Review of Facts and Photos of the Northern Cardinal

Male Northern Cardinal

The Northern Cardinal is one of my favorite birds.  They frequently visit my backyard feeders and birdbath and I never get tired of photographing them.  I find both the male and female to be very photogenic.

Fun Facts About the Northern Cardinal

• State bird of 7 US states
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Diet consists of seeds, insects and berries
• Also known as redbird
• Featured as the name of numerous athletic teams including my favorite St. Louis Cardinal baseball team.
• Beautiful songbirds who sing year round.  Loud whistling song that has many variations including: cheer,cheer,cheer and purty,purty,purty.
• Male sings to defend nesting territory.
• Cardinals do not migrate and live their entire lives within a few miles.
• Cardinal lifespan can be up to 15 years.

Thanks goes to my granddaughter Kate for sharing some of her Cardinal facts with me.

Differences between Male and Female Cardinals

The male Cardinal is perhaps the mostly widely recognized bird in the USA.  Male is completely red except for small black mask and a black chin.  These birds have heavy bills to deal with their diets.

Although the female is duller in color, I think they are equally beautiful.  They are a tawny brown with a small amount of red on the crest, wings and tail.  I love their bright orange/red beak.

Photos of Cardinals in my Backyard

This little guy is all puffed up against the cold winter winds.

I like the look on this Cardinals face.  He seems to be saying "it's my turn here now...stay away!"

Products with Northern Cardinals

Because they are such a colorful and popular birds you can find numerous products that feature cardinals.  A search on Amazon will show you toys, household decorating items and much more.  Here are a couple that caught my eye.

I love this colorful Cardinal trivet.  What a great way to bring this colorful bird into your home.

If you are looking for some decorations with Cardinals for your deck or patio this beautiful wind chime is just for you.  I love the sound of chimes in the wind and I'm sure you will love this colorful decoration.

Cardinal Magnet from my friend Vicki's Zazzle store

Magnet Cardinals appear when angels are near..
by Vimages4you

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Review of Facts on the Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Distinguishing Features

The Eurasian tree sparrow is similar to the house sparrow but with a few distinguishing features.  The most notable one is the black patch in the middle of a pure white cheek.  You can see that feature in the photo above.  These birds also have a rich chestnut colored crown and nape.  Both sexes are similar and the young birds are just a duller version of the adult birds.  

I had seen these birds in our yard for several years and did not realize they were different from the house sparrows until I took some photographs and started to study their features.  Since they are only in a limited region of the USA I did not find them in my pocket field guide to birds and had to do a bit more searching online to find more information. 

History in USA

Eurasian Tree Sparrows were first introduced in the USA when 20 birds were brought to St. Louis, Missouri from Germany.  It is said that these birds probably would have multiplied and spread except that the House Sparrow was introduced to the US at about the same time.  The House Sparrow is a tougher bird and kept the Eurasian Tree Sparrows from spreading.  Today you mostly find these birds around the St. Louis area, although you may find them in other parts of Missouri, Illinois and southern Iowa.  We live about 40 miles west of St. Louis and have quite a few of the birds in our yard year round.  They seem to stay in some of our low shrubs around our house.  They are frequent visitors at both our finch feeders and our wild bird feeders.  They also like to visit our birdbath.

More Information

If you would like to read more about these interesting birds, I would suggest the following link where I gathered much of my information. Audubon Field guide   At this site you can also listen to the calls of the birds.

Bird Guide

I find this bird guide to be  valuable tool for identifying birds in my backyard.  It did have a small blurb on Eurasian tree sparrow under the heading Old World Sparrows.

                                                               

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Review of Cape St. George Lighthouse

Cape St. George Lighthouse

On the beautiful island of St. George, just off the Florida panhandle stands a historic lighthouse.  Cape St. George has been rebuilt 3 times since it was originally built in 1833.  Powerful storms, hurricanes and even the civil war interrupted the light being used to guide ships into the cotton port of Apalachicola. The current lighthouse was completed in December of 2008.  

Visiting Cape St. George

The current lighthouse is reached by traveling a 4.2 mile bridge over to St. George Island.  As you approach the island you can't miss the lighthouse that stands in the center of the island.  On the day that we visited it started raining as we approached the island so we decided to stop for lunch at the Blue Parrot before taking photos of the lighthouse.  We were rewarded for our patience by the lighthouse taking on a beautiful glow after the rain shower and a rainbow appearing near the bottom third of the lighthouse.

Different Perspectives of the Lighthouse

As I have stated in this blog before, I love walking around the area of the lighthouses I photograph to find different perspectives.  The newly washed area from the rain gave me some great material on this visit.  Here are a few of my photographs.

Sea after the Storm

Sea after Storm Throw Pillow
by mbgphoto

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Photographing Lighthouses on the Florida Panhandle

Cape San Blas Lighthouse

Finding the Perfect Perspective

    As I reviewed some of my lighthouse photography tips, I found that finding the right place to take the photo is a very important part of my tips.  On a recent trip to the Florida panhandle I found some good examples of using this tip.

