Friday Love: Cardinals

In Ottawa I lived in an older section of a suburban area. It isn't very far away from reserved greenspace. This close proximity to natural habitation brought along all sorts of interesting wildlife that I would and would not expect to find in the 'burbs.

Sitting on my front patio in the evening during the summer I would often see either a groundhog or a skunk make the same, daily trek across a few of my neighbours yards. There were also the easily startled but increasingly brave and determined racoons. We had bunnies that snacked on the leftover birdseed with chipmunks who filled their faces so full, I'm surprised they could scamper away. The black squirrels and the occasional grey squirrels bullied the birds away from the feeders. We had a lovely hawk visit us for a while one day, probably keeping tabs on the large amount of chickadees and sparrows. We had bluejays who are lovely to look at, but not as nice to hear. The cooing doves, who always look slightly confused and the starlings, who I really don't like because I was traumatized once. Maybe I'll tell you that story another time.

By far my favourite visitors were the Cardinals. They are easy to spot, since the male is such a beautiful, bright red. His partner was almost always nearby, blending in more easily because she was brown with touches of warm red. They visited often this past summer and it made me happy every time. I will miss my little red visitors.

 

Male Cardinal. Pen and marker.

Female Cardinal. Pen and Marker.

After doing a few illustrations in my sketchbook I started to skip around the internet looking for Cardinal related imagery and handmade goods. It's nice to see that there are many other people who share my love for this adorable bird.