Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cardinal

Jeannine has the best seat at the kitchen table, at least for birdwatching. She faces south, while I face west, and to the east is her bird feeder, now stocked with seeds for the hungry wintering birds.

So it is that I often miss a lot of the colorful bird action, but occasionally Jeannine lets me know of something particularly interesting, as when this morning a cardinal appeared, briefly, to dine with his less flamboyant brethren.










I managed to snap a few shots through the window before he flew off. I think my goal this winter is to get a shot of one of these brilliantly-plumed birds on the wing, if I can. -- PL

5 comments:

Mark H said...

They are my favorite bird. In the fall I found one running around on the ground under my feeder. He could not fly because a couple of his flight wings where torn from his left wing. My guess is a squirrel or a cat got a hold of him. I could not leave him out there in that condition so; I brought him into the house. I did not want him to fall pray to the stray cats that wander around my property. He was easy to catch because he could not fly away from me. He did give me a pretty good bite! It felt like someone pinching down on my finger with a pair of pliers. Ouch! Poor little guy was very scared so I did not take it personally. I kept him indoors and fed him blue berries and black oil sunflower seeds. He really seemed to like them. I would let him run around during the day when my wife and kids where away. When it was time to put him back into the cage I would sit it on the floor in front of him and, he would hop right inside it. I was impressed with how intelligent he was. After a few weeks his new feathers grew back in so I let him back outside where he belongs. He flew off happily. I still see him outside every day. He lives in the woods right next to my house. He seems to be doing well. He still gets his black oil sunflower seeds too. I put them in the outdoors feeder for him. I have a picture that I took of him standing in my hallway. It cracks me up when I look at it because he is standing there with such an attitude. They are beautiful birds. Thanks for sharing Pete. Have a good one.

PL said...

Mark, that's a great story! Good for you for being so helpful to that bird. -- PL

Mark H said...

Thanks Pete. I wanted to show you the picture in of the cardinal in my hallway I was referring to. While looking for that picture I found a lot of other bird pictures I have taken the past couple of years. I decided to put my favorite ones up on my blog. I also added a picture of the cardinal that I was able to take this morning. I figured putting the pictures on my blog was the easiest way to share them with you. I hope you don’t mind that I put up a link to your blog in my post. Here is the post if you’re interested:
http://tonesofholmes.blogspot.com/2012/01/those-birds-birds-birds.html
Have a good one!

PL said...

Mark, those are some cool pics! Thanks for putting them up, and for the shout-out to my blog. -- PL

Mark H said...

I'm glad you liked them Pete. You have a good one!