Customer Reviews

The Cardinal (Corrie Herring Hooks Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a definite 'must read' for cardinal lovers. It will bring you closer to these very special winged angels as it provides the reader with season by season fact-filled details about their habits and rituals. I was awed by the colorful photos of the cardinals captured in all phases of their everyday activities. Since I've read the book, I've witnessed many rituals I would have never noticed before - the cardinal kiss, feeding the young, anting, preening, pecking order, gathering nesting material, building the nest, etc. Now, I devote special time each day to watch the family of cardinals in our backyard and cannot believe all that I'd missed over the years. I credit this book for opening my eyes and ears to the phenomenal miracles of nature and God's wondrous creative process. It also provided the groundwork for a most fascinating hobby - birdwatching. I now have become involved watching and studying other birds as well.

This book nicely blends the author's careful observations with published studies to present a good picture of the cardinal's year. The beautiful photographs by Barbara Garland add color to the book and complement the text; a good example is the picture of the male cardinal presenting a seed to the female. Sometimes in my rush for rarities I may neglect my own local birds, and this book will help me be more aware of my backyard. As a fan of both the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and the Louisville Cardinals basketball team I appreciated the chapter on "Cardinal as Icon". The author can be forgiven for her occasional anthropomorphism. One theory I have heard of the Cardinals early expansion into the Midwest was the following of grain in rails and boats along the Mississippi and is now expanding westward.

The University of Texas Press has the habit of publishing loving reflections upon different bird species, penned with a rhetorical flourish by their admirers. These are not merely descriptive ornithological treatises. They are virtually love letters to our feathered visitors.

June Osborne's THE CARDINAL is no exception (photographs by Barbara Garland). The author clearly welcomes the cardinal to her backyard and window ledge and is connected to a network of similar admirers of the redbird, many of whom are drawn upon for anecdotes about this bird's behavior.

The distinctive of the book is that Osborne follows the cardinal through the seasons of the year, making the book a handy elbow-side reference that can be picked up and consulted in, say, July, to see what the Cardinal is meant to be doing just about now and whether 'mine' are holding to shedule.

If the fifth star evades THE CARDINAL in this review, that is merely because much of the detail is anecdotal rather than scientific. A subtitle might have corrected any mistaken impressions and earned the fifth star. But if you want the book, I've described, don't hesitate to pick up this little volume, which adds yet another feather to the cap of the UT Press.