It happens to all of us every now and then…the seasons surprise you with an unexpected change and you get caught without quite having your new wardrobe fully put together.
At least I think that's the case with this male cardinal I saw in a hackberry tree near the cottage recently. Either that, or else he's just a fashion disaster when it comes to coordinating his outfit. A ragtag redneck redbird.
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12 comments:
How I love this photograph Grizz - as I am sure you know, the cardinal is my favourite American bird - and I have never thought of them in moult! Poor darling - he should have stayed hidden.
Weaver…
I wondered what you'd think. He does look rather a mess, doesn't he?
HI GRIZZ- quite a scruffy lookin' specimen. Looks like he has been tussled about or had a wild night 'in the sack' and came out dazed and ruffled. I like that scenario the best! :-)
Love you
Gail
peace.......
p.s. come by my place, geesh!!
Moulting? Of just a youngster getting his first red suit? Cool photo either way!
Hahaha! Cute, Grizz...
Gail…
I believe when you look carefully at that ol' redbird's gleaming eye, you'll have your answer.
I'll be by for a vist tomorrow, though didn't realize I'd missed a post. But I'm in worse shape than the redbird, and for all the wrong reasons.
Carolyn…
Good point—and I have no idea which, youngster or rough molt. But I don't recall seeing one look quite this way before.
Kelly…
The way I see it—eat my sunflower seeds and I'll make a photo when I catch you half dressed, put it on the blog, and we'll all have a chuckle. Sounds fair to me.
I also think it could be a young bird. I just came back from ten in Ohio. I thought the land was flat apart from the south of Ohio, but driving around Mansfield there were many hills and valleys. It was lovely. Unfortunately the road was narrow and it was hard to stop to take photos.
Vagabonde …
It could very well be a young bird—I just don't know enough to tell the difference.
Ohio has a lot of different landscapes—some of them flat, others rolling hills like what you saw around Mansfield, prairies, plus in the southeaster corner, the true Appalachian hill-country down along the Ohio River. Not high enough hills to call them mountains, but surprising forested foothills, steep-sided ridges and valleys, lots of cliffs and rockhouses (recess caves), gorges, neat "hills and hollers" where anyone from east-Tennessee, West Virginia, or eastern-Kentucky would feel right at home. Where I live it's a good mix, not at all flat, with everything from bogs and fens to some hilly little pockets, flat farmlands, pastoral streams, old meadows, woods, etc., and all within 15-30 minutes of the house…and most more like 5-10 minutes. Ohio isn't all industrial/urban and corn/soybeans.
Funny. Like a teenage boy whose voice can't decide if it belongs to a man or a child.
nellie
Nellie…
A betwixt and between redbird—and your simile is perfect.
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