Square Pursuit

Hello, bird puzzle fans!

It’s that time again. Every spring, I strap on the binoculars with a whole bunch of other birders, and we go out for a few weeks to watch the migrating songbirds come through. This year, I’ve got to go it alone, but that’s pretty easy to do when you’ve got lots of woods around, as I’m lucky to have. It’s amazing to go from a possible 10-20 bird species on your trail walk to over 100 and then back down again in such a short period of time. What a wonderful way to take notice of our planet.

Some disclaimers about this crossword:

• You do not need to know anything about birding to solve this puzzle. I didn’t put anything like “Red-eyed vireo” in the grid.
• If you’re a birder, you won’t find much scientific accuracy here. It’s hard to make a pun or linguistic twist out of “Prothonotary warbler.”
• The difficulty level is, hopefully, a bit gentler than it’s been lately. My intention is to challenge people, not to hurt them! A major reason for doing this blog is to learn how to make my puzzles better and more fun. Everyone has been phenomenally kind in their feedback, but it’s apparent I’ve been a little rough on solvers these past couple of weeks.

And with that, enjoy, keep in touch, and I’ll see you next Wednesday with another tricky themeless!

.puz

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