backyard birds

October 28, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 3 min read
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October 28, 2026
Bird of the Day: tufted titmouse. Zero edits, just a bounty of little birdies today.

Where: Hidden Oaks Nature Center

When: 2:00 pm

Bird Species: tufted titmouse, Carolina chickadee, blue jay, northern cardinal, white-breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, American robin, pileated woodpecker, mourning dove, red-bellied woodpecker, American crow

Things I Thought About:

  • Today I had one call on my schedule following my midday annual gynecologist visit (which is a criminal crime) and it has cancelled. I am straight up ditching work right now, and it feels terrific.
  • My vagina, for the record, is “looking really pink and healthy.” An insane thing to say to me, but here I am, bragging about it. 
  • The birds are plentiful today, and my mind is very blank. My boss has given me a bottle of Basil Hayden, and I will be making a boulevardier with it this evening. It feels good to be walking around outside when I should be at work, always, always.
Not bad for being backlit. Woodpeckers are cool, except flickers, who don't even drum that much that I can see.
  • There is a wren singing somewhere close, and a little slower and softer and more even than usual, just two alternating tones, in a descending pitch and cadence that sounds quite a lot like someone imitating the Swedish Chef.
im a vreen-a singeeng ivey oun un ould lug
  • Someone will tell me if I mention the Muppets too frequently.
  • There are two pileated woodpeckers flapping around here, low and silently, and I have taken some of the worst photos ever taken of them.
On the one hand, a poor capture (this was the best one) but on the other hand, the foliage is starting to thin out and change color, which makes for more chances.
  • I have posted up near one of the bird feeders, where an extremely lively mixed flock of nuthatches, chickadees, downys and titmice (titmouses?) are always to be found. Today they are ping-ponging around in a square, the bird box, a green shrub, a fall-colored tree, a ravine at a distance. I am getting nice shots of both the shrub and the tree, but I prefer the fall background.
A great day for woodpeckers, but not the bird of the day.
  • I stayed for two hours. These birds were so close, and so abundant, that after a while I just stopped following them with the camera and only looked at trees and branches with colors I liked.
Autumn's first green is gold, she cheerfully misquoted
  • This is much the same attitude with which I eat all-you-can-eat crab legs: don't even bother with the little ones when you know there will be more coming. Thus do I indulge my most spoiled rotten behaviors. Could be much worse, I suppose.

BOTD: tufted titmouse. I have never seen so many, so low and lively. It was truly a great couple of hours. Honestly, any one of about four species could have been bird of the day, but there was a titmouse everywhere I looked.

I did not edit a single photo today, just crops. The birdies were very generous with me today.

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