This is Mr. Cardinal thinking about eating the suet.
This is Mr. Cardinal trying to reach the suet.
This is Mr. Cardinal loosing his balance.
I don’t think Mrs. Cardinal was very impressed.
Category Archives: Cardinal
Winter Wonderland
Yesterday morning, I awoke to a strange sight in northern Texas - a winter wonderland. Mom came up and got me up extra early so I could see the snow while it was still blue in the low light conditions. Well, we seldom get snow (and certainly never like this!) so I decided to venture forth and snap a few pictures while I had the chance.
Here we have a flock of robins passing overhead.
For some odd reason, we have thousands of robins amassed in huge groups that rival the winter gatherings of blackbirds. I’m not sure why, exactly. Either I’ve never noticed this before, or it’s never happened. I would prefer to think the latter.
My Silver Maple tree is actually silver!
This is my pathetic attempt at a snowman. It fell over.
Abigail trying to build a snow fort. The snow wasn’t deep, which is why the snowballs are so muddy.
We put out seed for the birds, and instantly had flocks of sparrows at our beck and call.
Here is Mr. Cardinal. Notice his chickadee companion to the right.
Mrs. Cardinal.
The mockingbirds weren’t too happy with the constant snow. This one kept ruffling his feathers to rid himself of snowflakes.
So did the sparrows.
It snowed all day and all through the night…
This morning, we had almost a foot of snow. This is Mom’s magnolia tree. Somehow, magnolia and snow just don’t seem to go together well in the same sentence.
It was unbelievable. So much snow. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life before.
Sure we are under threat from Global Warming! I’d like to see those “experts” explain why we are having record low temperatures in Texas this winter.
This is the last family owned farm in Fairview, and it probably won’t stay that way for long. I’m glad I got to see it like this before the developers get ahold of it.
This is the best snow picture I took all day today.
Talk about a winter wonderland! Ever driven through a tunnel of snow?
Looking into what Kathy and I christened “The Hundred Acre Wood” as children 20 years ago.
I was surprised to see water still flowing.
Later on in the morning, we walked over to the golf course to go sledding. Here’s Abigail by the fence.
Emily breaking a path through the snow.
Here’s the golf course! It looks like its been covered with vanilla ice cream.
Abigail is pulling my father’s old sled from when he was a boy. It still works, even though it must be nearly 40 years old.
First on the agenda was to pack down a path for the sled.
Kimmy’s up first!
Whee!
Matthew got impatient waiting for his turn, so he decided to just summersult down to the bottom of the hill.
Probably not the best idea.
We took pity on him and gave him the sled.
He didn’t fare much better.
Abigail in the act of throwing snow at me.
Emily is ready for takeoff!
No, Matthew is not jumping out of the way. He hopped on behind Emily, and then failed to stay on the sled.
Kimmy after a particularly fast go.
Mom and Dad joined the fun briefly before heading into the comfort of the indoors. We younguns lasted a lot longer, of course! 
I wish it would snow more often in Texas.
Scarlet Fop
As I was putting away my laundry this morning, a flash of brilliant red caught my eye out the window. It was Mr. Cardinal. He’s never been this close to my bedroom before.
Beautiful as Mr. Cardinal is, there are times when I find him rather ridiculous.
Take today for example. He seemed obsessed with preening.
Maybe obsessed is the wrong word. How about consumed?
Then, I saw Mrs. Cardinal perched on the next tree over. Suddenly, the reason for Mr. Cardinal’s obsessive grooming habits became perfectly clear.
After all, one must look one’s best before a lady, don’t you agree?
Very Early Spring
For months now, I’ve been staring at the stark forms of leaveless trees.
But that’s about to change. This month has been temperamental, with one day in the 50s, the next in the 80s. And lots and lots of rain. This field is behind my house looking south into Lucas. Just below the water tower is where my sister and I once found a box turtle crossing the road. Since then, that place has been referred to as “Turtle Crossing.”
More fields directly behind my house. This particular field is part of the Wilson Creek flood plain, and it’s not unusual to have it flooded all the way up to the fence. Of course, if it were that flooded, I wouldn’t have stood there and taken the picture. Wilson Creek can be very dangerous when it floods.
Here is our new waterfall. Kimmy was utterly fascinated, and I think having a waterfall makes up for not having any more tadpoles.
All this water is good for at least one thing - it causes a rush of green on the prairie and all the redbuds come into bloom. This redbud is the most beautiful tree on our property.
We’re the only house in hundreds that I’ve seen (and since I’ve been all over the North Dallas Metroplex, I’ve seen quite a few) that actually has redbuds lining their drivway. It’s a sight more creative than the old Bradford pear most people use. And better suited to the environment. Redbuds are native to North Texas. Bradford pears aren’t.
This is an apple blossom blooming on the last apple tree we have in our yard. We’ve never had much success growing fruit trees in Texas.
The view from the top of Mom’s Bald Cypress. Across the yard, our Shumard Red Oak is coming into leaf.
The Shumard is Mr. Cardinal’s favorite perch, and I’ve caught him more than once swaying on the tender top branches singing his heart away.
