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  • Writer's pictureSam Baker

Desert Cardinal

As if you were on fire from within.

The moon lives in the lining of your skin.

-Pablo Neruda

Photograph of a Pyrrhuloxia at my feeder. I am guessing this bird is on the eastern or northern edge of its range but I don't know. I used to see them in the Chihuahuan Desert. This bird is a resident here in not so deep west Texas I believe. As in non migratory. And I welcome correction from people who know birds, bird life, bird intent, the speed of birds. The hopes, dreams, and fears. Of Birds. When I took the photo, I felt like we both belonged on that dry strip of land by the summer river. At that time. At that moment. Residents. Like we both.


Belonged.

I still believe.

We Belong.


from Wiki:


The pyrrhuloxia is a year-round resident of desert scrub and mesquite thickets, in theU.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and woodland edges in Mexico. It occupies the southwestern half of Texas, roughly the southern third of New Mexico, and southeastern region of Arizona. Its range includes areas from the west to east coast of Mexico north of the Sierra Madre del Sur,Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and Isthmus of Tehuantepec, while excluding theSierra Madre Occidental. An individual of the species has reportedly been seen as far away from its dominant range as Costa Mesa, California, in Orange County.


So there you have it. All the way to Orange County.


Some birds just gotta move.

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