Cardinals Feeding
Cardinal's View
The Birds Outside
The bright red male cardinal lighted gently along the edge of a bird feeder that hung closer than what would normally be his comfort level to the glass surface of a window but he and the Mrs. had been successfully feeding here for quite some time so he felt secure. Besides, the reflection in the glass revealed to him his bright plumage and red colorations. He was quite a sight to behold and he knew it. Every bird in the neighborhood revered him. With ease and comfort he dug into the selection of seeds, spilling many of them over the edge as he greedily ate. Along side him then came his mate, his insignificant other, his keeper of eggs and she was as always - not very happy.
“Sure sure. Feed your greedy fat face," she squawked. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just drag my sad dullish colored self along side you and try to pick some seeds you haven’t had your beak all over. Not like you could distract that damned cat drooling at us from the window so I could eat in peace.”
“I rather like the excitement of eating whilst something that wishes to eat me watches,” bragged the brightly colored male.
“Well, I don’t. I don’t like the way that devil cat twitches while I try to down a few seeds. Why is this feeder so close to that window? I think the people like watching us eat. The people are odd. But who cares as long as they keep feeding us and keep that she devil animal of theirs on that side of the glass?”
All of us were sitting in the living room having coffee. My mom was perched up on the couch so as to get a good view of the birds. We’d hung some plants and bird feeders up (one for seed and one liquid for humming birds) right next to the window as entertainment for my mother. My sister, Pam, had gotten a bird book for us to identify the kinds of birds that were feeding there. It was a few cardinals and orioles but mainly sparrows and finches. The cat got quite a kick out of it too.
“Hey, there is a cardinal," I said. “On the feeder.”
“Where? Where?” my mom asked as the cat leered at the birds.
“Right there. You can tell it is a male. It is the brightly colored good looking one!” I like to point this out as most birds have brightly colored males and dull colored females and I live surrounded by women, especially in this house so you need to point things like this out whenever possible.
One had to wonder though, what those birds thought of the lot of us watching them eat through the window as our morning’s coffee entertainment?
