28 March 2009

Bird Watching

My condo building is mostly surrounded by woods. I see plenty of wildlife - the family of ingenious raccoons that raid our dumpster at night, the occasional deer that wanders out into the clearing, the random opossum, and the numerous birds.

Birds I haven't seen in a long time.

Last week, while having a smoke outside, I heard a woodpecker in the woods. A couple days ago, I saw the little feller. He was a Red-cockaded Woodpecker and he was beautiful.

There is a family of Cardinals that live around my building. I see them often. But I can't remember a time in my life when I actually heard a Cardinal. Until today. A male was sitting in a tree no more than 50 yards from where I was standing. And he was trying his best to attract a mate. Cardinals have such a lovely song. I can't believe I've never heard it before.

I also spotted an American Goldfinch. I hadn't seen one of those since I was a child. I remember we had sunflowers in our back yard at one point, and those flower attracted so many Goldfinches. And here I was, so many years later, looking out my window when one stops for a moment along the thickets just on the other side of the fence.

It makes me wonder what else is out there just beyond my windows.

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