Pre-judgement: The Cardinal Sin
This is Yule. He is a male Cardinal that has been hanging out at our bird feeder every spring and summer for several years and yes, he has the male pattern baldness of a mammal, or a sea slug or an elderly turkey vulture.
Sadly Yule has no mate. Each year when the mated pairs of fully plumed cardinals dance from tree to tree showing off their new mates while flitting wing in wing, Yule guards the seed stores as if to say, “If no one will have me then no one will have seed!”
It was comical at first but it has gone on too long. It has gone on so long that I wish a red headed woodpecker or colorblind bluejay would just get to know him a little. Just give him a chance. He once had magnificent plumage and acted accordingly but as he became visually repulsive to the rest of the animal kingdom he became what they wrongfully saw him as. A petty, quick tempered, stingy seed hoarder. Thus he became less and less attractive and more and more alone. Rendering his would-be friends all victims of a self fulfilling prophecy.
So the next time you see a surprisingly bareheaded man guarding the buffet get to know him. You might be surprised….
…Probably not though so don’t be surprised by THAT.