Young Female Cardinal

And now back to our regular programming! I got home into my own house at 11:00 PM last night. And then got up at 5:30 to start my regular Friday - which includes leaving home at 7:15 in order to get to The Wildlife Center of Virginia at 8:00 for my regular Friday morning volunteer gig. Needless to say, I took a nap this afternoon.

This is a young female Northern cardinal. Her beak is beginning to turn the bright orange of a fully adult cardinal. So she was born this spring. There's quite a large crop of new cardinals here, I notice. They seem to have had a good breeding season.