CARDINALS IN THE SNOW

I heard a rumor today we might could see the sun on Sunday. I don't believe it for a second. It's gonna snow every day from now until April.

Don't laugh. We've had something like 12 or 13 straight days with at least some frozen precip. I'm pretty sure it has snowed every day this year.

There are some consolations, though. There may be nothing quite so visually dramatic as a male cardinal against the snow.

When the world is sunny and green, the cardinals seem to lose some of their brightness. It's probably less them than their surroundings and the light. I don't know if their feathers actually change hue during the year--perhaps they do.

When it's snowy, though, they stand out like the blinking red lights atop a television tower. You know, the ones that are supposed to let airplanes know there's danger ahead.

For much of the winter we see the cardinals at the feeder only rarely, mostly dawn and dusk. Not now. Today there have been as many as 6 pairs at the feeders at the same time. There were 4 males in a little oak tree at once and they looked like Christmas ornaments.

Beauty and joy are there, sometimes you just have to look for them.