October 7, 2026

Where: Eakin Park at Tobin Road

When: 5:00 pm yesterday

Bird Species: eastern bluebird, white-breasted nuthatch, ruby-crowned kinglet, blue jay, yellow-rumped warbler, Cape May warbler (lifer), blackpoll warbler, American robin, eastern phoebe, house sparrow

Things I Thought About:

• In the spirit of transparency, some of this is stuff I’m thinking about today, despite the fact that the bird was captured yesterday. What can you do; there are only so many hours in a day, and I can’t recreate the thoughts that were in my head when I started typing this sentence, never mind 26 hours ago.
• I was reading LinkedIn today, like a sociopath does, and I encountered an article about how women do not seek HR accommodation for menopause symptoms, to which I can only say, “no shit.” You’d be amazed by how many comments from male bosses encouraging women to do so there weren’t.
• One of the birds I saw yesterday was a lifer! Pretty exciting. Weird that it did not turn out to be the bird of the day.

• It is almost time for me to pick some movies for Spooky Season. I have an easily disprovable theory, that when it comes to horror flicks there are A24 People and Blumhouse Movies, and all horror movies can sort into those two categories. I am generally a Blumhouse person, with the obvious and usual exceptions (The VVitch, Midsommar.) I like my horror movies nasty, shallow and efficient.
• This was such a long day at work. My neck hurts from hunching in. I didn’t go outside until it was dark.
• It's nice sitting out on a balcony, though. I love this kind of weather. House slippers and sloppy sweaters.
• Austin Riley, get your shit together. (Ed.Note: he did not.)
• Yesterday I went into the office midday and left around 4, so I had about 35 minutes to spare getting from DC to the pub quiz, and once again pulled into Eakin Park where I can just look at bluebirds from the parking lot.
• I did see bluebirds, but I also saw something that has been conspicuously missing for me this fall: warblers. The single tree by the entrance sign was lively with small birds, and I only had to walk about 30 steps to be able to list ten species. Pretty good.
• I’ll be excited to go on a real walk this weekend though, fingers crossed.

BOTD: ruby-crowned kinglet. I think early in the life of this blog I said whenever you get a lifer it's the bird of the day? And it truly was such a joy to effortlessly record a lifer today, but I want to talk about kinglets, and who knows when I'll get one on camera again.

I really like this bird. I've only listed them three times this year, and the time the ruby-crowned was BOTD before you couldn't really see all the stuff I like about them.

They are regular and reliable winter visitors. The kinglets and the yellow-rumped warblers are always among the first to arrive and last to leave. There are two varieties, golden-crowned and ruby-crowned, but I can hardly ever see their crowns. They only show when they are super agitated or super horny. The ruby-crowned has some other really easily observed identifiers, though.

One, truly striking coloring on the back and wings. The edges are brighter and sharper than other songbirds, so as soon as I see it, I start thinking kinglet:

Above those bright edges, the strong white bar. A lot of yellow songbirds have wing bars, but the bright white is a good marker, especially when paired with their behavior, which is hyperactive. They are a wildly energetic little bird. I feel lucky to have gotten two or three good shots out of 20.

Finally, the eye ring. You should know by now I'm a sucker for a white eye ring. This one is a little uneven (robins are broken and clownish, blue-gray gnatcatchers are solid and perfect) but when you see a yellow songbird looking just a little impatient or hectic like this, it may well be a kinglet. Golden-crowned kinglets have a dark eyeline. One of the only ways I can tell them apart when they aren't displaying, and one of my favorite features in all birds.

Just a really good bird.