Bird-Brained Puzzles

I have a new cryptic for all to try! Bigger than my minis, smaller than the 15x15s. Surface sense may be shaky, but I'm determined to keep up my upload schedule for the time being. Happy solving!

Have a new puzzle type debuting on my blog this week. This format, like many, was originally conceived by Patrick Berry. Fill each blank spot in the grids so that 8 letter English words read both across and down.

Consider the fact you're seeing the puzzle a blessing. My wifi is noticably worse than it was a few weeks ago. Have fun solving, because I did not have fun uploading.

Hey everyone! In a weird situation making it difficult to get a new puzzle out this week, so I thought I'd provide some hints for last week's puzzle, shifted 13 letters. And if you don't want to copy and paste each hint into rot13.com , you can consider manually cipher solving them this week's puzzle. 1A. Rnpu cuenfr pbagnvaf n jbeq gung fhttrfgf na beqrevat. 6A. Rnpu jbeq be cuenfr pna or nantenzzrq gb svg n pngrtbel vs lbh erzbir bar yrggre. 7A. Cnl nggragvba gb gur ibjryf va rnpu cuenfr. 8A. Rnpu nafjre vf, be fhttrfgf n qvssrerag bcgvba va n pregnva tnzr. Guvf vf gur beqrevat. 9A. Nafjref pna or cnverq nppbeqvat gb gurve yratgu. 1D. Rnpu nafjre pna or sbhaq va n snzbhf cbrz. 2D. Rnpu nafjre fhttrfgf n gjb yrggre jbeq be nooerivngvba. 3D. Rnpu nafjre uvqrf n fgevat gung qbhoyrf nf na beqrevat, naq vaqrk vagb gur nafjre vgfrys. 4D. Gel ybbxvat sbe gur shyyre irefvbaf bs rnpu jbeq. 5D. Rirel nafjre urer vf cneg bs n pregnva yvfg.

Not in an opportune situation at the moment, but I'm still trying my best to get something out every week. If you're unfamiliar with metapuzzles, the gist is that each clue will have multiple words or phrases divided by commas, and you'll need to use them to derive the answer using various forms of wordplay or puzzle solving mechanics. An example would be [ACE DARLING, JACK FROST, KING LEONIDAS, QUEEN OF HEARTS]. In this case, if you order the answers by the starting playing card rank, the rest of the answers start with the letters FOLD. Nearly all the metals are presented in alphabetical order, meaning you'll need to also use the answers to find a different ordering to solve. Congrats on 7max18 for solving my last puzzle! a

  I am back with another puzzle hunt-style puzzle after a while! The answer to this puzzle is one word. Submit your responses to this form and I'll shoutout correct responses in my next post.