Backyard Cardinals

 

The bird guides don't say anything about cardinals liking cat food.

But they do.

At least the ones in our backyard are big fans.

 

Even though the cats lurk nearby, the cardinals find plenty of opportunities to swoop in for tasty treats.

 

According to Cornell's Bird Lab, Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit, supplemented with insects. Common fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn.

 

See? No cat food listed.

 

We've had four or five pairs who have provided a splash of color to our backyard landscape during the drab and dreary winter days.

 

However, the bird references were accurate about the cardinals' behavior.

 

They like to hop through low branches and forage on or near the ground. Cardinals commonly sing and preen from a high branch of a shrub. 

 

The distinctive crest can be raised and pointed when agitated or lowered and barely visible while resting. You typically see cardinals moving around in pairs during the breeding season, but in fall and winter they can form fairly large flocks of a dozen to several dozen birds. ...They fly somewhat reluctantly on their short, round wings, taking short trips between thickets while foraging. Pairs may stay together throughout winter, but up to 20 percent of pairs split up by the next season. 

From All About Birds, The Cornell Lab

They also like our backyard fence.

During one of my pandemic cleaning binges, I unearthed an old book that belonged to Randy. "Birds: A Child's First Book about Our Most Familiar Birds" was a Christmas gift back in 1959 from his Grandma Ritts. The book was published by Golden Press in 1958. It was written by Jane Werner Watson and beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.

Even though it claims to have our most familiar birds, it almost disappointed me. But I finally found a small illustration of a cardinal on the title page, along with a robin - another frequent flyer to our yard. 

 

The copyright page says:

In this first book, a sense of the joy and wonder of birds is created for every child through Eloise Wilkin's sensitive illustrations and Jane Werner Watson's informative text. The songbirds in the trees, the waders of the seashore and river, plovers and pigeons - over 25 birds have been simply described and vividly pictured in a way that every child will enjoy.

 

I'm sure children did enjoy it, though Randy doesn't have a lot of childhood memories of the book. But the vintage illustrations definitely captured my attention. 

 The book has joined some of my bird photography and knicknacks in my spring decor.

Jane Werner was one of the original editors of the Little Golden Books series, which were published by Western Publishing in conjunction with Simon and Schuster. She wrote some 150 books in the Little Golden Books series. According to Penguin Books, many of Werner's titles were illustrated by the great children’s illustrators of the mid-20th century. Some of her bestselling titles include The Fuzzy Duckling (illustrated by Martin and Alice Provensen), Animal Friends (illustrated by Garth Williams), and My Little Golden Book About God, The Christmas Story, and Wonders of Nature (all illustrated by Eloise Wilkin). 

 

Eloise Wilkin also was the illustrator of the bird book. Wikipedia says that many of the books she illustrated became classics of American children's literature. I certainly can agree with that. Jane Werner Watson called her friend Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books." 

Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings.

Wilkin won a drawing contest for New York schoolchildren at age 11 and graduated from the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. Soon after college graduation, Eloise and friend Joan Esley opened an art studio in Rochester, NY, but struggling to find work, the pair moved to New York City, where Century Company gave Eloise her first book to illustrate, The Shining Hours. Many of her early illustrations were for school books.

In 1944, Wilkin signed an exclusive contract with original Little Golden Books publisher Simon & Schuster, requiring her to illustrate three books each year^. She often used her children and grandchildren and their friends as models for her illustrations. A devout Christian, Wilkin frequently illustrated religious picture books including several compilations of prayers for children. I realized that one of our other vintage Little Golden Books, Prayers for Children, was also illustrated by Wilkin.

Want more? Here's a blog post that had some illustration from Prayers for Children.

Bird in the Bush ... Or the Silo?

Most of the time, the birds flitting around our trench silo take off as I chug toward my parking place in the feed truck and Randy follows behind in the tractor.

 

(For the record, my wildlife consultant, Pam, says this is a first-year white-crowned sparrow.)

If they haven't flown the coop (so to speak) before, they startle away as soon as Randy gets out of the tractor cab to open the gate.

But on one recent silo trip, a little friend decided to hold his ground ... or at least hold his perch on the fence. He seemed to say, "You're invading MY territory, so I'll wait you out!" I was happy to have the company while I waited, so, of course, I took his picture.

Watching the birds helps fill the time as I wait for Randy to put scoops of silage into the feed truck.

The blackbirds to the west make punctuation marks in the sky as Randy drives in and scoops out the grain.

On another cold morning, the blackbirds looked like music notes on a staff.

