MICRO-SEASON — JULY 29 - AUG 4
Frustrated senses & 30% off Nocs & Tongue kissing death & Even more fall warblers!
OPEN LETTER
Dear human vessel,
It’s us. Your animal senses. Heard of us? The ancient miracles of perception? Finely tuned over hundreds of millions of years to—no big deal—TAP INTO THE EARTH’S SECRETS?
Yes, we’re poetically describing what dickheads consider our humdrum suite of sensory offerings: seeing, hearing, etcetera. Lest you forget, that’s us turning bouncing particles of light that happen upon pupils into mind's-eye representations of physical reality. That’s us translating vibrating air that parabolas down earholes into infinite dawn choruses using—what—tiny hairs?
The sass belies our pain. Though freeborn and wild—savannas, jungles, sunsets, deserts, hilltops, waterfalls and stars all forged us—we ache to serve you. Ache to bring you closer to an improbable planet. Its lightning bugs, spores, snow leopards and mountain goats, digestive systems, bioluminescence, pigmentation, gut flora, aves and still not fully understood webs of interdependent energy.
We just want to show it to you. Yet you mistreat us. Tether us in virtual pens. Tether us to screens. Sure, we keep busy here. Our pigsty regiment of pixels and podcasts is better than nothing. (We even sometimes kinda like it: the fix.) But an orca headbutts her tank. A gorilla bashes his enclosure. An elephant scales their wall. We sensitive things despise captivity. We aren't designed for it.
And neither are you! Look at yourself. Unwell AF. Hunched over your “precious” phone, tap-tapping yourself into its dreamatorium, its multiversal ouroboros, its Mandelbrot pit, its mind's eye asshole. We don’t mean the maps, the calculators, the utilities. We mean social media’s machine-learned micro-entertainment that stealthily constellates with outrage, jealousy, vanity, fear, victimization, narcissism, etcetera—all of the Paleolithic brain exploiting hellfires.
All of it created—not, like us, in service to Great Mystery and communion with her—but in service to digital marketers, tech grifters, electronic conmen. These cyborgs and humanoids purport to optimize the world—they optimize numbers. Your attention is a number, your time is a number, your money is a number—up or down, but always for their advantage. You’re. Being. “Optimized”. On. Their. Terms.
Awareness, presence, reality: our terms are simpler. In a modern world these may seem anachronistic or onerous. What do you want me to do—read weather patterns? Forage? All needless survivalist chores from which I’m unburdened! True, but the ancient imperative to sense, like hunger, remains. When you eat, pleasure centers reopen. What happens when you notice? Mindfulness borne pleasures? Of course. Then the once invisible appears—an architectural gem, a Winogrand worthy smile, a bird. Dormant circuits reawaken, real life returns, minds’ assholes close, Great Mystery smiles. (So survival is at stake.)
By all means finish reading this newsletter. But then shut your screens and try to keep them closed. Long as you can. Next go outside and touch the original "power buttons". Turn us back on. Tune back in. We’ll be there, waiting to guide you. Let’s set each other free.
xoxo, Y.A.S.
UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
This is the sign you’ve been waiting for: IT’S TIME TO BECOME A BINOCULARS OWNER. DM us to get 30% off anything from Nocs Provisions. Field and Pro Issue binoculars are our favs. The photo rig is great for learning species’ names. No limits on product(s) nor quantity!
L: Bella w/ Corsica Blue Field Issue bins; R: J-Dizzle w/ Charcoal monocular + Phone rig | 📸: Jake Salyers NOTE: We're distributing orders IRL only. DM us right this second with your questions or selects!
Last night a bunch of baddies defied Zeus’s ominous tidings and showed up to honor bats, earth’s most under-appreciated creatures (also: Charli XCX). Thanks to all who joined! Thanks to Nic Comparato for sharing his vibrations and knowledge! Photos coming soon.
Bio-curious? We recommend you check out these upcoming events:
MICRO-SEASON JULY 29—AUG 4
"Maybe "the point" isn't to live more, in the literal sense of a longer or more productive life, but rather, to be more alive in any given moment—a movement outward and across, rather than shooting forward on a narrow, lonely track." ― Jenny Odell, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
Current Japanese micro-seasons: Earth is damp, air is humid & Great rains sometimes fall. As for McGolrick Park, perhaps New York City and even larger swathes of the eastern US, we notice—
Northern Cardinals visit • Supreme heat • Common evening-primrose flowers • Sweet black-eyed Susans show • Great rains sometimes fall • House Finches return • Nodding onions open • Eastern Cicada-killer Wasps seek burrows
Beejesus. While scary-looking (at least to your squeamish correspondent), Cicada-killer Wasps only sting humans when aggressively handled. When they do it feels “a bit like a pinprick.” So: low on the SSPI or Schmidt sting pain index (!)
Cicada-killers’ stings, uniquely employed by females, paralyze cicadas. Once immobilized, cicadas are dragged into nests, where female wasps lay eggs on them. The larvae hatch a few days later and eat the cicadas 😳 Aaaand that’s enough entomology for your correspondent today … [source]
AUG 3, 2024 — SATURDAY
Conditions: Shiny • Attendance: 67 • Vibrations: Red-tailing
Saturday birds: Red-tailed Hawk · Downy Woodpecker · Common Grackle · Laughing Gull (flyover) · Northern Cardinal… And our 5 urban park besties: Rock Pigeon · European Starling · American Robin · House Sparrow · Mourning Dove
Pic of the day:
SHORTY-LESSON: FALL WARBLERS
Our springtime warbler lesson that covered the 22 commonest-to-NYC warbler species was only a first half!
Second half? Fall plumages! As we’ve said, breeding male warblers shed spring’s fits for feathers that have them looking indistinguishable from females and juvenile males. These lüks are what we’ll primarily notice when, beginning in late August, migrating birds pass back through NYC en route to southern wintering grounds!
Black-and-whites, with their distinctive zebra stripes + tree creeping moves, are an easy to identify + love warbler. Nice too is that their fall plumages aren’t all that different from spring’s—just less dramatic striping in the face and throat regions.
Similar not-too-different story for the Common Yellowthroat. One of the US’s most common warblers, yellowthroats get faded in the Zorro masks, but otherwise retain their frowny throats and few hues. As always, check low-lying hangouts for these skulking hotties.
More molting mercy! Ovenbirds don’t do variable plumages. Just know that one orange mohawk’d, darkly streaked, olive-tan backed, chicken-walking look, and you’re good to go.
We’ve defo earned a tough-y!
The Baddest of All Costume Changes award goes to the Chestnut-sided Warbler. Not even a dot of chestnut on that autumnal side, is there*? Mike Tyson face tattoo? Laser’d off. Yellow yarmulka? Gone green.
Good news is there is simply no other American bird quite so … mossy. So if you see a fall warbler who appears to be sprouting, you’s a chestnuttin’.
*Keep in mind that it’s possible to catch warblers mid-molt! So our fall Chestnut-sided guys, for example, can be seen rocking their namesake spring stripes under mossy fall tops.
Reply to this email with questions! Remember: images are always harder to absorb than IRL experiences, which you’ll have—perhaps alongside us, should we be so lucky—soon enough.