Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins
@ajcousins
Queer romance author. Obsessive book buyer. Slow runner. Fascinated birder. She/her, bi. Rep'd by Handspun Literary Agency. Volunteer Child Advocate for detained immigrant kiddos. Views my own.
My favorite rock is a piece of pink alabaster I carved 35 years ago. I think alabaster is sedimentary, maybe from oceans? This particular bit was a chip from an artist friend's initial sculpting of a large stone in a class I TA'd. It fit into the palm of my hand, so I made a worry stone out of it.
I don't usually catch cormorants in sunset light, so I'm always surprised to be reminded how gorgeous their feathers can be. #birds
Ooh, found my new favorite photo of one of the many Brewer's Blackbirds I saw in S.F.! I love how iridescent blackbirds are. #birds
I DID IT. Slightly crooked, but there will be things hanging on it, so who cares? 💪🤩
Tell me what we need to do to lure Steller's Jays across the Rockies to the Midwest and I WILL DO IT. 😍 #birds
In Chicago, I have looked unsuccessfully for more than a year for a Brewer's Blackbird, despite birders I know seeing them pretty regularly. In S.F., I saw 7 in an hour. 😂 #birds
Ahhhhh! I'm still going through S.F. photos and look what I forgot I saw at Don Edwards NWR near some trash! 😂 BABY BLACK-NECKED STILTS. They were so far away and so extremely camouflaged I could hardly see them. #birds
Love a fluddle that covers an entire parking area and brings all the #birds to the yard. I also love love love the bright orange eye rings Killdeer have. I think this was one of the parents of the amazingly cute babies. :)
Sometimes you just gotta get your whole head in there. :) #birds
These books were about a creative community supporting each other. I'm sorry he doesn't remember what that means.
It's real in my brain and only in my brain. 😂 But as an example of gray being yellow/hot/dry, this is what my brain is picturing:
#BirdOfTheDay theme is Lifer. I came home from San Francisco with about 50 lifers, but I'm a sucker for a new woodpecker. And it's #WoodpeckerWednesday! I didn't get good photos of the Nuttall's Woodpecker we saw in Golden Gate Park, but this Acorn Woodpecker at Coyote Hills posed a bit. 😁 #birds
Lunchtime bird pic! "Is the wind making me look goofy? Don't take a photo if the wind is making me look goofy." #birds
ID help needed, Birdsky! I ID'd this one in the field as a Short-billed Dowitcher, mostly bc that's what I expect in Chicago. Another birder thought it was a Long-billed, so I took a deeper look (with a guide), and scapular pattern, underwing, flank feathers all say Short to me. Thoughts? #birds
This Northern Yellow Warbler fledgling thought the assignment was "living origami" and is WINNING. #birds
Still working on photographing swallows in flight (my nemesis shot), but I'm very happy with this Barn Swallow, a split second before it launched itself off the rope. :) #birds
Argh. That photo was poorly processed. By me. This is better. :) #birds
I need to go to bed. But also, you need a Killdeer chick. So, we all win. :) #birds
This news reminds everyone working in immigrant rights of one of artist/former CBP janitor Tom Kiefer's pieces in his "El Sueño Americano" exhibit.
A Killdeer chasing a Dowitcher (Short-billed, I think, although another birder thought Long-billed, so I have to do a photo review later) off the beach near the pier at Montrose. #birds
Look at those spindly, scaly little dinosaur legs! The teensy toenails! #birds
Sometimes you get a chill, even when it's 78 deg, and you just gotta warm up in the mama/papa oven. #birds 😁
I was lying on the pier taking pictures of the baby Killdeer when this Spotted Sandpiper flew up and came trotting over to check me out. :) #birds
Did I take literally one thousand photos of the baby Killdeer on the beach at dawn today? Bet your ass. :) #birds