The Cardinal Calls

I sat in the office the other morning.  I had come in to check my e-mail in-box and to visit my favorite blogs quickly before getting away from the computer.  For the past week I’ve been having problems with pain in my right hand.  Early this week, I realized that it was early symptoms of  carpal tunnel syndrome.  I had that about 12 years ago, but it cleared up with help from a wrist brace and wrist rests for mouse and keyboard.  I gave the wrist brace to someone who needed it, but I have the mouse and keyboard rests.  They are back in place.  Now.

As I sat here composing Thursdays post, I heard a familiar and unique sound.  It was a cardinal.  I looked out the window.

Then, as I looked out the window, I saw the burning bush move.  Not the whole bush, just a couple of twigs.  I sat up a bit and saw him.  It was a cardinal.  I thought about reaching for the camera, but realized that it would only frighten him away.  Also, I’d have to shoot through the screen, and that doesn’t work well at all.  What a joy to watch him hop among the branches.   One more experience that I couldn’t capture in an image, but that I wanted to share with you.

Do you watch for those magical moments?  It would be nice to have an image of the goshawk swiftly flying into land among the pines.  Or the bald eagle that flew very low over the house.  Then there was the turkey buzzard that started to land on a dead branch, which broke under the weight.  Br’er buzzard very deftly landed on another, more secure branch.  There was the time we were returning home and the setting sun’s reflection turned the windows of our house to gold.  I rushed into the house, picked up the camera and ran out to find that the moment had passed.

The familiar saying is, “A bird in the had is worth two in the bush.”  Or in this case, a cardinal in the burning bush will be gone when you go out with the camera.  Right?
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Sightings ~ Young Birds

Imagine looking out on your lawn and seeing a youngster like this.  This week I did just that.  Except there wasn’t one immature robin, or even two or three.  I looked out the windows of the house and counted at least five–five dozen that is.  Last week I counted over six dozen.  That’s right! More than 72 immature robins.  Have you every seen anything like that?  I hadn’t before this summer.  They show up about an hour before sunset and they go bob, bob, bobbing around the yard.  Then as dusk begins to settle they disappear.

I tried to take pictures for you, but as soon as I get near a window, they begin to fly away.  I did manage to get a couple of quick shots, but my hand tremors were so bad that all the images were too blurry to be of any use.  .

Sightings ~ Big Birds

One of the nicer benefits of living in the country is the abundance of wildlife that surrounds us.  (For city dwellers wild life comprises two words and has a different meaning.)  Deer, turkey, fox, raccoon, opossum, just keep your eyes open and you’ll see them all.  And more bird species than you can count on your fingers and toes.  Some of them are very people friendly–like the house finch.  Others are very shy–like the short eared owl.  Turkeys, herons and cranes are very common in this neighborhood.

Sunday afternoon, Sylvia and I walked out of the house and we saw an unusual sight in our neighbor’s back yard.  It was a bald eagle on the ground behind my neighbor’s house.  When the eagle saw us it immediately took to the wing and quickly flew away.  This wasn’t the first or second time that we’ve seen a bald eagle in this neighborhood, but it’s still an awesome sight.  Sad to say, the camera was in the house, so I had to borrow the above image.

The bald eagle is not as large as the golden eagle that I saw a couple of years ago.  Nevertheless, it elicits a special feeling of excitement.

Monday afternoon, I went out to get the mail.  It was too nice a day to walk straight down the driveway to the mailbox.  For that reason, I decided to walk the outer perimeter of our place.  (Makes for a nice walk.)  I walked by the garden to see how the tomatoes, green beans, peppers and squash are growing.  (They are doing very well!)  As I reached the corner of the mowed part near Meghan’s barn, I noticed a turkey vulture flying toward a dead tree.  Again no camera so I borrowed another image.

As soon as my focus shifted from the milkweed that I was looking at to that dead tree, I saw a second vulture already perched in that tree.  The newcomer approached and put his claws on a branch and “crack” the dead branch broke and fell to the ground.  With barely a bobble the latest arrival found solid footing.  I watched for several minutes and then one of the vultures flew away closely followed by the other.

I continued my extra long walk to the mailbox feeling very glad that I took that detour.  Do you ever go out of your way and walk that extra distance?
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Promise of New Life

Today is the first day of April.  What does it make you think of?  I mentioned recently that we’ve decided to recognize Midnight’s birthday on April 1.  Yes, there is a bit of twisted in humor in that, but only a bit — a tiny bit.

Lin mentioned “Gotcha Day.”  Now I’m confused.  It was the morning of December 4 of last year and we were expecting the first big storm of the winter.  Sylvia and I had decided to bring the one cat — just a kitten — living in the barn into the house.  We did not expect him to survive alone through the winter.  His life expectancy soared when I carried him into our house.  Midnight started a new life.

