Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 04/01/2026Yarra River wandering - striated pardalote, common bronzewing, platypus(!!), owlet-nightjar 2424
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 17/12/2025Every year I get incredibly stressed and every year I get over the line - 451 calendars sold, $10820 donated, thanks for playing everyone!!!! 0160
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 14/12/2025Didn't find the owlet nightjar at Banyule, but it's always good for a stroll 0250
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 13/12/2025Been going to my run club for a couple of years and I've met so many of my favourite people 1100
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 10/12/2025Gang! I've still got approx 10 bird calendars left to sell, raising money for good causes as always and prices marked down to $25! You too could be this happy next year!!! birdmichaelbirdcalendars.bigcartel.com 021
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Was trying to drag myself away from Twitter, but I guess I've gotta stay now 0100
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 08/12/2025While I'm posting, these were my favourite Australian books of the year - something for everyone (poetry, non-fiction, madcap novels, capital L Literature, graphic novels, short stories etc etc) 1181
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Every few months the racism and misogyny on twitter drives me back over here, maybe I can make it stick this time? It's been a big tawny season since I last posted! 3300
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 16/05/2025Laura is basically the loveliest person in the world and also an incredible goddamn writer, how??? 2232
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 14/05/2025Thrilled to be at the launch of Laura Elvery's incredible debut novel - highly recommend it and both her short story collections 0110
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 13/05/2025I've drifted back to the bad site for the past month or so, but I'm gonna try to return here more regularly. Mostly I just wanted another place to post this photo of me distracted by a goshawk during the Ballarat marathon 5510
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 16/03/202534km this morning, 90+ for the week, everything is sore and tired 1180
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 25/02/2025Book 24: Beautiful, brutal novel about growing up gay in working class France. Shot through with class consciousness, it's utterly devastating 010
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 23/02/2025Time for my annual failed attempt to predict @thestellaprize.bsky.social longlist! What have I missed here gang? Gimme your hot tips and predictions 270
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 23/02/2025Book 23: Could have put this down disoriented and a bit annoyed after 50 pages, but so, so glad I stuck at it. Two men, one dying, telling each other stories - it's sublime and inventive, experimental and deeply human 230
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Book 22: borrowed this because of a blurb that said "for fans of Miriam Toews," and that's just setting the bar too high. This has some lovely moments, but lacks the warmth and humour that I was expecting 110
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 20/02/2025Googled Kate Jennings' Snake after @sightlined.bsky.social's post and this is just garbage: publication date out by nearly 50 years, a made-up co-author - remember when the internet used to work? 381
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Book 21: I just adored this beautiful short book about grief and family and the things we can and can't say. And squash. Squash as metaphor, squash as gloriously described embodied experience. Made me want to play again 110
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 16/02/2025Book 20: an ambitious novel that tells the story of the US via a patch of land and the people who live on it - it didn't always work for me, but by the end I was basically won over 130
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 16/02/2025Absurdly boring for everyone else, but god I'm loving feeling noticeably fitter and stronger each week of this marathon training block 1190
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 15/02/2025Me responding to doodle polls for meetings I probably won't attend anyway 0170
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 14/02/2025Book 19: a beautiful and warm portrait of a nearly forgotten way of life, protecting eider nests on remote Norwegian islands. Slightly weakened by the need for the author to experience some sort of personal growth, but when he focuses on the setting and the story it's sublime 230
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 12/02/2025Book 18: review redacted until bookclub meets, but this wasn't at all what I was expecting (in a mostly good way) 140
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 11/02/2025Pleased to report that I continue to confuse and alienate my run club by pointing out random birds in the distance (today: an Australian hobby hunting around the Rathdowne public housing towers) 5271
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 09/02/202528km in the tank this morning for a 75km week, training block is intensifying 140
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 08/02/2025Book 17: a bit biased because Robert is a friend, but this is a banger. Funny and sad and edge-of-the-seat compelling - if there's any justice it'll be a smash hit 160
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 07/02/2025What's everyone's favourite parrot, and why isn't it purple crowned lorikeet? 20996
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 07/02/2025Book 16: a day in the life (and mind) of a precocious oxford student wrestling with an essay on Shakespeare. Sections of this were electric, but a few digressions had me drifting - a really bold and interesting book though 210
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 05/02/2025We are getting 2025 off to a frankly insane start running-wise gang (I am only gonna get more boring from here, please mute me) 180
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 04/02/2025I love birds and I love running, obviously, so this Fractel series should be my favourite ever thing. But... how is this a kookaburra? There's not even any blue? Baffling 2110
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 04/02/2025Book 15: This is super readable and tugs the heartstrings so effectively for maybe the first two thirds, before getting a little schmaltzy towards the end - a moving portrait of the changing face of Ireland over 70 years 240
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 03/02/2025How can we get skimmers to migrate to Australia?? I would like to see one 3132
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Gonna continue to bore my followers with running updates: 64km this week including a lovely 24 before it got too hot today 0140
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Channel billed cuckoos at Wilson's Reserve continue to evade me 3110
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Book 14: a grim and repetitive book about childhood trauma and its repercussions - especially the added trauma of being disbelieved. A hard read, but powerful 150
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 30/01/2025Absolutely perfect morning to do your silly little marathon training session by the river and then eat bagels with yr friends 0150
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 27/01/2025Book 13: This is technically impressive and may have just caught me in the wrong mood, because it all felt a bit academic and precise somehow 130
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 27/01/2025Quick jaunt to Braeside before the heat got overwhelming - it's such a great spot (Night heron, freckled duck, golden headed cisticola, royal spoonbill) 1160
Michael L @birdmichael.bsky.social · 25/01/2025Book 12: Kind of odd to read this right after All Fours: it's another story of midlife upheaval, breaking out of stasis and boredom into something new, but just a wildly more low key tone and narrator 110
