It was a slow day at the feeders, but the Northern Cardinals have finally returned. The day was extremely hot and muggy. I arrived home, waded through the two dogs, kissed the wife, grabbed the XS-1 and stepped outside. The heat hit me full force and caused me to rethink my wisdom or lack thereof. The usual House Sparrows covered the feeders, no interest there, so common sense kicked in and I stepped back into the house.

Watching American Pickers is always a good bet when trying to multi-task. It is a brainless program, yet very entertaining at the same time. My wife is an antiquity (garage sales mostly) shopper and firmly believes the adage that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. At the pricing in the shops, I don’t really classify any of it as junk. Anyhow, I am watching the program when I saw a flit of red pass the window at the front of the house. The temperature was at a reasonable 102 degrees, so I gave it another go. My vantage point from the truck was a good one but it was infinitely  hotter than the 102 degrees previously mentioned.  Within two or three minutes (Thank you Lord), the male Northern Cardinal came in for a roost at the “rabbit” feeder. It is approximately 20 yards from the truck and hidden in the shade. At this point I did not care. It was a bird of color, which is a rarity on my street. So, I snapped a shot for documentation, rolled up the windows and turned on the AC for a couple of minutes. Cool air!

Approximately 5 minutes rolled by when the male took off into the blue beyond. I turned off the truck and started to get out, impatient to see if the photo turned out.

In the past, the male has always eaten, followed by the female. Sure enough, the short wait paid off. The female Cardinal came in from the opposite direction, landed, and started to feed. With light starting to fade, I snapped off two quick photos. I believe these to be the same birds from my previous post. If they are the same two birds, the heat has taken a toll. The male looked bleached out.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 30 July, 2012
• Focal length: 80.6mm
• ISO: 1250
• Shutter speed: 1/100s

The Cardinal with its very distinctive features is still one of my favorites. The crest, mask, beak and color make both the female and male easy to pick out of a crowd. The male is full red with a black mask that extends from the top of his face to his neck. The female is a buff brown with tinges of red. Time to retire to the house and check out the low-light, high ISO photos. The ISO was crazy high on the female shots but it could not be helped.

The Northern Cardinal is now checked off my Region 2 bird checklist for Palo Pinto county. The goal now is to get better photographs. How did I draw the bird into my yard? I put out some Black-oil seed. It works like a charm. She was very wary, but she did arrive. I scrunched down in a 120 degree truck with one window down. The female came in for a feed (opposite side from me) and then went to the bird bath (entirely in shade). I did manage to catch a shot of her launching off the feeder. Then, I was able to lighten mid-tones and shadows enough to define her on the bird bath. The colors are off, but there is no mistaking that beak. The Cardinal’s ruffled crest is slicked back because she just pulled it out of the water. Finally, I turned the truck on to get some air and waited some more.

A male will usually come in to scope out the scene with the female to follow. At least that has been my experience in this area. A while back prior to working on my checklist, I caught a male on the ground below the feeder. A female swooped in a few minutes later and landed on a nearby fence to watch over the male. They did this three days in a row and then disappeared until today. Today, the female Cardinal was alone. The daddy was probably off feeding the brood.

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 17 June, 2012
• Focal length: 158.6mm
• ISO: 640
• Shutter speed: 1/320s

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 17 June, 2012
• Focal length: 90.4mm
• ISO: 640
• Shutter speed: 1/200s

The Cardinal is a fairly interesting bird with very distinctive features. The crest, mask, beak and color make both the female and male easy to pick out of a crowd. The male is full red with a black mask that extends from the top of his face to his neck. Similar to the Summer Tanager except the tone of red is darker on the Cardinal and he is supporting that mask. The female is a buff brown with tinges of red. The Northern Cardinal is non-migratory for most of Texas. Some spread North for the summer but each winter they return increasing our population. I started birding about two months ago. The Northern Cardinal was one of my most wanted. Still is.

Their mating pattern and behavior would be unacceptable in the human populous. =) The male will fly in and pick out a territory, defend the territory, and wait for the female’s arrival. The female will build a nest, mate, and lay 3 to 4 bluish white eggs with brown markings. The male is left to feed the first brood while mom leaves to build a second nest.

Here are the photos of the female hitting the large feeder and then the shot of the bird bath that I spoke of in the first paragraph.

• Aperture: ƒ/4
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 22 July, 2012
• Focal length: 30mm
• ISO: 400
• Shutter speed: 1/800s

• Aperture: ƒ/4
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 22 July, 2012
• Focal length: 30mm
• ISO: 400
• Shutter speed: 1/800s

• Aperture: ƒ/5.6
• Camera: X-S1
• Taken: 22 July, 2012
• Focal length: 83.7mm
• ISO: 400
• Shutter speed: 1/160s