  Our first stop was in Port St. Joe where I photographed the Cape San Blas lighthouse.  The first photo I took was the view as I left our car.  It is a straight on look at the lighthouse with the keepers house to the side.  You can see that photo at the top of this article.  I think it is a good photo and many people would stop with that view.  I enjoy finding different perspectives so I took a walk around the lighthouse.  I found a small lake behind the lighthouse and walked around the lake looking for the best shot.  I took a new photo every few feet and got a lot of good views.  The one below is one I particularly like.  It shows the lighthouse reflected in the lake.

Living in a Lighthouse

While we were in Port St. Joe I went to look for another lighthouse I had read about.  This lighthouse is on private property and not open to the public, but I found directions to an area where I could get a photo. This lighthouse is called St. Joseph Point lighthouse and is now a private residence off county road 30a.  Here is a photo I took from the street.  Wouldn't it be fun to live in a lighthouse?  I imagine you might get a better perspective of this lighthouse from the water but I was limited to taking it from my car.  This was taken from the street in front of the lighthouse.

So remember next time you go to take a photograph of a lighthouse (or anything for that matter) don't stop at the first view you find.  Take the time to look for some different perspectives.

Cape San Blas lighthouse Card
by lighthouseenthusiast

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Review This wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving

Fall Grape Leaves

Happy Thanksgiving from the Review This Staff! May you be blessed with the love of family and friends.  Thank you for stopping by Review This and spending some time with us throughout the year.

Our Thanksgiving Holiday

This year we are spending our holiday week on the beach at Panama Beach Florida.  Here are a few photos from our trip.

God Bless you during this Thanksgiving Holiday.

Happy Fall Coffee Mug
by mbgphoto

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Review of Fall Photography in a Cemetery

Bellefontaine Cemetery

On a crisp fall morning in mid October several members of the O'Fallon photography club took a trip out to Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum in St. Louis.  This historic old cemetery was a wonderful place to explore and take photographs.

History

The Bellefontaine Cemetery has been in operation since 1849 and contains over 160 years of history. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The cemetery contains the graves of many of the men and women who shaped the history and culture of St. Louis.  To find out more about the people who have graves and mausoleums at Bellefontaine you can click on this link to their website. Bellefontaine Cemetery  There are brief life stories of many of the influential people who are in the cemetery as well as a detailed history of the cemetery through the years.  Before the 19th century cemeteries were mostly in church yards.  When Bellefontaine was first started there was a movement to provide peaceful parklike settings for burial places. 

Architecture

The architecture and art in Bellefontaine Cemetery is truly amazing.  There are many different types of architecture including Classic Revival, Romanesque, Gothic, Egyptian Revival as well as mausoleums and statues with Western influence. The first mausoleum in the photograph below is one that was constructed in 1921 and is an elaborate Gothic Revival style.  The details on it are truly beautiful.  You can't tell from the photo, but when I looked in the front doors I saw beautiful stained glass windows on three walls.

 You can see from the next three photos that there are a wide variety of different styles of mausoleums at the cemetery.

There were also  many statues throughout the cemetery.  A lot were of angels and crosses were carved into many of the stones.

There were beautiful features in the windows of many of the mausoleums.  Above you see a stained glass window and below is a photo I took from inside one of the mausoleums.  I really liked the details on the window.

Nature

Bellefontaine is also an arboretum that has over 500 trees and woody shrubs throughout its 314 acres.  These come from over 200 different species and when we visited in mid October some of the leaves had turned and others were still green.  This made for a beautiful mix of colors among the old stone tombstones and mausoleums.

We walked around the cemetery taking photographs for over 2 hours and only saw about 25% of the area.  I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more. It was truly an interesting place.

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Reviewing Fall Photo Fun at a Farm

I recently accompanied a group I volunteer as a photography mentor  to a farm for our October outing.  I was expecting the usual opportunities for photos with the pumpkins and corn maze, but was delighted to discover lots of other photo opportunities.  So when you visit a farm in the fall look past the obvious and you will discover a rich array of photo opportunities.

Old Farm Equipment

Old Farm equipment can make some interesting photos.  Tips for good photos.

• Watch you surroundings so that you can focus on the item you are photographing.  There can be a lot of distractions.
• Move around to get the best angle.
• Pay attention to the lighting.

I thought this old farm truck made an interesting photo.  There were a lot of distractions that would take away from the photo so I zoomed in on just the front of the truck.

Farm Animals

Don't feel you always need to get the full animal.  This donkey sticking his head through a fence tells a story.  He seems to be saying "Pet me...Pet me!"

Make sure you capture the eyes of the animal you are photographing.  It will make you photograph much more interesting.

Weathered Wood

Old barn doors and weathered wood can make an interesting photo.

I like the fall wreath against the weathered board.

 Zooming in close on an old weathered barn door can make an interesting photo.

Corn Maze

Of course the corn maze is always a fun activity.  Taking a photo inside the maze is not always the most interesting.  Here are two different views that I found interesting. 

Here I used a 5.6 aperture to get the foreground in focus and blurring the background.

In this next photo I zoomed in close to capture a single ear of corn.

Happy Fall Coffee Mug
by mbgphoto

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