Brrrr.

[cairistiona]

It's cold today but this little fellow found a good place to tuck in...



At one point I counted a dozen mama and papa redbirds in our big cedar tree.

Comments

[shirebound]

Good for him! Stay warm, little one.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I always feel so sorry for the little birds when it gets cold like this. *shivers* Thank goodness for the cedar trees!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Oh that does look cold. I'm glad you highlighted him or I would never have seen him!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

No highlighting involved, actually; that's the cardinal's naturally brilliant red color. They stand out like beacons when they're sitting in the cedar tree.

And yes, it's as cold as that photo looks. Just a nasty, nasty day out there.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

What a lovely picture. You seem to have winter - we are sort of in limbo - we have the high winds we usually get, but not the biting cold or the snow.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Oddly, this is our first bitter cold day of the year and our first true snowfall, though there was one day in December when it snowed just enough to make the lawn white. It's only 19F today, whereas just yesterday it was 59F, and by tomorrow it will be back up to 45F and by Sunday well into the 50Fs again. We're having an oddly mild winter for the most part.

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

I hope he'll make it through the winter, little one.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

He probably will. They're remarkably sturdy little birds, well acclimated to winter conditions here. As long as they get enough to eat (which they do, thanks to my dad putting out sunflower seeds) and have sheltering evergreens, they do really well.

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

By the Valar, that is a beautiful photo.

I see you're having very nasty weather indeed. I hope it improves immensely by tomorrow both for your sake and of all those little fellows out there in the cold.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Yes, it was truly nasty yesterday... today is cold but it will be clear and the weekend will be warm again. By tomorrow afternoon all this snow will be history, I think.

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

Bring on a month of wark weekends. *g* And bring on many more shots of those beautiful fellows. Your dad is a very nice guy, and I'm sure the cardinals agree with me in gender, number and degree. LOL

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

*iz mesmerized by your icon* I wish it would stay on that first pic a little longer!!

But yes, bring on warm weekends! I'm going to try at some point to get photos... it will depend on the birds, though! Now that it's warming back up, they're not flocking to the feeder in such droves.

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

It's one of the oldest ones in my collection, which unfortunately, I don't know whom I should thank for.

May the weather keep warm and lovely till you know when.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

*fingers crossed* *g*

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

Ooh, pretty! This winter, I have a pair of them hanging around my backyard (probably living in the neighbors' fir trees).

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

They do love having evergreens to shelter in. :) I spoke with my mom, who lives in the ground floor part of our home and who puts out seeds for them and she estimates we have about 25 pairs right now. They really come flocking when you put out black oil sunflower seeds!

[nefhiriel.livejournal.com]

Pretty picture! I love the composition of how you shot it with all that snow-covered-tree space, and one spot of bright red cardinal. :D

ETA: A dozen of 'em at once? Wowza.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That was one of those "oh, I hope this one is as good as I think it will be" moments when I looked through the viewfinder. :)

I asked my mom how many cardinals we have right now, because she lives on the ground floor and can see them feeding right outside their kitchen windows, whereas I'm on the 2nd floor and only can see them in the tree because the deck blocks my view: she said at least fifty! I'm going to have to go hang out downstairs to get some shots of that.

[rs9.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous picture. At first glance it looks like you cut and paste the cardinal on to the tree. Wow! Beautiful beautiful shot!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, it doesn't look real, somehow, does it? I think part of it is that it was snowing at the time, so the falling snow blurred the edges of the tree but as sometimes happens, the bird itself didn't have any snow in front of it so it came out brighter. It was just one of those lucky shots. :)

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Looks like LJ ate my (extremely funny and witty, of course) comment.

Nice photo:-)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Aww, boo, LJ!! I like your extremely funny and witty comments.

But thank you!

[radbooks.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!! We don't get those out here... at least I've never seen any!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think they're mostly west of the Rockies. If I had to move west, I'd reeeeeally miss them. They're my favorite bird.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Lovely, we don't have birds like that here.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! No, they're a North American bird. But your kingfishers are much more spectacular than ours!

[layne67.livejournal.com]

That is a very lovely picture. That one spot of red in the overall greyness, lovely. Heheh, I initially thought that bit of red was added in or something!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Added in by nature! *g*