Posted on January 24, 2013 at 03:19:09 PM by ginny
Wouldn't you know it!
Since moving here in 2008, I've had a cardinal show up perhaps twice. That changed in October when a pair of cardinals hung out here in a while. I've seen the male cardinal pretty consistently since.
Unfortunately, that looks to have ended. This morning when I was out doing the bird feeding rounds, I noticed this explosion of feathers near the base of the crabapple tree. Upon closer inspection, the feathers were red. At first I thought it was blood but the sad truth is that the feathers are cardinal red.
The stick in the lower right is a two foot long piece of hollyhock stem. The main area of remains is in the upper right and the feathers are strewn a good three feet or more to the north and west of that location.
There has definitely been a raptor of some sort hanging out here. I have yet to see it but, over the last few weeks in particular, there has been an absence of birds (unusual for my place) or all woodpeckers freezing in place. On a couple of occasions, I have thought that blue jays were mobbing something in the cedars but was never able to locate anything.
There is also a cat in the area. Much as I try to frighten it away whenever I see it, every morning the rounds of tracks go from the front porch, around my trail for bird feeding, stopping at the rockpile and brushpile for closer examination.
So the question is:
who took the cardinal?
Replies:
- Re(1): Feather explosion - By Bob Bowles January 24, 2013 at 03:50:31 PM
Re(2): Feather explosion - By ginny January 24, 2013 at 04:33:09 PM
Post a reply:
<--
-->