Daily Archives: January 4, 2012

I’ve kept my bird feeder full all summer, fall, and into winter in hopes that the cardinals who showed up in the spring would stay around.

My plan worked. (All of the cardinal photos are from  Google images.)

“My own” cardinals show up around dusk every night. I don’t have  a good zoom on my camera and the light is pretty low, so I don’t frustrate myself by trying to capture them in my own photos.  It has been enough for me to listen to their variety of songs all spring and summer, and to watch the male and female bring their 3 youngsters to my feeder all fall. I’ve watched the three juveniles grow their feathers out to become two adult males and one adult female.

I look for them every late afternoon as I start to fix dinner, and they always show up right on time for their own evening meal. Tonight, though, they surprised me by letting another pair of cardinals join them. 3 females and 4 males. It was quite a sight!

Although I still cross my fingers when I say it, I think they are here to stay. We have not had any snow yet this winter, but I’m sure we’ll see a storm or two before it’s over. I’m keeping stocked up on black oil sunflower seed so that when the ground is covered in white, I’ll still get to see flashes of red.