NYT ‘Strands’ hints and answers for Monday, October 13

And just like that the weekend is over. Blink and you’ll miss it. This week we’re halfway through October, which means Halloween is just around the corner. Are your costumes ready? Have you started buying candy yet that you definitely don’t want to dip into before the trick-or-treaters arrive? Not me! But I have to. Time is a ‘waste’. Speaking of which, we have some words to discover. Let’s solve these Strands!

Looking for Sunday’s Strands? View our guide here.

How to play strands

Strands is the newest game in the New York Times puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Each day we are given a new theme and then tasked with uncovering all the words on the grid that fit that theme, including a spangram that covers two sides of the board. One of these words is the spangram which moves from one side of the grid to the other and reveals even more about the theme of the day.

Spoilers ahead.

Today’s Strands tips

Read on for today’s theme and some tips to help you discover today’s words.

Today’s theme: Bring binoculars

Today’s tip: Birdwatching

These are the first two letters of each word:

Remember: spoilers ahead!

What are today’s answers?

Today’s spangram is: CASE MIGRATION

Here is the full list of words:

• FINCH
• HAWK
• WREN
• GOOSE
• DUCK
• SWIMMER
• THRUSH

Here is the completed Strands grid:

Today’s strand distribution

I first found some of the words at the top left: FINCH, then GOOSE and WREN, and then the spangram became quite clear: AUTUMN MIGRATION. HAWK was next, before I flew to the other side of the grid and found DUCK and THRUSH and finally WARBLER. This was pretty easy as far as Strands puzzles go. I’m not a bird watcher and don’t even have binoculars (I used to, I lost them or lent them to someone), but this made me think it would be fun to watch bird migration. See some geese in a V. It also reminded me of the series currently airing Task on HBO. Mark Ruffalo plays an FBI agent who is a birdwatcher as a hobby, and this comes up as a kind of extended metaphor throughout the show. It’s a great show, so definitely check it out. It’s one of mine List of Top Shows of 2025 (So Far).

How did your Strands go today? Let me know Tweet And Facebook.

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