When you think of the promise of new life, what do you think of?  Flower buds, like those in yesterday’s post?  How about that young mother-to-be that you saw at the mall.  Her tummy was large and there was a glow on her face.  Soon she would bring a new life into the world.

Consider this:

A couple of weeks ago, I looked out of my office window (above), and saw that the winter snow was melting and green grass was visible.  There was the burning bush just outside the window.  At first glance it appeared to be dead.  But look closer.

Those are buds.  Buds that will soon be green leaves.  They will be thick and dark green all through the summer.  In the fall, they will turn bright red.  Look closer.

It won’t be long before this happens.  But the story doesn’t end there.

As I looked on this scene so full of promise, a bird landed on the bush.  She was tiny and, frankly, she was plain.  It was a female house finch.  Her beak was full of dead grass.  Grass that would line the nest where she will lay the eggs that will bring us the next generation of her kind.  I’m sorry that I couldn’t capture a photo of her.

Today is Maundy Thursday.  Will you observe this day?

Water Polo & Chickadee

There is no connection between the two subjects of today’s post that I am aware of.  Although I do enjoy watching both.

Tuesday evening, the Falcons played their regular-season home opener.  The JV took to the water first and were beaten quite soundly in a 13 to 2 loss.  Then the varsity teams met in their match.  The Falcons were led by co-captains Briana & Eliza.

 Briana prepares to shoot one of her two goals.



Briana (our granddaughter) scored two goals and had a few assists.  Eliza was like a brick wall for most of the match.  The opposition managed to get one goal in the net.  The Falcons scored a total of nine.

Briana was showing strong leadership with her encouragement to team members and getting spectators to participate in cheers.  She was constantly on the move.  Blocking holes on defense and getting open on offense.  The two trimesters of weight lifting have paid big dividends.  Her shot is looking more and more like a bullet as the ball streaks for the goal.  She is able to make effective use of the bounce (off the water) shot.

I’ll try to get better pictures later.  I didn’t have the settings quite right.

Chickadee

The black capped chickadee is one of our favorite birds at the feeder.

Chickadee
Black capped, cheerful soul,
A bold and brassy songster,
Loves sunflower seeds.

Random Thoughts & Miscellanea

from dribbleglass.com
Happenings

Sylvia arrived home on Friday, which was a sunny and pleasant day.  Spring arrived on Saturday, and with it falling snow and temperatures.  I am not aware of any connection between the two events.

On Friday, Crotchety announced on his blog that our son, Bryant, had correctly identified the fact that he (Crotchety) has no belly button.  Congratulations to Bryant.  I hope he enjoys his prize.

Spring is certainly here.  Robbins, gulls, starlings, grackles and even buzzards have returned to the neighborhood.  The northern goshawk has left — evidently for parts north of here.  (They don’t nest this far south.)

Water polo season is underway for Briana.  The first regular season home game is tonight.  Sylvia and I plan to be there so we can shout and go berserk for #7, who is our granddaughter.

Caption This

I first saw the following photo on a birding Website.  I have since found that it is from Alan Stankevitz.  Isn’t this amazing?  How would you caption the photo?

Okay, it’s your turn.

House Finch

These finch-size birds are year-round denizens of this area.  A pair of them nest near my office window.  I can frequently hear their lovely song.

House Finch
Are you a sparrow?
No, there’s your mate clad in red.
Oh, how sweet your song.

Why is it that the males of the bird family tend to be the pretty ones?  We humans do it the other way — beautiful females and plain males.

One explanation is that the creator did that for a reason.  According to one account Adam asked God, “Why did you make Eve so beautiful.”  God replied, “So that you would love her Adam.”  Then Adam asked, “But why did you make her so dumb?”  And God replied, “So that she would love you.”

What do you think?

Blue Jay

The scene at the bird feeder is changing.  Warm weather birds are beginning to show as the days get longer and the vernal equinox approaches.  Canada geese have returned, as have starlings, grackles and yesterday I saw two pair of red-winged blackbirds — a sure sign of spring’s rapid approach.

Before the birds of summer take over, I want to acknowledge this year-round visitor: The Eastern Blue Jay.

Photo from: www.hse.k12.in.us

Blue Jay
Loud boisterous bully,
Scares away the tiny birds,
Eats much more than they.

Cardinal

I love to see cardinals come to our bird feeder.  They are beautiful birds.  They get along well with the other species, but they are also shy. Let me appear at the window with a camera and the cardinal will fly away. For that reason, it is difficult to capture a good image of this winged beauty.

I caught this one just before he took to wing.

This one flew into a crab apple tree waiting for me to go away.

Cardinal
Brightest beauty you,
Scarlet flash across the sky,
Handsome yet humble.

Which is you favorite bird?