Cardinal in the SnowEd sent this picture after the snow of last week. We are encouraged to see our cardinal population on the mountain increase. When we first moved here, the bluebirds were plentiful but we were seeing only one pair of cardinals the first winter. However, I counted, or at least tried to count, a dozen on the ground this morning. No doubt a year round supply of sunflower seeds has lured the flock to Mountain Springs. I often look out the kitchen window and see them perched in the bare trees on the edge of the woods. The brilliant red of the birds with the gray winter mountains in the background always makes me stop my work for a moment and ponder the wonders I see around me. It's one of those "little joys".
I read that cardinals mate for life. It saddened me recently when a little female red bird flew into the window too hard and didn't recover. I worried about the little male as he must have waited all night for his mate that never returned. I think, like humans, he will move on. And, I like to imagine that he finds a lonely little female cardinal who has had a similar experience, and they live "happily ever after". I know this happens. I have seen it in our own family. "Joy cometh in the morning".
We had a record 76 degrees on Monday. Today, we woke to see a covering of snow and hear wind howling around the corners of the house. As I sit at my desk looking out the window, I hear the covey call of quail as they run from feeder to feeder picking up scattered seeds. Jack always throws out extra seeds on the ground hoping to keep the covey near the house. He's very protective of them. I see the squirrels are "hogging" the feeders so I need to bundle up and go out to fill them up--the feeders--not the squirrels! The dogs will be glad for a little run in the snow. They will be just as glad to come back inside to curl up by the fire again! Me too!
Great are the works of the Lord;
they are pondered by all who delight in them. Ps. 111:2
