A Spring Cardinal

Well, my luck with birds seems to be continuing. I really do have to give a lot of credit to the new camera for pictures like these. But to get the pictures I have for you today, I had to search patiently through the trees for the sounds I was hearing.

A problem I've had is that I have trouble telling one bird from another by the sounds they make. But I think I made a small breakthrough with this cardinal in the pictures. A cardinal actually has a very distinctive call if you listen closely, and I've been lucky enough to hear a great many of them lately. It always helps to have enough birds around making noise to be able to learn from.

After listening to the calls of this bird for several seconds, maybe even minutes, I began to realize it wasn't coming from just my everyday robins. This was a distinctly different sound, almost like a quickly up and down slide whistle. I guess you'd have to hear it to understand.

Anyway, it was different than a robin, okay? The important thing is that I think I'm finally beginning to hear and understand the different bird calls. It may not seem like much, but for me it's a huge breakthrough. Listening to a bird is really the only way to find them in the trees, and knowing which kind of bird you're looking for helps a lot.

I actually stood there taking more pictures than you'd believe. I've told you before that I've taken anywhere from 50 to 100 pictures of the same subject at a time. It was probably about the same here. I do it like that because a digital camera makes it easy to save that many, and I want to make sure I get at least one good picture out of that mess!

Trust me, it's not at all easy to get a picture of a bird. They don't really like to sit very still, especially when they notice you watching them!

People like to use the term "bird brain" to refer to a stupid person, but we are finding out more and more that some birds are very intelligent. I don't know how intelligent a cardinal would be, but I do know that this guy was watching me right back. He knew I was there, but I think he felt relatively safe at the top of the huge tree he was in.

He turned out to be confident enough to stay there until I left. I didn't leave because I was tired of him though. There happened to be a strange big bird flying by. I tried to get video of it, but there were too many branches in the way. When I turned back to the cardinal, it had decided to make an exit as well. There will be more cardinals one of these days.

Do you notice that the pictures above are a little dark? I like them that way this time, but I know how to brighten them up, and even improve them quite bit, thanks to Diane. Do you want to learn how to do this? Go to Nature Center Magazine today for Diane's nice lesson on beginner photo editing, and to learn who the mysterious Diane is. Some of you actually know her well.

Update: I've been a little absent from the web the last few days, but I'll try to visit some of your blogs later today.