Lady Cardinal, the Fashion Maven

It was a wonderful morning for bird sightings. I was noodling around the lily pond at the Arboretum again (you just can't keep me away!), when I saw and heard a flutter of wings. And I looked into the fragrance garden just in time to see a female cardinal land on a trellis that was just the same peachy shade as the lovely outfit she was wearing!

She sat there for just 7 seconds, and I managed to snap off 3 shots. In the final one, above, she was looking right straight back at me with what seemed like a fierce look on her face, and I peered closer to see what almost seemed to be a tiny crown on her head. Bird royalty, to be sure!

The male and female cardinals, by the way, look very different. The male wears a suit of bright cherry red, and the female wears slightly duskier shades of pale brown with warm reddish tinges. Those who are interested may learn more about the northern cardinal and listen to its songs on the Cornell bird site.

We have a mated pair of cardinals in our yard and they are delightful to watch; and once you've heard their song, you'll never mistake it for any other bird. For the cardinal lovers, I'm including links to four prior cardinal shots: two of the female (one, and two), and two of the male (one, and two).

And then I got in my car and headed for work. In many prior days, one or more of our local red-tailed hawks have sat on the lamp posts over the I-99 exit I take to get to work. I had mentioned the birds to a co-worker who is a bird lover, and she admitted that when she sees one of them on the post, she offers it a hearty "Good morning, Guvner!" It had been a long time (maybe even months) since I'd seen one, and I worried that perhaps they hadn't made it through the past winter.

And there, like the answer to an unspoken prayer, sat one of our hawks atop the lamp post, with its belly shining whitely in the morning sun! Hooray! You may see the hawk in the extra photos area, lower right. (And I am adding this Blip entry the morning after the day of, as is my custom; dear friends, I am so pleased to report that I saw the same hawk again this morning.) What a great day for birds!!!

The song to accompany these two images of some of the most delightful birds I know of is an 80s favorite: REO Speedwagon, with Time for Me to Fly.