Dept. of Mittwoch

[kaffy_r]

Pictures of Neat Things

Because I'm so tired tonight that I'm not able to focus on any one thing for very long. (Jazz, Thomas Merton, how they intersect; union stuff; stories I have to chase tomorrow; my brother; my Nana's paintings; A Love Supreme ... yeah, my brain is pretty much some kind of oatmeal. Or gumbo. Not sure which.)

Caveat: I took terrible pictures, fast, so these are fast, and kind of terrible. 

This is the male Cardinal that lives on our street. 



This is his mate. You'll see her if you look carefully. I think the fawn and tan and green and gold-yellow of her coloring is very pretty, but it doesn't show up very well against the ground. 



And this is my not very good picture of the blue flowers I love so much that bloom in the spring. Their blues were darker this year. I checked this shot, which hasn't been enhanced in any way, with the shots I took last year, which I admit I slightly enhanced - and these are the richer colored blooms. 

Comments

[clocketpatch]

Fast or not those pictures are beautiful? And I'm impressed at how well you caught the birds. Birds are such tricky creatures to photograph. Cardinals are so lovely and their songs are so nice. I miss them quite a bit. There don't seem to be any living on the praries.

[kaffy_r]

Thanks for the praise, although I'm compelled to note that most of the artistry comes from extreme cropping and/or resizing. Heh. There have always been a few Cardinals in Chicago (I suppose I should lower case the name, which is, I think, AP style, but I think the birds are due at least as much respect as the religious figures), and there always seems to be a mated couple on our street. I don't know how long the birds live, so I don't know how many generations have called our street home. When it comes to song, I admit that my absolute favorite is the liquid beauty of a robin's song.

[lilacsigil]

I didn't know it was only the male cardinals with that colouring, but in retrospect I probably should have guessed! I think the female cardinal's colouring is gorgeous.

[kaffy_r]

I really like her coloring; it's sophisticated and subtle.

[owlboy]

are those lithadora flowers?

[kaffy_r]

From what I just read about lithadora, I don't think so, although they're very similar. The difference seems to be (at least one of them) that lithadoras can continue to bloom at least a little after their first major bloom in spring. These flowers don't bloom at any time except a few weeks in the spring. The blooms of the lithadora also seem a little bigger; the petals of these flowers are less round than the lithadora.

Does anyone else have any idea what these are? I know that someone once told me, and I forgot.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I hope you catch up with yourself soon! (Do you get a long weekend?) <3

But those are very nice pics - and a cardinal is a very exotic sight from my pov. (THe flowers are very pretty, but look very similar to bluebells, although I assume they probably aren't - but they certainly have the same lovely spring effect.)

[kaffy_r]

Sadly, no long weekend, but a weekend - which I am now enjoying, complete with martini, my beloved, and probably some anime and media science fiction. Hurrah - I am easily entertained! (Also, tomorrow - THE DOCTOR!!!)

[thisbluespirit]

Hee, and now... TODAY, THE DOCTOR!!!

[kaffy_r]

Counting the hours (it'll be a bit before we watch it over here.)

[shanghaied]

Mmm, gumbo... ;-)

I've always thought cardinals were the most beautiful of the small New World birds, and as it's been some 40 years since I've seen one in the fleshplumage, your photo is very welcome!

[kaffy_r]

I'm glad the photo gave you pleasure!

[maia]

Thank you for posting these! Happy Spring!

(I love cardinals)

[kaffy_r]

Happy spring to you, as well - I'm always happy to see the Cardinals return to our street. Sometimes we're also lucky enough to get a yellow bird that I can't identify, but which is delightful to see.

[liadt]

Lovely wee birds:) It's nice to see the creatures coming out now it's spring.

[kaffy_r]

I'm so very glad it's spring!

[cygnia]

I just saw my first cardinal of the year yesterday :)

[kaffy_r]

I'm always glad when I see ours. Does yours have a mate?

[cygnia]

I did not see one yet, alas

[kaffy_r]

And the females are harder to spot than their more colorful mates.