Tag: cardinal
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January 21, 2020
I was standing out in front of my house, waiting for a friend, when a male cardinal flew right past me and landed in the crabapple tree. A few seconds later, the female landed on a branch beside the male. Two finches, both with red breasts, flew in. There were four birds in the branches…
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July 2, 2019
In a bush in front of my dining room window there is a cardinal nest. I can see the mother’s tail feathers as I type these words. The father cardinal (brilliant and self-important) flies in periodically to check on things. I’ve set up my workstation at the dining room table so I can watch the…
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December 24, 2015
When I was a kid, my mother had a friend named Carmen Briscoe. Every year, Mrs. Briscoe sent a Christmas card that featured a cardinal. These cards came all through my childhood and into my young adulthood. No two cards were ever the same, but on every card, there was always a bright red cardinal.…
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January 22, 2015
Speaking of hope–on my winter walks, I have happened upon a wire tree that is festooned with fake birds: yellow ones and white ones and brilliant red ones. The tree and the birds always manage to tug my heart upward. Does it matter that the birds aren’t real? All I can tell you is that…
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January 31, 2013
In the branches of my chinaberry tree, every day now, for the last week: a cardinal couple. First the male shows up and then the female. And because they are so extraordinary (he so bright, she so subtle) when I catch sight of them, I let myself stop doing, doing, doing. I hold still. I…