Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Just-Missed Kiss

Seconds after these cardinals were beak-to-beak, happily swapping seeds, I snapped this photo. Too late!

On Saturday last weekend, recovering from my Hotdog Brothers revelry of the night before, I was in my new photo blind, taking pix of birds.

We have about 1.2 million northern cardinals around the farm right now. They are fighting like mad over turf, especially around the feeders. Males and females are blurry streaks of red and gray as they parry and thrust at interlopers.

Our male cardinals are such sexy beasts!

This pair of cardinals did two different "cardinal kisses"--where the male feeds a seed to the female as part of his courtship. They performed this ritual right on top of the feeding station, in full view. These priceless nature moments happened while I fumbled with my camera. DOH!

I missed the kiss. And although I continued watching for an hour, they never did it again (at least not where I could see them).

We'll get 'em NEXT year.

"I feel his staring eyes! But I'm NOT going to look! Oh this is creeping me out!"

"OK. Now I'm ready! Kiss me you fool! But just because you pass me a seed, does NOT mean I'm going to... you know..."
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6 comments:

  1. TrixieApril 25, 2007 at 6:54 PM

    WOW! Even without catching "The Kiss" you caught birdie courtship. I love the picture where Carl Cardinal seems to be chasing Ms. Hard-to-Get.

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  2. Susan Gets NativeApril 25, 2007 at 10:30 PM

    That's right, Ms. Cardinal. Don't let him think that just because he buys you dinner, that he is automatically gonna get lucky.

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  3. dguzmanApril 25, 2007 at 10:42 PM

    You captured such vibrant reds in these photos! He must've been just pulsating with his sexiness or something.

    Listen to Susan, Ms. Cardinal! Make sure he's really the one; after all, you guys mate for life!

    Cardinal courtship. I gotta me one of those blinds!

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  4. CoreyApril 26, 2007 at 10:04 AM

    That last picture is absolutely gorgeous!

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  5. Rondeau RicApril 26, 2007 at 10:57 AM

    superb photos Bill.
    I gotta get me one of those.
    Of course the camera and the skill level are something else

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  6. kevbosnafuApril 28, 2007 at 10:58 AM

    These are pics to savor! Many, many thanks for sharing them.

    New birder kevbosnafu in Boston
    :-)
    (who is making good use of 'Identify This' lately, I might add)

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