My Mom was into birdwatching.
She had the books, the binoculars and the back window.
I didn’t really think much about it at the time. As a kid, I had other concerns.
“We” had a Purple Martin house. (They eat mosquitos in case you didn’t know.) We kids had to clean out that house after the Martin’s left to head for safer climes. Not a fun job.
That was my experience in birdwatching.
But now, our oldest daughter has even commented on us “watching” birds and becoming like “Grandma.”
And now, thanks to my nephew Nathan, I’m a bird watcher.
Nathan was really into birds. That was before he had a wife and two cute young sons. I told him, “we only have two birds here (in the Oklahoma Panhandle), pigeons, sparrows, and doves.” (OK, three)
I downloaded the Cornell University apps, Merlin and eBird for bird ID and logging, and started paying attention. In my backyard, there are/have been multiple species of birds. My apologies to Nathan.
Imagine if I actually went looking?
We have been host to several Northern Cardinals. But they disappeared….until yesterday!
Much to my surprise, these two Cardinals landed in the backyard. I actually observed them dropping in. My actual camera was not nearby so my S24 became my backup. My apologies for the image quality.
And here you have it, two Northern Cardinals and a Harris’s Sparrow…in one image. I did not eveb know that Haris’s Sparrow was even there until I looked at the image! I used Merlin to identify it and loggef it on eBird. I count that a bonus
Who knew there even was a Harris’s Sparrow? I always assumed there were only sparrows!
Thank you, Mom and Nathan.