Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Tail of Two Cardinals

So I keep trying to figure out what to do to make it easier for the shy cardinals to come to the feeder when I'm in my office, never mind while I'm sitting at my desk, just under the window. I keep catching them leaving as I'm coming back into the office or sitting on the corner of the roof a little ways away (see left) looking longingly at the feeder (bottom right). Finally, today, not once but twice, they came while I was at my desk.

First the female, then the male. I have a tail of a picture to prove that the male was there. He sat there for a couple of minutes and ate several seeds and even sang a few notes. The feeder is so close to where I sit that I could actually see him crunching the sunflower seeds and working the meat out of the husk. It was so cool! At first, I barely breathed, but slowly reached out for my camera and got a couple of shots. The angle I was shooting from, though, only yielded a tail. I simply must invest in a tripod!

I can't tell you, though, how exciting it is for me to finally have my own bird feeder with my own birds right in my own window! If only I could get beautiful pictures like all my blogging birder friends!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Waiting for them to get used to you has it's perils. Average bird life in the wild is pretty low, often a year or less. The smaller the bird the higher the mortality rate, especially in winter.

For pictures, try camouflaging yourself, as if you were outdoors. Use some kind of netting that will hide and diffuse your form. Or set up a card board box you with cut out for viewing and taking pictures.

Birds best sense is their eyesight.

Anonymous said...

no worries with the photos, yours are great! My Cardinals are very camera shy also!