Birds Know That Music is Resistance

I joined Bird Philly for a walk along Poquessing Creek, where we sought sparrows. These little birds are often overlooked, and watching them can be difficult, as they love to hide in brush and rarely stop moving. Song Sparrows can be heard before they are seen, and White-Throated Sparrows are as active and colorful as the warblers so many obsess upon. Our guide Holger was especially fond of Field Sparrows, and led us to a field where they were plentiful.

This was my first time seeing one for what it was. I didn’t manage a good photo of any of the smallest birds, but I enjoyed watching them, and learning the patience to spot them in clusters of vines and undergrowth. This paid off for me on my Timber Creek walks, where I found myself surrounded by Yellow-Rumped Warblers, flitting deep in the brush of the foreshore. I stood still and enjoyed them going about their business around me.

After we got out of the woods, the open blue sky had soaring hawks, ravens, and vultures. Holger gave us pointers for telling Black Vultures from Turkey Vultures from their silhouette. I identified a Northern Flicker’s calls, but never spotted it. I did spot a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker feeding in a tree from a photogenic angle, and we observed it while waiting for sparrows to show themselves.

An Eastern Phoebe posed generously for us.

Another Song Sparrow of a sort, who brought joy to a lot of us, was Jon Baptiste and his band, who played at the Met in Philly. Phone photos always look good on the phone and then terrible on a larger screen. This is the second time I’ve seen Baptiste perform; Sarah first saw him when he led the band on the Stephen Colbert show. Born in New Orleans and trained at Julliard, he’s a musical prodigy who uses his expertise for joy. Everything from classical piano to New Orleans jazz, R&B, and hip hop are on order, and the music does not stop from the moment the band struts down the aisles to get onstage, to when they bow, and Jon leads them for a second line out through the audience, while playing “When the Saints Come Marching In,” on an electric keyboard-harmonica.

There are bands I like to see whenever I can, and his is one; another are Poguetry, aka Spider Stacy and Rocky O’Riordan of the Pogues, when they tour with the Lost Bayou Ramblers; the Budos Band just joined the list, after I saw them open for the Alabama Shakes. Here’s the band playing “Big Money,” on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Good things I’ve read lately…

In Maine, teachers are taking kids on nature hikes instead of giving them suspension for misbehaving, and not only are they enjoying it, but it improves their behavior.

We Used to Read Things in This Country, by Noah McCormack in The Baffler. The United States is regressing into a post-literate society as other countries restrict phone time and social media for children and invest in their education, while we allow ours to be groomed by billionaires’ algorithms to be good, illiterate consumers.

Speaking of… another great read by Antonia Malchik, of otters and oligarchs…

On greed: how much is enough?

And how Amanda Royal of Earth Hope came to love birds, and “never be a birder.”

"I'll never be a birder"

I haven’t read any books that have moved me lately, but I enjoyed the movies 28 Years Later and Weapons very much; Civil War is also a good bit of catharsis, if you are in the need. 28 Years Later shifts the zombie narrative to a post-apocalyptic setting, where the Isle of Britain has been quarantined and left to fend for itself. As western democracies reject their neighbors and progress, it may be the safest option for other countries to leave us to our own devices as we chase nostalgia for ages that only exist in rose-colored memories so oligarchs can pick our pockets.

Weapons is more of a traditional horror tale, about seventeen schoolchildren in the same class who walk out of their houses late at night and can’t be found. If you enjoyed The Witch and Midsommar this is the suburban take, for you. Zach Cregger of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know has made a ripper of a modern folk horror film, and I’ll be watching his debut, Barbarian, soon.