Celebrating the ordinary
Our backyard birds are good winter entertainment. We have a table in front of a window that overlooks the backyard, and we often enjoy watching the birds as we eat. The number and variety of birds we see varies. However, we can almost always expect some cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) will come to feed late in the day. Recently, about 6 p.m., this was the scene.
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I’m looking forward to celebrating the winter solstice, our shortest day of the year, on Saturday, December 21. After that, our days will begin to get longer and we’ll start moving toward spring.
I appreciate winter a little more knowing it won’t last forever. So here’s to the wonder of winter, including the magic of snow, bare tree branches, and bright red cardinals.
We were privileged to have two different hawks in the backyard last week. Harry noticed a large bird eating a squirrel in our white pine tree (Pinus strobus). It was snowing and my view was limited. However, this photo shows the brownish belly band that helped us identify it as a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). This is the first time we’ve seen one in the backyard.
Yes, you read that right. Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus) is a small tree that is native to most of the Midwest, including Kentucky. Ours is now at peak color, and this cardinal apparently thought it was time to sample the seeds.
We’ve been excited to once again have migrating rose-breasted grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus) in the backyard. These three males seemed quite comfortable feeding among the other birds, including two cardinals.
