Perpetual Sunday

Schenley Park’s Bob O’Connor Golf Course is empty now (photo by Kate St. John)

Sunday, 29 March 2020:

I don’t know about you but I am really confused about what day it is. Because of the COVID-19 shutdown there’s no traffic anywhere, few cars are on the street, parking lots are empty and few pedestrians venture out before midday unless the weather is exceptionally good. Every day feels like Sunday.

Pittsburgh’s Strip District, the home of restaurants, international food markets and boutique retailers is normally packed before dawn on Saturday mornings. Yesterday Dave DiCello filmed the emptiness and posted on Twitter.

Happily, Sunday is my traditional day for hiking and birding so I’ve been outdoors every day to see migration ramping up including these Best Birds seen yesterday, 28 March 2020, on a Saturday that felt like Sunday: One Bonaparte’s gull and six female red-breasted mergansers at Duck Hollow, plus eight(!) fox sparrows at Schenley Park.

By the way these photos by Cris Hamilton, Bob Kroeger and Steve Gosser are not the individual birds I saw. See the captions for their locations.

Bonaparte’s gull in Seattle (photo by Cris Hamilton, 2018)
Red-breasted merganser at Cape Cod (photo by Bob Kroeger, 2019)
Fox sparrow, Sewickley Heights Park (photo by Steve Gosser, 22 March 2020)

(photos by Kate St. John, Cris Hamilton, Bob Kroeger, Steve Gosser)

5 thoughts on “Perpetual Sunday

  1. Glad to see it’s not only me! My wife and I were just talking about how the days all seem similar now. Sheltering-in-place here in San Francisco, before Spring Break, she was teaching her First Grade class online; I’m retired but on Wednesdays worked at a horse ranch across the bay. She misses being with her students in-person but it’s nice to have here with me at home. I’m am missing my horses.

    Here’s to happier trails ahead. Take care! Be well.

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