Photo copyright © 2016 by Gerry O’Brien

A little over a month ago, I was walking just inside Prospect Park, when I saw a male Cardinal.  For a city boy, accustomed to pigeons and starlings and robins,  seeing a male Cardinal is quite a sight.

Photographing with with the iPhone was useless; the wide angle lens is just not appropriate. So I began carrying my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, with my 28-300 mm telephotos lens.

Every morning I took my DSLR, the bird was nowhere to be seen. If I brought only my iPhone, he was always right there, but too far away to capture with that lens.

Once I saw a female Cardinal, but the iPhone couldn’t capture her.

I got plenty of great images with my Canon on other days; but no Cardinals.

And then yesterday rolled around.

Around 6:05 AM Saturday, I saw and photographed the female shown above, a few yards inside the Park, behind the statue of Lafayette on Prospect Park West.

Female Cardinals are beautiful birds, but their plumage is nowhere near as colorful as the male.

A moment later, she flew away, and in her place landed her mate.

I’ll finally get to post his photo here tomorrow.

Ahab, I’ve found my white whale!