For those of us who are not having a wild romantic time, Welcome to my Garden Photography Blog!!!!! I could not get the chocolates in the blog so I ate them for you. (They were good). But I am bringing you Flowers, Rare Birds, and a lovely visitor, plus a slide show someone else made at Perdanales River.
(And--------The Price is Right!) So Come on In--We are starting with a road trip to Elaine's Place.
My friend Elaine invited me to have Valentine's Dinner with her Family and friends yesterday on Sunday 2-13. What a treat to go to her place for a celebration dinner! She is a great cook and all these wonderful tasting treats are everywhere! This was Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings!
Elaine gathered these flowers and made an arrangement for the table. Her Husband, Don, set a gracious Table. I shot a couple of pics of the flowers and table to share with All.
Enjoy the photostudy!
A Classic Red Rose (with a fade to black and white).
Look at this peaceful, beautiful moment!
Soon there were kids and grandsons and granddaughters and friends and the whole room was filled with joy as we enjoyed the feast Elaine and Don had prepared for this festive day. WOW--wish the whole world could have been there! Thank You, my friends!
Turn off the lights, the party is over and we are heading back to Kates Cabin for your surprises there!
Here she is-- Our Rare White-Faced Cardinal I named: The Snow Queen
Her feathers have filled in on her face so she does not look as goofy as she did the first time we saw her. She is so good to the little visiting birds.
I believe I said before that she might be the only white-faced cardinal in the world. Would you believe I googled white faced cardinal and actually found photos of one other. It is in Texas also up around the Perdanales River which would be around 3 to 4 hours from where we are here in Hempstead, Texas.
He has a slide show of several birds including the white faced he photographed. I have included this slide show for you at the end of this blog!!! (Who loves you!!!!)
When you view his slide-show you will see it is Not the same bird as our Snow Queen. She has a mate now and is building a nest. They are all building nests!
This seems to be Cardinal Love!!
If she treats her babies like she does these little birds, she will be a good mother. Both the mother and father care for the babies once they hatch from the blue speckled eggs.
I put this feeding station on the ground in an open area so the birds can see the wild wood cats if they approach. Last night I looked out and there was a big, fat racoon snacking on the corn!!
The Cardinal's favorite seed is the sunflower seeds.
I googled albino birds and found several links. This was good:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jan/18/bird-lady-what-about-those-albino-birds/
This bird lady states that a true albino bird would have red eyes and pink feet and would be extremely rare.
Most reported birds are leucistic, which means some white coloring.
Leucism is a genetic mutation that prevents the normal deposition of melanin on some of the bird's feathers.
So I googled albino cardinal and found this link:
http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/03/albino_cardinal_photographed.html
check it out as it is a photo of a true albino cardinal!! amazing.
Supposedly, these leucistic birds have trouble finding a mate as they look different. We see here, she has one interested!
Here is another link referring to a bird seen in Indiana:
http://cardinalbird.org/have-you-ever-seen-a-whitealbino-red-bird-or-cardinal/comment-page-1/#comment-11561
Snow Queen is so pretty but not as rare as the only one. Here is a link with 3 photos of a white body cardinal!
http://www.nature.net/forums/load/bird/msg0215295227782.html?5
I am thankful to have seen her and photographed her! I am happy she is still here. Let me know if you have seen any!
And now for your surprise:
A second rare cardinal with a white wing! And white chest!
How about that??? I will try to get some better photos! This is too much to see both of them!!
Below if the slide show showing another white faced cardinal and other birds:
080831 Birds of Pedernales Falls State Park
Now, One more surprise! Guess who came over for corn and coffee??
Elisabeth, the deer!
She says: Happy Valentines Day Everybody!!!!!
I almost forgot-----The Alien:
......this is brendasue signing off from Rainbow Creek
I wish you All a Life full of Love!
katescabin@gmail.com
O+O
