I spent nearly four hours walking around the lake yesterday, most of that buried deep within the Old Fish Hatchery Nature Area.  What a spectacular place!  Although the sound of nearby traffic remained ever-present, thick foliage and dense woods muffled all but the most vehement noise from civilization.

I felt as though I had entered a different world, a place so far removed from its urban surroundings as to be a thousand miles away.  Time didn’t matter, something evidenced by how long I roamed the various paths and how lost I became in the magic of it all.

While I will not attempt at this juncture to share the majority of that with you, I will show you this husband and wife who greeted me early on in my walk.  They remained high in the treetops some distance from me.  They also seemed more interested in finding breakfast than in sitting still for a photo shoot.  Nevertheless, from across the creek and standing on a rather dangerous and muddy slope, I captured these two photos and felt they were at least presentable.

A male northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) perched high
in the treetops

A female northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) reaching around her perch
for some berries