May 7, 2026

Where: Lake Accotink Marina

When: 5:25 pm

Bird Species: American robin, black-capped chickadee, blue-gray gnatcatcher, red-winged blackbird, Canada goose, great blue heron, common grackle, European starling, downy woodpecker, northern cardinal, pileated woodpecker, house sparrow, barn swallow, northern rough-winged swallow, double-crested cormorant, house finch, tufted titmouse

Things I Thought About:

• In this, the eighth week I've gone into the office, today I noticed that my desk is a standing desk. I don't know what I thought that plastic lever was for, but I genuinely had not touched it. Instantly, I like the office better.
• Oh, I just had a good bird moment. I don't know how to describe it, it's just...I wasn't really looking for a bird, I was just walking around, and then I stopped to breathe for a second or two, turned my head, and there was a chickadee on a stump. It's such a little bird, in the middle of the big woods, and he was just there. I didn't have to do anything. It felt effortless and meant to be.
• I knew when I accepted the job offer that I could not even consider doing anything else for a year, because it would take a year to figure out how it's going, but it must be obvious that I am not having a very easy time adjusting to this routine. Don't get me wrong, I'm doing well, but I'm not having any fun yet, and knocking off today at 4pm so materially improved my mood and outlook that I really do think the mandatory in office days might kill me when the days get short.
• In the meantime, I might kill this fucking woodpecker. Honest to God, this bird.

• I have very small wrists, and I've always been vain about this, like secretly inside me I have the lithe and slim-boned body of a ballerina rather than the sturdy peasant milkmaid body I have. I notice this as I am walking in the best way to walk, with your hands clasped behind your back with the binos in one hand. My thumb completely overlaps my fingers when I circle my wrist. It makes me feel delicate, which I never have been.
• Goslings on shore. Little children are absolutely losing their shit. Delightful.
• I wish the ice cream truck was here. My teeth still ache from yesterday. I should have a cold treat.
• Ooooh, is Wendy's still making that orange Frosty? That would be a good treat.
• A great blue heron flew by low, and a man in his twenties is saying to his girlfriend, "I've never seen a bird like that" as they pass me. He's playing it casual, but I can tell he's gobsmacked, as who wasn't the first time they saw a great blue heron.

• Oh, there are a bunch of rough-winged swallows here today, in addition to the barn swallows. They don't mind making great looping circles by people at all. The barn swallows are very dedicated to just skimming the lake, but these guys are all over the place, tumbling and playing around, over the dam and the steps and the rocks. Very fun to watch.

• This was a good bird walk. This felt like it was working in a way it hasn't all week. Things are trending in the positive, going into the weekend, which is all I ask.
• And the farmer's markets open Saturday!

BOTD: the Canada goose family. Honestly, it could have easily been the swallows, that was a fun few minutes watching them play, and having their route encircle me a time or two. But I had just come out of the woods trail, where I had seen that chickadee, and had just thought, "Okay, this is more like it," and scoped the lake with my binos, and saw this goose family. I think I gasped out loud, I know my sore jaw dropped open.

Goslings are about as adorable as it gets. These ones are getting big, and they are still so fuzzy and cute. Both parents followed them up on shore and had them caged up in between them the whole time, just like in the water. Little human children were going OUT of their minds, seeing them. Obviously both the human and the goose children were barely avoiding goose shit, because this is a marina, and I will be cropping goose turds out of some photos, but how can these fuzzy butts not be bird of the day.