A Normal Snow

January 30, 2026

From February 12, 2021, this is the kind of snow that makes my heart sing. A normal snow that covers and clings to everything. Soft and silent as it comes down. A snow that gradually disappears over the course of a few days. This is the kind of snow that brings out TEN Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) sitting together. The snow storm that we are just now beginning to approach some sort of recovery from was not *this* kind of snow.

Cardinals are territorial in breeding season. But in autumn and winter they become more social, hanging out in groups while searching for food and roosting in the same vicinity. In this picture I was fortunate to capture ten Cardinals sitting together, along with two White Throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis).

Autumn and winter, the friendly season.

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Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.