Nature's little mysteries

This male cardinal had a divot out of the feathers at the back of his head; it seems a bad time to molt, as cold as it is!

Later, I got a photo of him and discovered he'd lost feathers around his right eye, too--

A strange time for parasites, too...what's up with this poor guy?

Nature Observations...

This one started out with an unfinished sketch of my husband (you can see his ball cap under the hummingbirds!), then the guy in the car next to us when we went to the library.  Then, the transitional female cardinal feasting on my mulberries demanded to be drawn...

We ran away from home today and went to check on the flooding on the Missouri River...not bad here, yet, but you can see the boat ramp a bit less than accessible out there in the rapidly moving water.

The hummingbirds were all over the place this evening, and I kept doing quick sketches at our feeder and wondering about their life habits--"gizz," one of you called it?  That's a new term for me, and thank you!

There are certainly more females at our feeder than males, and turns out that's fairly common.  They're aggressive little wenches, as are all hummingbirds.

I got to watch the male do his pendulum-like mating flight the other day, swinging back and forth in front of one of the flirty females.

I looked in all my bird books and couldn't find enough on them..."I'll bet there are whole BOOKS on hummingbirds," I told Joseph.  I wanted to find my old Eyewitness book that includes bird skulls and skeletons to see a closeup of their needle-like bill, but couldn't.  What I DID find was the book referenced on this spread--Hummingbirds, written in 1960 (oops, I had his birthdate, not the pub date!) by Crawford H. Greenewalt, and published by Dover; this edition is from the '90s.  Anyway, it's wonderful--and of course written very differently from some of our dry texts today.  Delighted observation...the kind of nature writing that first hooked me when I read my grandmother's books when I was a kid.  I knew then that I wanted to write about nature when I grew up, and sketch all I could.  I've been fortunate enough to get to do a lot of that, in my life!

Somehow this all seemed to be related...Homo sapiens and all...

Mates

I knew I'd read that cardinals mated for life (and that may or may not be entirely true--Google it and you'll get a variety of answers!) but watching these two in the rain the other day, I'm prepared to believe it!  It had rained all day, and near evening the female sheltered under the new leaves of the wild honeysuckle near the shed.  Over and over, the male flew to the feeder, selected a sunflower seed, and returned to her branch to feed her. Anthropomorphic I may be, but it was achingly sweet to watch.

Cardinals are non-migratory, and these may the same pair I've seen all winter long, the same ones that built their next and defended it against all comers last summer.

They're also highly territorial.  I once picked up a male cardinal that had collided with a plate glass window downtown; he was stunned and I wasn't sure he'd make it.  After a few hours he perked up, but rather than return him to our small downtown, I took him to our local park thinking it would be safer for him.  NOT!  Every territorial male cardinal in the area gave chase, and the last I saw of him he was winging his way rapidly back to the relative safety of his territory amongst the shops and high-rises!

More about Northern cardinals here.

A very cold cardinal

Although the weather should be improving this week, the last few days were the coldest of the winter. With fluffed up feathers the birds flocked to the feeders and this cardinal paused outside my bedroom window long enough for me to snap a photo. I did this sketch in my moleskine with Flame Red and Sepia FW ink and a crowquill pen, Derwent watercolor pencils and Winsor & Newton gouache.

Ink montage

It's been lovely watching our cardinal family next to the shed this summer...I'm worried that I haven't seen the mother or the babies peeping up from the edge of the nest, though.  Here you see dad, perched nearby and popping in to feed them from time to time.

Normally I'd add color to an ink sketch like this--but cardinals are SO colorful, and I like the subtlety...

Northern Cardinal Watercolor Sketch - Linda C. Miller

Here is a watercolor sketch of the Northern Cardinal from a wildlife mapping walk on the Virginia Wildlife and Birding Greensprings Trail.  When I walk on this part of the trail, I often see and hear two male cardinals, whose breeding territories seem to meet at the bridge.  When one crosses over the line so to speak, the other is quick to hurry the intruder back to other side!

Northern Cardinal

Cardinalis cardinalis

Watercolor Sketch on 300 lb Hot Press Paper

8 x 8 inches

Fun Fact:  Seven states adopted the Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, as their state bird and these same states each share a border with at least one of the other six.


Do the map...........Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentury, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina!

Linda C. Miller
Williamsburg, Virginia
Artist, Naturalist and Instructor

Cardinal - Elizabeth Smith

Cardinal, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

This was right after a rainy morning, when the sun is just coming out and the colors seem to glow with an inner intensity. A male cardinal flashed by and landed on a nearby car, trying to bully his own reflection into leaving!

You can click on the image above to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.

~Elizabeth Smith, Naples, FL, USA

Baby Cardinal

I found this baby cardinal sitting on my wicker chair under a tree where he apparently fell out of the nest. He looks too young to be alone; eyes barely open and not enough feathers.
Father cardinal was flitting around and sqawking to keep me away but I did manage some photos and this quick sketch.

We looked at the nest and it looks very disturbed so maybe some predator got in there.
An hour later the father was still sqawking but over by the pine trees so I think the baby was under there.

The next day all was quiet so I hope baby made it.
Interestingly the baby's coloring was dark with just a hint of red.