Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Fooled


Note to self: not every red bird in those trees below our front yard is a scarlet tanager.

I was so excited, thinking to repeat the good luck of the day before. It wasn't till I got the pictures on my laptop that I saw the truth.


Let me hasten to say that there's nothing wrong with cardinals--they are quite beautiful. But we have lots of them at our feeder so tend to take them for granted.

It's the thrill of trying to capture a rarity, I guess.


 

4 comments:

jennyfreckles said...

Still beautiful. I don't think we have any red birds like that - only our robin with a red breast and the pink bullfinch.

Anvilcloud said...

We seem to hear cardinals more than see them. They are quite delightful. I hope you get a photo of a tanager.

Barbara Rogers said...

I have friends who believe cardinals are visits from their ancestors...especially when they appear in winter. Not me, I just love the bright red with the dull winter lack of color. A summer cardinal has the contrast with all that greenery!

Sandra Parshall said...

There's a reason why the cardinal is the state bird of Virginia, where I live. I have counted as many as 36 cardinals at one time in our yard -- no exaggeration. I used to count birds for the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology Project FeederWatch, and every time I submitted my numbers I was asked to verify that the cardinal number was not a typo. I've never seen a summer tanager, but I adore the cardinals I see every day in our yard.