Cardinals

There’s nothing like a colorful cardinal on a cold winter evening, unless it’s a cardinal couple, like these two, come to get a final meal before darkness on the first day of the year. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be the one to hop around in the snow and ice and peck seeds to make sure I lived through the night when the temperatures were below zero—I have to give these wild critters a lot of credit just for staying alive.

I have always had a big population of cardinals, and a good many of them stay here over winter. On this particular evening I saw three that looked like mated couples and managed to get a few nice photos of them under the feeder.

It’s hard to tell, but it’s very dark in this spot. The spruce is 70 feet tall and blocks the light from the setting sun, as does the steep hill as it rises above my house, but their bright colors helped them to flash in the last light.

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