The Day's Not Over Until the Cardinal Feeds

It's been a while since I've blogged about my backyard birds.  Well, no, they aren't "my" birds.  They are Nature's birds.  They are just on loan to us for us to watch and listen to, and their presence enriches my spouse and me.

My spouse, especially, has gotten into birds, spending hours pouring over bird guides.  His knowledge and skills have way outstripped mine, but I don't mind.  His vision is better than mine and he has an eye for detail.

This is our first winter with a bird feeder up, and it's fascinating to see the winter behavior of our local birds.  The birds that summer here to breed are long gone, back in their balmy warm homes.  Now, it's just our hardy locals: black capped chickadees, tufted titmice, white breasted nutnatches, downy and red breasted woodpeckers, and black eyed juncos.  We are hearing black crows and fish crows more and more.

We've seen the change in color in American goldfinches.  Their beautiful summer yellow gold with black and white barred wing feathers are gone, replaced by a sort of olive green brown drab body, but still with the distinctive black and white wing feathers.

Until we really started to look, listen and learn, we never knew we were surrounded by those feathered friends.  How many of us go through life half asleep?  I'm still far from the most observant person, but I'm trying to increase those skills.

Take, for example, the Northern Cardinals.

You can't help but notice these beautiful red birds.  Various cultures have similar beliefs as to what they symbolize.   Many believe that loved ones who have passed on are close when one sees them.

In the summer, they were frequent visitors to our yard.  We had a mated pair, and they would visit the feeder together and feed each other.  Cardinals, in general, mate for life although, like humans, they don't necessarily stay faithful to each other.  Also, unusual to Northern songbirds, both males and females sing.  They will sing to each other, in a type of call and response.

The male cardinal is brilliant red, with a black mask around the red beak.  The female is a pale brown, with streaks of red in the wings, tail, and crest.  It lacks the black mask around the red beak.  

Either is a welcome sight on a drab snowy day.

Once fall came, the female disappeared and the male would only visit as night fell.  This once daytime bird would visit our feeder about 10 minutes after the sun set. By then, on days I work, I had commuted from my upstairs home office and was eager to see something other than my computer screen.   We would watch Mr. Cardinal, through our dining room window, take a final meal of safflower seeds before flying away to wherever it slept. 

We started thinking "the day's not over until the cardinal feeds".

But, on Christmas Eve, he came in broad daylight.  (Yes, I still have my iPhone SE first edition, which doesn't zoom in well.  We had an unexpected large expense, and a new phone is temporarily on hold.  Again. So, sorry for my not great bird photos.)

A few minutes later, he flew off and...the long awaited female appeared.  Every day since, both have shown up during the day and right after sunset.  Although they show up close to each other, they do not feed together.

They come later and later each day, and by that we note that the days are slowly starting to get longer.

Male Cardinal, December 27

 

The day I was to receive my first jab back in February, we took a walk around the neighborhood, and saw a red cardinal.  It seemed to be telling me everything would be all right.

We aren't there yet, but we have hopes that 2022 will be the year that things start to turn around.

There's such a wonderful world around us, if only we look.

For inspiring me to look, I thank our birds.

They will help carry me through the coming winter.