A Reflection of a Cardinal

The Northern Cardinal.  Is he not the most recognized of all birds?  His bright red color against the white snow or his contrast against the green of the tree.  She is a beauty, too.  Her understated brown accented by her red lipstick.  No wonder he loves her so much that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Together they raise their young. He feeds her at the tray feeder and chases away any other would be suitor including ....himself!

I have long heard of Cardinals fighting with their own reflection, but never had I seen this behavior.  I happened to be chauffeuring a handful of rowdy  sweet teen-aged boys on a bottle collection.  My role was to simply sit in the car and be quiet.  My son was among these band members anxious to get the whole thing over with raise funds for their marching band.  As I sat reading in the car with my carnoculars always handy I watched as a male Northern Cardinal did indeed have an imaginary enemy to battle with.  I was lucky to have my camera ready.  Even luckier that the battery was charged. Yes, my memory card had not been forgotten in my computer! I was entertained as the poor bird attacked himself over and over and over again.

We may laugh at the cardinal, or even feel sympathy for him.  We have all done it.  We have been our own worst enemy.  We attack ourselves over and over again with defeatist attitudes.  We use words like "would", "should", " can't."  We look in the mirror and wish we were taller, thinner, buffer,leaner.  What a difference we could make in the world if we changed our can'ts to cans.  Would to will.  If we accepted ourselves as God designed us to be, we would be free to allow the more positive aspects of the Cardinal shine through. We could be more helpful, kind and generous.  So get out there today and let your light shine!  Start, or keep, looking for the good in others and you'll probably end up seeing some in yourself, too!

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." Philippians 4:8

Babies!

Who doesn't love a baby?  Seeing babies just makes you want to say, "awwwwe!"  It doesn't even matter what kind of babies they are. I have been seeing babies in my backyard for quite some time.  Every time I see one I have to call for my "babies" to come see what has shown up next...

Ducklings are one of my favorite kinds of babies! We took bread
to the park to feed ducks and were thrilled to see all these babies!

These babies completely baffle me!  Are the Canada Geese?  That's who they
were hanging out with!  They look a lot like swans, but look at the coloring on their necks.

Someday this cutie will grow up and eat my flowers!  Right
now I'm saying, "Awwwwwe!"

Here they are two of my three little playmates!

I still have more baby pictures.  I found my friend at Snickety Things when I clicked on a picture she
had taken of a Killdeer for a contest.  I entered the same contest, but what we won was friendship!! I thought of her when I saw this young Killdeer at the mall, of all places.  I waited in the parking lot while my daughter was inside shopping with a friend.  

It was hard to get a picture of this little guy.  He was moving so fast
and his dad was keeping a watchful eye on him...

I still have more baby pictures.  I hope you aren't awed out!  These last two may be my favorites.  No, no my favorite babies are human babies!
They are the best at snuggling and I like watching them grow.  I remember my mom saying that if all the world leaders sat down at a meeting together with a baby in their arms they would speak kindly to one another and we would have peace on earth!  Babies are that awwwesome!

These babies look a bit evil!

I give the Tufted Titmouse the award for cutest baby!

 School's out...Does that mean I can spend my days birding?  Nope!  Time to move, but I'd rather be birding!

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Watching a Monarch  grow from a small egg to a rather large butterfly is one of life's treasures and mysteries!  It is a bit like watching your own children grow from a lump into mature adults, but condensed into a much shorter time period with a lot less worries and expense!  I only had one emergency run to get milkweed this round and almost missed out on his emergence into a full sized adult.

I found my little guy under a cabbage leaf a milkweed leaf with a group of students.  I explained that I would not normally remove a creature from its native surroundings.  The only reason we took him and his sibling in was to remove them from harm's way... 100+ stampeding feet seems like harm's way to me!

My first grade students loved having another class pet.  They named one Fatty and the other Baby.  One student especially loved reading the same book over and over to them because they loved the book, Dolphin's First Leap!  I wish I had gotten a picture to share with you of her sitting in a chair with the caterpillar jar sitting right next to her as she read that book.

As we daily picked milkweed and watched in amazement as our caterpillars grew, we noticed one morning that Fatty was hanging upside down in the shape of a J.  My class was sure that he was dead.  They were happy to find out this was part of his life cycle and he was preparing to go into his chrysalis stage.  How exciting to share the wonder and surprise with a group of children as full of wonder as first graders.  They loved checking daily to see if the chrysalis was changing.  Sadly school ended for the year the day after Baby joined Fatty in the chrysalis process.

In my excitement over school ending I almost forgot about my chrysalis collection.  I hadn't had to feed the caterpillars, so didn't think about them. I happened to be driving by school one evening and thought I should check on them.  Low and behold, when I gazed into the jar, I saw a very dark chrysalis indeed. I kept vigil until midnight and then couldn't keep my eyes open a second longer.

Early Sunday morning I woke to find a brand new creation!  I am amazed at the transformation that takes place from egg to butterfly.  This beautiful creature has to go through a whole lot of ugly to become this...

Have you ever had to go through some ugly times?  Are those times transforming you into something beautiful?  I won't bore you with some of the ugliness I've had to go through and I'm not saying I'm a butterfly now.  I will say that the ugly times in my life have never been wasted.  The ugly times in my life have helped me become more compassionate, sensitive and aware of the hurt other people struggle with on a daily basis. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.^[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
If you don't like what you see now...Wait, because God who began a good work in me is still at work changing and metamorphosizing me daily!

I'm stuck inside getting ready to move to a new house, but I'd rather be birding!