ONE FOR THE BIRDS

For the past few months I've been trying to get a really good picture of
a male cardinal and other birds that perch on the bush outside my bedroom
window each morning, especially the cardinal. It's become almost a quest,
to get the perfect shot of that beautiful scarlet bird before Spring arrives
and the leaves bloom and hide it from view. This morning I think it was
just too cold for it to try to evade me so I got the best picture yet.

But it's not just the birds. Sometimes the squirrels get in to the act as well:

But what prompted this post was another bird out in the bush this morning:

This is a tufted titmouse. The first time I ever saw one was shortly after our
family moved into our house on Bicknell Hill Rd here in Abington. We had a big
picture window, and one day a small grey bird flew headfirst into it and landed
in the bushes below. After our Mom got over the initial shock, she felt bad for
the poor bird and sent Dad outside to look for it. Dad after all was born and
raised in Maine, a country boy, and usually handled anything of this sort. He was
also a man of few words, like many other Mainers.

Mom looked out the front door and asked what sort of bird it was.

And Dad gave a typical laconic Mainer answer:

"A dead one."