Cardinal points

Since I had to work at the museum today, I'd come up with the brilliant plan of staying overnight at my folks' after yesterday's wedding was over, saving myself a trip from Arlington. Naturally, I subverted my own genius by leaving my work keys back in my apartment. Thankfully, I realized it early enough that I still had time to enjoy breakfast with my parents and take a few photos before I had to go retrieve them.

We begin with a pair of male Baltimore Orioles that spent a good 20 minutes fighting over which one had dibs on the feeder:



A hummingbird working the flowers just off the back porch:



A Tiger Swallowtail on one of the window screens:





Although I realize I'll never know, I'm still curious as to how this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak lost the patch of feathers off his cheek:



A pair of Hairy Woodpeckers:



However, the stars of this morning's show were undoubtedly the male and female Cardinals that spent some quality time on the feeder. At first I was cursing the male's skittishness, as it seemed he made himself scarce every time I was ready to try and get a photo. However, all was more than forgiven when he and this female engaged in their courtship behavior, which involves the male feeding the female, as I stood in the back doorway, camera in hand:







I considered myself very lucky to have been able to capture the two birds courting one time; having them there a second time minutes later was an amazing bit of extremely good fortune:











Naturally, I have some Kaylee photos to close things out. In fact, I owe her big time for the second of the butterfly pictures; if she hadn't noticed it while in her usual spot on the chair and put her nose close to investigate, it might not have opened up its wings as it did. So, here's a wider shot featuring the both of them:



I call this one Man and Dog on a Sunday Morning:



Sleepy Kaylee is very, very sleepy: