Cardinal: The Winter Bird

I realize there must be hundreds of better pictures of cardinals on Google. 

Fire engine red looking angry (always...always looking angry) on fluffy fresh snow.

Clearly this isn't one of those.

But! 

To begin with, I was at work, hence the "fire" red. 

B, These two are the only decent pictures I took....out of  121.

And finally, all of my oohing & awwing, while crouching on a chair (& even a brief kneeling on a desk) wasn't noticed by the boss.

Success!

Cardinals have always reminded me of my grandma. She hoarded pictures of them. She had several that lived & darted around the bay window & a feeder that sat directly under the cushioned seat there.

I've never seen a female cardinal in real life. The whole experience was quite awesome. 

She was beautiful in her own right, 

but different...

acutely aware of every thing happening around her.

It was quite magical.