Hi, Mr. Nature here–dyin’ from the heat. Last week we had our winter coats on. Today it’s 95 degrees. Well, that’s New Jersey for you.
One thing we don’t have in New Jersey is yellow cardinals–the birds, I mean, not wishy-washy churchmen. For that you have to go to Kentucky.
But even in Kentucky, the yellow cardinal is quite rare. So much so, they urge you to take pictures if you see one. The Northern Cardinal most of us know is bright red (the males) or sort-of red with a green-brown overlay (females). Cardinals mate for keeps, and where you see the male, the female won’t be far behind–and vice-versa. The yellow form, ornithologists say, is a rare genetic mutation.
God has gifted these birds with spectacularly beautiful color, and we delight in them. Even in its fallen state, the world He has created offers beauty.
Whatever will it be like, when He regenerates His whole creation?
These are a treat to behold. I’ve never seen, or even known of yellow cardinals until now. If you want true beauty, nature is where you should look first. We have red cardinals here and, on occasion, I will see one in the yard. There’s also another brightly colored bird species known as the Vermillion Flycatcher, which shows up from time to time. This one rivals the cardinals for beauty.
A coup,e of weeks ago, I was driving through western Kansas and saw a Redwing Blackbird. It was such an astonishingly beautiful sight that I was moved to prayer.
God has given us some spectacular beauty in the nature He has created. This is one I’ve never seen or heard of either. When I lived in North Florida, during spring migration, each year I had a pair of Indigo Buntings stop in my yard for a feast of the seeds I put out. In South Florida, we had many strikingly beautiful birds, from various parrots to the great Ibis to Egrets and everything in between. We had an area with a canal and lots of trees near a well-traveled intersection. Each night starting at dusk, the trees would be blanketed with beautiful white Ibises, so much so that you could barely see the trees. Stunning! You could almost mistake them for magnolia trees. Our town decided to designate it a protected area.