Birding 101

As anyone who has ever read this moronic blog would know, I am a birdwatcher. I am an outdoorsy, nature-loving person in general, and a birdwatcher in particular. Truth is; I have some fairly unusual, and pretty worthless knowledge stored in my head. I can identify North American trees by their leaves and by their bark. I can identify most native foliage by the leaves. I can identify, or at least make a pretty good guess identifying various regional amphibians. I know my area snakes. I can identify almost all the native butterflies, and most of the native moths. I can look at animal scat (or "turds in the wild"), and get some idea of some of the creatures that are in the area by identifying the animal who left the scat, and the contents of the scat. I'm yet to benefit from any of this knowledge, but it's up there in my noggin, rolling around.

A few hours ago my binoculars and I were wandering through a cemetery on the lookout for bird activity when I heard the unmistakable song of a cardinal. I looked up to the top of a tree and there he was, a bright red male.

Just when I thought spring would never arrive, a bird tells me it's not far off. That's what the song of a cardinal is stating, almost literally. He is out there looking for a mate for spring nesting. Welcome to Birding 101. This is actually a little late in the year for the first songs of the cardinal, but that's not surprising, given the winter.

If you ever see a bird feeder offering sunflower seeds -a cardinal favorite- you might see a male cardinal feeding a female. It's one of their courtship things and it is kind of nice to see; almost romantic, in an avian sort of way. But first the male has to make his presence known by song. When he does, he is also making it known that spring is not far off... thank god! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4GJ-7P9Zp4