What can I say. It was a Monday. A beautiful snow storm last night that started about 7pm, with about 3" on the ground when we went to bed. At 7 this morning, at least 5" had fallen, and it was still snowing. I put on my cold weather gear, charged the batteries for my cameras. and headed to the bird blind at U of I Field Campus. I followed the snow plow on its second pass into the park and found a cleared parking spot. After a brief hike, where I was certainly the first person at the blind today. I setup my equipment and waited for the birds to return (typically, walking to and entering the blind will cause the birds to depart for a few minutes).
The photography was great, six of seven different species were feeding. I counted at least ten pairs of cardinals searching for food. The pair below was comical as both of them would feed, than the female would sound off, making an almost a whistle-like sound, and the male would immediately take off, only to return about 90 seconds later. The female stayed at the feeder, for nearly 30 minutes, enjoying the meal.
I would have to admit, photographing cardinals in a fresh snow is breathtakingly beautiful.