They eyed the grain in the silage from their perch on snow-covered branches. Other foraged in the straw nearby.

But my favorite avian visitors are the cardinals in our backyard. It's not easy to get photos of these skittish guests. I've had to resort to capturing them through the porch windows this winter.

 This is probably my favorite year-to-date, but it, too, was taken through the window.

I belong to a Snapshot Kansas group on Facebook. I'm always admiring the beautiful cardinals and other featured friends that my fellow Kansas photographers catch in pixel perfection. Mine don't compare, but they were better than nothing.

You could even see a bit of ice hanging in the shrubs and trees in some of them.

No wonder they were all puffed up. I'm trying and stay warm, too.
 

My favorite cardinal photos (so far) were from last winter.

I'm still surprised I was able to sit on the back steps while it was snowing and take these. They've ended up on notecards. The male cardinal is the "pin-up guy" on my family birthday calendar for February.

 

A couple of Sundays ago, Randy called while he was feeding and said he saw an eagle. It was feasting on some roadkill about a mile north of our house. I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot, but it was still a thrill to see it powerfully soaring in the overcast sky and taking a short rest in the shelterbelt.

I got a once-in-a-lifetime photo of an eagle this past summer.

Again, it was thanks to a phone call from my favorite farmer.

A couple of years ago, some bluebirds briefly visited in February in the pasture south of our house. It was a first for both Randy and me. We kept our eyes open last winter, hoping they'd return.

No such luck. A neighbor saw some one day, but I didn't know about the visitors until they'd already been pushed south by the frigid temperatures.

 I'll keep my eyes open.

I'm still in search of that elusive pheasant photo. It's kind of become a joke around here.

"Oh, there's your pheasant...

"Oh, there goes your pheasant ..."

I have not given up.  

I almost got one Tuesday night as we drove to pastures to check mamas and babies. Shoulda, woulda, coulda: It would have been perfect with the colorful feathers against the stark, white snow.

And now I have another photo on my elusive list. A blue heron sometimes wades in the water beneath the Peace Creek bridge. As my feed truck rumbles that way, it takes off and soars to the west. I never see it until it's in the air. 

Hope springs eternal.

It's A Snow Globe World

The world looked like God had a snow globe in the palm of His hand, then flicked His wrist and gave it a little shake. And the big flakes of snow fell softly and silently back down to earth.

Snow globes remind me of my Grandma Neelly. She didn't travel a great deal. But, when she did, she'd raid the souvenir shops for snow globes or crinkly neon-colored coin purses showing the Grand Canyon or some other American landmark. She was a classy woman, but you couldn't tell it from her souvenir choices.

 

My 8-year-old self loved the snow globes as the snowflakes danced their way from top to bottom, catching in the crevices of the plastic Golden Gate Bridge or some other attraction.  Shake them up, and a kaleidoscope of snow would obscure the plastic figures inside.

 

So, it's no wonder that I upended my to-do list yesterday with as much fervor as I'd shake a snow globe. The flakes - from infinitesimal to ginormous - were calling a silent song as my world became a snow globe, too. 

Yesterday, instead of Empire State Buildings or the White House, the cows and calves in the heifer lot and in the pasture south of the house were the the figures catching the snowflakes' descent.

 

But then, as I returned to the house to make dinner, flashes of red darted through the snowscape scene in my backyard.

 

After patiently sitting on the back steps, trying not to make any sudden movements, I captured a few photos of our backyard troubadours.

After many other days when my efforts were less successful, I was pretty excited.

 

  

But it was my reliable "models" who were most ready for their close-ups.

It's rare that snow falls in Kansas without a gusting wind on the side.

I think 002 has the sweetest face!

Even though the wind came up as we checked the lots and pastures before dusk, most of the day was uncharacteristically calm and still.

 Our little friends had plenty of straw ...

And their own personal milk machines dispensing warm beverages. 

We had six new babies yesterday at various pasture locations. But the human in charge did his usual good job as steward. Honestly, the moms were the rock stars yesterday.

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently?

 And then it covers them up snug, you know, 

with a white quilt. 

And perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings,

till the summer comes again."

-- Lewis Carroll 

And from author Mark Haddon (below):

Snow blobs and softens the top of every object like cream on a plum pudding. 

 

Hedges, telephone wires, cars, postboxes ... The world is losing its edges.

 

Look upwards and it seems as if the stars themselves are being poured from the sky and turn out not to be vast and fiery globes after all ...

 ... but tiny, frozen things which melt in the palm of your hand.