Just to insure that we did not change our minds about packing up and heading to Utah, Mother Nature threw winter storm “Jonas” (they name snowstorms now, really?) our way. Now we are even more motivated to travel toward the warmth.
Saturday morning as I searched the skies for some sign of snow instead of the ice that was falling, a bright red cardinal caught my eye on the bird feeder. He was sharing the feeder with a squirrel and did not seem happy about it. As I watched the birds and squirrel fight over the seedy morsels, I felt like I was watching nature’s version of my pre-storm grocery store shopping debacle. Of course when I went outside to attempt a photo, the birds scattered and would not return. I could not remain still or stop shivering long enough in the gusty wind and pelting ice to fool them into thinking that I was a piece of deck furniture. I decided instead to make a bird photo blind out of my ice covered car by backing it up near the feeder and hiding inside to take photos through a cracked open window. That worked pretty well except I forgot to tell Storm what I was doing (he was in the shower when I got this bright idea). Since my car was not in its spot and I seemed to be missing he decided he should text and fine out what became of me. Thank goodness my phone text alert sounded ornithic enough that the birds weren’t frightened away. Maybe they thought it was the call of a strange new bird – perhaps one who could run off the squirrel?
Here are my photos of the hungry birds:
