One of the things you consistently tell me that you like is my posts on unexpected beauty, so here’s a bit of unexpected beauty in January. Many thanks to readers who contributed their gorgeous photos of our fine feathered friends.
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Winter. It’s cold. The landscape is filled with faded browns and grays. As I’ve written before, in the winter I love being able to see the structure of trees, bare branches silhouetted against the sky. The evergreen trees and plants in our area provide a much-welcome scattering of green.
Still, after a while, I start longing for more colors and obvious signs of life. I look forward to spring’s awakening and, with it, the beauty of one of my favorite seasons.
Of course, there’s life all around me even in winter. The birds and woodland creatures are hard at work, keeping themselves warm and fed. Most of them blend into the landscape, which is good since at least two hawks, an owl, and coyotes live in this neighborhood too.
Photo by Dallas Kinney
But there’s one creature that doesn’t blend in—the male cardinal. And for the past few weeks, these birds have been busy. Whenever I glance out the window overlooking our back yard, I often see a dot of brilliant red standing out against the drab gray and brown backdrop. They constantly flit from branch to ground then another branch, zipping all over the yard.
I don’t have a DSLR camera with a good lens, and my trusty iPhone camera doesn’t do these birds justice from far away. Besides, they don’t stay still for long. Fortunately, I have several friends who have shared their photos with me:
Professional photographer Dallas Kinney’s close-ups capture one bird in motion and at mealtime. (See the seed in his beak?)
The shot of the cardinal perched among bare branches looks as though Kareen King was standing on my deck when she took it.
And Laurie Fuller caught the little guy sitting in the snow on her deck last weekend, when our area had a “wintry mix” event, providing the perfect background for his brilliance.
On these gray wintry days of January, I am grateful for the unexpected beauty—and the welcome sight of busy and bright red cardinals.
Where have you seen or experienced unexpected beauty lately?
