Amazing Nature - what has wowed you lately?

This past year I have invested more in bird-watching / birding, and I've enjoyed it immensely.

One of the early lessons I learned was after observing a mated pair of cardinals in the spring. I thought it strange that the brown (female) cardinal would follow around the brighter (male) cardinal as they poked over the ground beneath the bird feeder. She would hop next to him as they fed, but her mouth would be gaping open, and she waited until the male would put seeds in her mouth.

I thought to myself, "Aw, isn't that adorable... They're like, a couple or something. This must be like bonding behaviour or something like that."

Months later I noticed louder bird chirping, I edge my head round the curtain and see a male cardinal - perhaps the same one - being followed by a smaller, browner cardinal. You could tell it was young and not fully-fledged because its beak was also brown, instead of the lovely coral colour of the adults. Anyway, as soon as the male cardinal alighted on the ground, this little cardinal would emerge from the bush, hop next to him while fluttering its wings, its mouth gaping open. The male would eventually drop some feed in its mouth and it would ease it's chirping and fluttering for a seemingly-brief instant. Then the young went back to following and chirping. As soon as the male returned to its perch on the six-foot-high fence though, the younger one went silent, perhaps attempting to hide itself in the garden foliage.

It was then I realized that the female had been training the male in how to feed young cardinals. Totally hadn't dawned on me until then.

///

Other things I've learned/noticed:

House sparrows travel in groups that aren't so much "flocks" as they are "roving gangs" that will muscle-out other birds for food, using their weight of numbers.

Mourning doves are bullies too. But interestingly, they'll coexist freely with other species. It's only other doves they pick on. I've seen lots of feathers flying during brief scraps between a pair.

Goldfinches are so, so tiny! Chickadees are too, and I think I had a family move into one of the birdhouses I'd added to the corners of the backyard earlier this year. They're likely my favourite.

Titmouses are best described as miniature, grey bluejays. Seems better than using their real name, at least...

Spending some time at the shore to start off my New Year, and a long-standing tradition of mine is to wake up in time to see the sunrise. Here's today's.

This happened this summer and I couldn’t get a picture that would do it justice.  Was on a mushroom walk in a local state park with two members of my mushroom club.  Came upon a very large artist’s conk about four feet up in a tree.  The sunlight was at just the right angle to highlight the multitude of spores it was releasing. We just stood and stared!

From recently, I moved a pallet that was leaning against the wall inside the barn and found this bunny.  It never moved while I worked in the barn.