Cardinal Courtship

Today was one of those special blue-ribbon nature days.   It started out with a male Northern Cardinal feeding a seed to his female friend.  I love seeing this!  If you haven't seen it, it looks like they are kissing.  It means he is courting her and trying to prove to her that he would be a good provider for their future family.  I think they make a very cute couple!

Showing he could be a good provider

It was so early in the morning, there was no sun hitting the feeder area yet.  Too bad!

The next bit of excitement was in the front yard, where I noticed a much larger group of deer (eight) than the usual high of three.  Do I dare refer to it as a herd?  Yes, I do!

Single file please....it makes going through the deep snow so much easier if they use the same path.  They must have gone back and forth 4 times over the course of the day.  I wonder where they were heading?

This one came to check out the sunflower seeds, but there were none to be had.

When I came back from lunch, they were all piled up in the wetlands area.  Since I stayed in the car, shut it off and rolled down the window to take photos, they couldn't decide whether I was a threat or not.  Cars they are used to.

Favorite photo

I restocked on bird seed at lunch, so when I got back from the store, I filled the sunflower seed feeder and the thistle feeder, rehung the mealworm tray feeder (no good in snow), and hung a fresh suet cake. The tray feeder is very poorly constructed and is falling apart.  I need to take a staple gun to it and make some repairs.  It definitely can't withstand the extra weight of snow, so I had taken it down.

The Eastern Bluebirds wasted no time visiting the mealworms.  They are so brilliantly blue in the sunshine!