November 7, 2026

Where: Ashby Pond Conservatory Site and Daniels Run Park

When: 11:18 am

Bird Species: song sparrow, American robin, tufted titmouse, blue jay, American crow, red-bellied woodpecker, great blue heron, eastern bluebird

Things I Thought About:

• My sex life, present-day and historical. This presents problems with what is first and foremost a bird blog! Any clever and insightful little bullet point from this train of thought runs the risk of being much too personal or runs the risk of me accidentally saying something eminently cancellable about men.
• Nevertheless, this is pretty much all I was thinking about today. In an analytic, poking-around-in-the-archive sort of way, not a "thinking about sex" way.
• I'm not out here in a public park being tacky.
• This morning I went to a volleyball game at a middle school I have never been to before, and I have ended up here by checking eBird for nearby hot spots. This is a very small pond with a trail around it, not too much of a park at all, but there are berry bushes with robins nibbling, and a placid GBH stalking a very narrow rivulet.

• I still have plenty of goodwill and a sunshine high when I have seen everything there is to see at this spot, so I slide about two blocks over to a long walking park through City of Fairfax, which is a little fancy. Shaded, golden, well-maintained, private, except it is quite near and parallel to Main Street. This is a gorgeous park, but not actually the best for a person who birds largely by ear. I hear cars more than I do background chirps.

• I have taken Monday and Tuesday off, and all of the next three days are supposed to be this beautiful. I've got a medium long drive tomorrow, but even that will be a good time on a golden blue day like this.
• The dreadful niece's team lost both volleyball games by eight plus points, but this gym had very low ceilings which was a real handicap, and she had one perfect serve for a point.
• The electric zip sound of my car window rolling down exactly matches the pitch of the opening chord of Summer in the City.
• A nice day to roll the car window down.

BOTD: Eastern bluebird. The not especially common entry where the bird of the day is also the bird photo of the day. Dumb luck. Both these spots were gorgeous for a walk, but they weren't especially active as bird hot spots. I had just said to myself that I was a little bored of woodpeckers and herons, when a single pair of bluebirds, a male and female, lighted nearby. The female took a few seconds to pick berries at a bush about twenty feet in front of the bridge I was standing on. Perfectly framed, for no longer than a minute. Nice shots.

Bluebirds are such cute birds. They do not ever have an ugly stage, even as fledglings and juveniles. 2D animation, hand-drawn birds.