And this is the lovely creature he’s usually singing to!
I spotted this dove not long ago. We have many different types of doves and the only one I can positively identify is the mourning dove, and then only by its habitual call.
Most of the cows have calved in the nearby farms. Its not unusual to spot calves hours old following their mothers on shaky legs.
The horses have shed their winter coats, and are growing sleek and shiny again. Except after a rainstorm, when they roll in the mud.
Here is a splendid view of the country east of Lake Ray Roberts looking towards the west. The sun was very bright the day I took this picture and cast a kind of haze over the prairie.
Behind the pond, you can see where the grass is beginning to turn green again.
Often old barns, relics of the past, will be sighted on hills or lightly wooded glens.
The most obvious feature in a spring sky still untouched as yet by the summer storms is the very bright, very strong sun.
And it’s the sun that produces these amazing sunsets, never alike from one day to the next.
You Know Spring Is Here When….
…you see little creatures like these dotting the pastures…
…when you see stormy skies caused by fronts of warm and cold air battling for mastery of the season…
…and when you hear cardinals serenading their mates from bowers of redbud blossoms.
Yup. Spring is definitely on its way!
Twitterpated
No, I’m not twitterpated (unless you bring horses into the picture), but I know someone who is!
This morning, I walked outside to the back stoop when I heard a melodious whistle to my right. Looking up, I spotted Mr. Cardinal singing away fromt the top of a pecan tree.
It was a quick dash inside for my camera, and then I was in buisness. Thankfully, this time Mr. Cardinal gave me quite a concert instead of flying away. But I kept hearing another cardinal singing from somewhere else in the yard. I assumed that it was another male, but boy, was I really wrong this time!
The other cardinal was a Mrs. They were singing a duet.
It’s a good thing to be twitterpated!
Mr. Cardinal
Yesterday morning before the big storms hit, Mom called me out to the front porch. Mr. Cardinal was singing his heart out in the misty pre-storm air. Good thing my camera was handy! You might also hear another male cardinal not far away that was replying constantly. I’m pretty sure they were discussing territory.
One thing’s for sure - this means spring isn’t too far off! Whoope!
Soaked Cardinal
Someone stayed out a little too late…
Search for the Cardinal
For the past few weeks, I’ve been playing hide and seek with this little guy.
Cardinals are very territorial, so we have only one pair in our area. They prefer wooded areas, which means our rather open-spaced yard is not usually frequented by our nesting pair, but every once in a while, we’ll spot them. The male is not only very beautiful, but his song is quite lovely, so I’ve been trying over the past several weeks to get a couple of good pictures and/or videos of him. Circumstances almost always conspire against me - most of the times I’ve caught him singing, I’ve been cameraless.
This week, I was determined that would not be so. Therefore, I brought my camera with me while I took one of my morning walks. And along the way, I found many other interesting things.
I’m not sure if this is a pear or apple blossom, but it’s beautiful, isn’t it?
A monarch butterfly takes a break on one of our redbuds.
Our first wildflowers are starting to bloom. One of my long-standing favorites is the Indian Paintbrush. These flowers are endangered and very hard to grow - from seed, you may have only a 40% chance of them sprouting - but we have a natural stand of about 200 flowers each year.
Another wildflower just beginning to bloom is the Bachelor’s Button, more commonly known as the cornflower.
The eldarica pines are also in bloom, only their flowers seem to be made of wood!
Fire ants swarm up an offending twig that someone (it wasn’t me!) inserted into their nest.
A lacewing perches for a second on a blackberry blossom. Lacewings are among the most beneficial of the beneficial inscets in a garden, but they are so vicious that they lay their eggs on seperate leaves lest the larvae devour each other!
I spotted this strange creature up a cypress tree. I wonder what it is?
I decided to climb the cypress tree myself (maybe I could spot the cardinal from the top).
As I sat in the tree, I suddenly heard a strange, rustling sound behind me and a little voice pipped up “Here I am!”
What better way to have adventure than to enjoy it with your little sister?
Anyway, I finally spotted the cardinal. Click here to see some video footage of him.
Spring Visitor
This afternoon, as I was doing some computer research, I heard a familiar chirping outside the kitchen windows. Glancing up, I was surprised to see a flash of brilliant red among the Buford Hollies. Good thing my camera was handy. Cardinals are infrequent visitors to our property (they prefer the dense wood in the neighbor’s yard), so I am always excited when I catch a glimpse of them. For a good hour, I kept up a watchful vigil at the window with my camera, snapping pictures as the male cardinal flew from place to place.
These are the remains of a birdhouse my sister and father built some nine or ten years ago. It looks terrible, but the local house sparrows still love to nest in it, so we haven’t gotten rid of it yet.
I’m not exactly sure what he’s after here. It looked to me like he was going after the leaves, but perhaps there were different insects up there. This is the same tree from an earlier blog post - the one with the red leaves. As you can see, the leaves are now completely green.
This is a female house sparrow.
House sparrow and Northern Cardinal.
