Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work Round every windward stake, or tree, or door. The steed and traveler stopped, the courier’s feetĭelayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sitįurnished with tile, the fierce artificerĬurves his white bastions with projected roof Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,Īnd veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end. I cleared railings and feeders every hour or two, fed the birds all day, and took a few pictures through glass too.įlickr photo album: Winter Storm Iola and feedersĪnnounced by all the trumpets of the sky,Īrrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields, This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Northern Cardinal on Februby Amy. The Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states. I am in the minority, I know – many people love, love, love cardinals. Even the irritating blue jays enjoy pretending to be afraid of me, being “chased off” by the sight of me, returning quickly to thieve and stuff their faces with more peanuts. Chickadees chatter meaningfully when I go outside (I think they have a name for me, or for what I am doing) and seem ready to land on my hand or head any moment, some day. I don’t connect with them as I do with other birds.īluebirds come close when I am outside, or look at me through the window, practically begging for favorite foods. They don’t seem particularly bright (other than color-wise) or interesting to me. They like black oil sunflower seeds a lot. As living individual birds, I don’t really have much feeling for them.
That is probably my favorite thing about cardinals – their ornamental aspect, decorative spots of colors to the landscape. If she flicks her tail or flies, I may spot a female or two also. Lately I have looked out the kitchen window in winter twilight to see four, five, six males materialized in the blueberry bushes and scrubby underbrush of the wood’s edge. In summer, their sweet whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning.Īlong with Mourning Doves, they arrive earlier in the morning and later in evening than many other birds. Cardinals don’t migrate and they don’t molt into a dull plumage, so they’re still breathtaking in winter’s snowy backyards. They’re a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style: a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off.Įven the brown females sport a sharp crest and warm red accents.
The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird.
The female of the speciesĭecorate your snow white landscape with bright red birds. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal, spring migration on Apby Amy.
NORTHERN CARDINAL SOUND ON BIRDCLOCK PLUS
This was a small flock yesterday, a mini-flock, maybe a transitioning-to-spring flock (if there is such a thing) with 6 or 7 grackles and about the same number of red-winged blackbirds, plus the cowbird couple.īirdcast Regional Migration Forecast: 3-10 April: Upper Midwest and Northeast lists Brown-headed Cowbirds as “arriving.”
Why Do Blackbirds Form Large Flocks? … Though many birds band together during winter, none are as notorious for their flocking behavior as blackbirds…red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, common grackles and brown-headed cowbirds. This is the moment my husband opened the sliding glass door to the back deck and both birds became alert, just before flying off.Ĭommon Grackle cleaning up the old bird seed in melting snow. The cowbird and a male Northern Cardinal shared the feeder for a few minutes in the late afternoon. Both seem to have arrived with a mixed flock of Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles. The female Brown-headed Cowbird made an appearance yesterday, a few hours after I spotted the male.
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