Queen of Redbirds

I awoke to a cold winter's day in my hometown. The sound of sleet on the roof and windows was a pleasant way to wake up. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, put my clothes on and stumbled into the living room.

I found my father talking about driving up to the city to get some bird seed for my Mother's bird sanctuary.

"Do you want me to drive dad? The roads must be bad by now."

"No, I can make it. You have artwork to finish."

My Father was blind in one eye from a stroke and I didn't want him driving in bad weather but I had promised my Muse to have some artwork finished by the weekend.

I walked into the dinning room and looked out the large picture window. I saw over fifty Redbirds (Cardinals) in my mother's first bird sanctuary. The one bird feeder was empty and the heated birdbath was almost frozen over. The heater in the birdbath turned off at night and in the morning on cold days and low water levels left only a small hole in the ice.

I walked into the kitchen and saw my Mother watching the birds from the kitchen table.
I saw what she saw as I looked into side yard and her second bird sanctuary. There must have been over seventy Redbirds in the side yard along with hundreds of other song birds.
Only two of the eight feeders had seed and yet there was all these birds.

"Mom I've never seen so many Redbirds at your feeders before!"

"Yes, isn't it wonderful Bobby."

It took me over an hour to fill up all the feeders and melt the ice on the birdbath. I drove my parents into the city and when we came back there was even more birds.

My Mother is truly the Queen of Redbirds.