Today's #BirdoftheDay theme is #LookingAtYou. 🪶

Eastern Phoebe with its soft feathers and subtle greys 🪶

A wee essay, calling on ~2 minutes of your expansive life, on why it matters how you spend that little bit of time. All This Useless Beauty open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

Coping will officially be released in 2 weeks. We have put copies in the mail to the dozen people Jon interviewed about how they cope with extraordinary stresses - everyone has a coping story.

My first Baltimore Oriole of 2026 🪶

Distinctive Eastern Towhee on a glorious day at Carden Alvar, Ontario 🪶

Yellow warbler spreading joy today 🪶

Eastern Bluebird #BirdOfTheDay #BirdOnAWire

The official (!!!) unboxing video for Coping: Fix Problems, Find Meaning, Feel Better @uoftpress.bsky.social Pre-order now!

We just did our Canada census. We’re disappointed that we always seem to get the short form.

Writers, especially those who make tiny ripples or none - quiet writers - must nonetheless write. open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

“Rumped” autocorrect

Yellow-rumpled warbler practicing the “are you looking at me?” Scene from Taxi Driver 🪶

Wanting & Liking have distinct brain biologies and different spiritual implications. #Jesus and #MickJagger teach that we can’t always get what we want, while the #Ramones have their own reasons to wanna, wanna, wanna. open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

1200 words about what Taoism, Jesus, the Ramones, and neurobiology have to teach about wanting & liking/the future & now/addiction & love/manifestation & mystery. #Ramones #Religion #Neurobiology Now I Wanna Steal the Light open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

First yellow warbler of 2026 🪶

White-throated Sparrow peeking out from behind a tree 🪶

A colonial tale with more deaths than a Shakespearean tragedy: the life of my great-granduncle James. open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

I trace the salt trail of lost connections to the sea Oceans open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

Female red-winged blackbird. What a contrast to the male. 🪶

A bird that “pops” 🪶

Red winged blackbird sporting his intense mating season colours 🪶

Nobody is asking me for new music recommendations, but here’s one. What a great record. music.apple.com/ca/album/glo...

Here’s a spring beauty. Common Merganser. 🪶

On the complicated and critical interaction BETWEEN people that is required to establish true consent open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

Northern Mockingbird. A grey bird through branches may not seem spectacular, but over five years of going out birding most weeks, this is the first one I have photographed (and it is not easy to focus through all those branches). Little achievements matter a bit. 🪶

Bufflehead take-off 🪶

Nest building time 🪶

Ring-necked duck looking a bit goofy 🪶

Counting days until we get back to Prince Edward Island. This is last June, the day we arrived for summer. 🪶

Recent bird photos (robin, Cooper’s Hawk, mourning dove) have reached 1000s more people than is normal for me. Thank you. I take it as a sign the universe wants me to plug Coping, coming out in June. @uoftpress.bsky.social “Accessible, compassionate, grounded in science, authoritative”

The mourning dove is another bird that is so common you stop noticing its beauty 🪶

Song sparrow 🪶

Some Easter reading for not-religious folk like me who remain open to wonder and goodness open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

Some Easter reading for not-religious folk like me who remain open to wonder and goodness open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

Welcome new followers! I would be a bad author if I did not point out that the semi-meditative act of photographing birds is a form of coping. This book on how to cope, by Jon Hunter and me, is out soon from @uoftpress.bsky.social “Accessible, compassionate, scientifically sound, and authoritative.”

Cooper’s hawk on this suddenly warm spring day 🪶

Black and white and red all over 🪶

Gadwalls taking off, swan, ice breaking up. Spring on a bay of Lake Ontario 🪶

Trumpeter Swan spring fever 🪶

Ring-necked ducks (although the rings seem more around their bills) 🪶

The red-winged blackbirds have been back for two weeks - more signs of spring 🪶

Hooded merganser looking pleased with himself 🪶

Hello to new followers! I’ll take the opportunity to re-announce that COPING is coming out in June. “Accessible, compassionate, and grounded in science” Fix Problems, Find Meaning, Feel Better. @uoftpress.bsky.social

Spring 🪶

Cardinal looking jaunty today 🪶

White-throated sparrow is all puffed out 🪶

Hooded mergansers noticing spring in the air 🪶

Beautiful afternoon on Lake Ontario. Winter very much still here but it won’t be long until these long tail ducks head back north. 🪶

Learning the details of each others’ lives is the key to solidarity - more compassion, less stigma, less judgement - less we vs them.