A Fall Cardinal

There is an area of the nature park that I've told you about many times before. It's full of birds almost every day. Lately that hasn't really been the case. As the weather has gotten colder most of the birds have gone away. Now the only birds I usually see are all American robins.

I like the robins but I only want to feature them here so many times before I show you something new. Even so, I love looking at the animals while I'm on my hikes, so another robin is one more fun sighting for me. My main focus is on the hiking, but I really do like sharing the animals I see along the way.

Anyway, I was looking up at the trees hoping to get a glimpse, and maybe a few good pictures, of a few of the robins that like to populate the trees in this place. I remember seeing a hint of red when I pointed the view screen at the first bird I saw, and I thought that confirmed it was indeed the robin I was after. I guess I couldn't have been more wrong.

Thanks to my zoom lense I was able to get a nice clear shot of this beautiful Cardinal! That's right, what I thought was a robin turned out to be a cardinal. The bird was so far away that I didn't know just what I had until I got home. I thought the red I saw looked a little more vibrant than usual, but I really didn't expect this.

I have to say that this is one of the greatest parts of nature; it's when you come across something as unexpected as this. I had been resigned to the fact that the only animals I would be showing you for awhile would be a select few, and then this red burst of color found its way to my camera. Ahh, the greatness of nature!

This last photo of this cardinal is actually the first picture I took of him. Yes, I said him. It's only the males that have this red color. The female cardinals are a light gray color, but they look the same otherwise. Hopefully one day I'll be able to show you a good picture of a female. For now though, I'm extremely happy to be able to show this bird to you.

I wonder what kind of creature I'll find in the forest next. Could a Bigfoot be out of the question? I'll be watching!