning doves on the power lines, of course. If my daily observations in 2026 have provided any new insight, it is that mourning doves and mockingbirds are the ones that don’t care about weather. Everyone else hunkers down.
• If we win tonight we are in the finals. I am obsessing on whether my new commute will allow me to make it to 6:30 trivia on a Tuesday. This is admittedly a dumb thing to have on my mind, starting my first new job in 9 years, but it’s a little gnat of a thought. I’ve gone into the office twice a week for years, by choice, and it won’t be bad, but mandatory hybrid office days will be an adjustment.
• My sister and I are a juggernaut team for pub trivia. We routinely place, against teams of six or seven people, and neither of us know the first goddamn thing about sports or music after 1996. I’m so proud of us. I want to go to the finals.  
• A mockingbird, to prove my point. It’s dead out here, though. It snowed yesterday. I can't believe how excited for spring I was Sunday. I've seen like two birds in 15 minutes.

• Is it March that comes in like a lion, or is that April? I know the Chaucer Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, which I know is "showers sweet" but I never don't say and think "sure is soot." And also, the cruelest month, April. I'm ready for it, anyway.
• That cardinal looks like Carmela Soprano.

BOTD: northern cardinal, female. She was by herself, but there was male singing for her somewhere. I saw maybe five birds in 23 minutes. This is the only one in any kind of light.

This lady looks like she's just hanging around the house in the fabulous fur coat her husband bought her. One of the fluffiest cards I've ever seen. Fur is murder, and all that, but chubby and smug is a good look on her.