Like any unreasonable person, I spent some time in my front yard as the sleet, ice, and snow came down Friday. We have a great number of bird feeders, water dishes, squirrel feeders, and even spots we leave things out for possums, raccoons, rabbits, and skunks. I wanted to make sure there were ears of dried corn readily available for all interested parties.
I watched a beautiful little male cardinal (he’s the model in these pics) as he tried to figure out just how to handle the weather conditions. He sat on a limb, trying to brace his little face against the ice pellets (above). It didn’t take him long to decide on his course of action: He flew around to the other side of the tree (where the trunk protected him from the onslaught of ice) and ate his breakfast in one of our swing feeders (below).
He was soon joined by a female cardinal who was also intent on eating as much as she could in one setting. After filling replacing the ice in the bowls with water, I trudged back inside and thanked God for a warm home.
I have to admit, I also did a mental count of the number of days till baseball season.
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