May 19, 2026

Where: the neighborhood

When: 10:15 am

Bird Species: house sparrow, house finch, northern cardinal, European starling, American robin, common grackle, northern mockingbird, song sparrow, Carolina wren

Things I Thought About:

• [me in March] I've never minded the hot weather, I loooove to sweat, just fat and poison flowing out my pores [me after two days birding in the 90s] these goddamn birds better set an alarm clock because it was already 70 at 5:40am and I'm not doing this everyday
• Good thing it's going to be 35 degrees cooler this weekend. Normal weather.
• So it turns out that there are a bunch of blackberry bushes all over the neighborhood? It seems crazy that I did not notice this last year, but last year I only had two kinds of leisure days: Go Somewhere Special and Look for Birds days, and Sit Inside and Watch Ten Hours of Television days. The 2026 resolution to see a bird every day has really opened my eyes to some close to home marvels. I'm genuinely grateful for this.
• For example, look at the brushy hedgerow today. All winter long, this is a bare and brown collection of brambles, a certain place to catch a bird for pics. Now, in the fertile spring, a bird could hide from me in there until October.

• Do you know what the birds are up to today? They are aggressively and maliciously not eating berries, although they are posted up with many photogenic opportunities to do so. It is rude for these birds not to have berries in their mouths.

• A very good-looking man has stopped to look at what I'm looking at. Sweat is plastering my hair to my temples, and I have sweat through the collar of the T-shirt I'm wearing, which is the same one I wore and ruined at the swamp yesterday. I have on no makeup and haven't washed my hair since Saturday.
• [me flirting] Do you know anything about northern mockingbirds?

• Fortunately, he does not, so I tell him about their thug tendencies, and how it's Gang Season for mockingbirds. With exquisite timing, two mockingbirds team up and chase a grackle away from the trees we are watching. He is impressed by the spectacle and also impressed with my mockingbird knowledge; I just know it.
• When will I stop finding 30-year-old men attractive? It is embarrassing. In ten years, I will be the elderly neighbor this man is urged to check on during heat waves and snowstorms. It's sick to notice his abs when he wipes his face with his shirt.
• Should I try that move? I should definitely wipe my face. Showing the abs probably a mistake, though.
• On Friday I'm going to come out here with a bucket and pick these blackberries to make an ice cream drizzle.

BOTD: Carolina wren. This little gal led me on a real chase. I was happy to follow her into the shade; less happy to have to navigate the abundant poison ivy. She sang all morning and into the lunch hour.