Sean Gallagher

A very large pond slider upon a log in a Maryland river on the first warm day of 2026.

Slider says “LOOK AT ME. I AM THE CAPTAIN NOW.”

A Dark-eyed Junco on a hillside in Baltimore looks pensive.

Junco is thinking the way s*** is going down maybe he should pick more northerly forests this year for nesting.

Not wrong (unfortunately).

AOC: The Pentagon has not passed an audit, and they are out here trying to kick people with disabilities off of Medicaid. It is corruption that is stealing from the public coffers — and that is the actual waste, fraud, and abuse.

Double crested cormorants hang out on rotted pier pilings.

Hot new waterfront club

A juvenile Bald Eagle shows off his/her talons.

Murdermittens

A yellow bellied sapsucker.

Morning, sucker.

Starling thinks he is very photogenic

A bald eagle with its adult feathers coming in sits atop a lamp on the waterfront in Baltimore as a crow flies past to tell him to get lost.

Crow thinks his neighborhood is overpoliced.

Black scoter

And s’cute!

WHAT IS A SCOTER? The origin of the word "scoter" is unknown. The first printed reference as a common name was by Ray in Collective Catalogue of Birds (1674) (Holloway). Dawson (1902) thinks it may be derived from this duck's old name of sea coot, and people calling to it to move it out of the way of their boats. Instead of "Ssss cat!" they would call, "'Ssss you coot! S'coot' whence Scooter or Scoter, the bird that scoots." This is at least a possible explanation.

Sssss coot!

Black scoters.

Surf scoters and black scoters.

Surf scoters surfing

Stacked surf scoters

All the scoters. 🩷

We have always been at war with West Asia.

The birds have had it with all this snow and ICE.

The gulls have something to say about Iran.

Canon RF 200-800mm

The poster and his spouse on a dock waiting to board a boat to watch birds (and maybe seals)

Boat birding.

I am birding today so I will ignore all the posts about the news until Monday.

The judges in WV have seen enough.

They say that if the ICE continues detaining people in ways they have unanimously deemed illegal they will start issuing civil fines and contempt findings — including against state officials who help them carry it out.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Opinion | Trump’s Strikes on Iran Were Unlawful. Here’s Why That Matters.

The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal. I explained in June why the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...

Hi starling I see you.

Preening starling

More Starling preen.

Side eye starling.

Tfw your new lens lets you lock in on a starling in the branches of a tree 200 feet away behind a tangle of branches.

House sparrow perched on sycamore branch.

House sparrow looks droll on his perch.

House sparrow is ready for his close up.

House Sparrow has opinions he is keeping to himself.

House Sparrow was kind enough to pose for me to test my new lens out 5 minutes after getting home with it.

Nice!

Dinosaurs, Jr.

Rodan and a bunch of dinosaurs yucking it up.

This is the level of joy I aspire to.

My first job after college was technically working from home…home was a big grey thing that floated and had big guns on it.

I went to the office today for the first time this year.

It was good. After working from home for almost all of my adult life, the office is like a spa.

Downy woodpecker ceramic made for a wall decoration

Cobrachicken

Battew

Hooded merganser

From AP story : 1 of 9| In his State of the Union address Trump said his preference was to use diplomacy in dealing with Iran. But, he added, "I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror - which they are, by far - to have a nuclear weapon."

Trump called Iran “the world’s number one sponsor of terror”. Who sponsored Osama bin Laden originally? 🤔🧐