By Dennis Morgan
Co-Publisher
For Jacque Luettel, these are interesting times.
She has been blessed with a visitor with whom she’s developed a strong affection. Decked out in red, a day seldom passes where she is not visited by this most impressive male — a cardinal bird which she has affectionately named Calvin.
“He’s still showing up,” Jacque told The Elgin Review last week. “He’s still out there, he’s not as active as he once was. When he taps his beak on the window, I know he’s there. You can hear him sing in the mornings.”
Followers of Luettel on Facebook have been treated to numerous stories and photos of Calvin over the last few months.
It all began near the end of March when, in her living room at her home south of Petersburg, she noticed that a bird kept flying into a window, then it would drop to the ground.
“This went on non-stop for a week. At times he would sit on the window sill. I didn’t pay much attention,” Jacque said. “Then about a week later I said, ‘my gosh you’re still doing this. Why have you not knocked yourself silly?’”
Thus began what she described as “recording sessions” where she would record his actions on her phone camera.
“I would be in bed in the morning and hear him at our bedroom window,” she said, “This happened for weeks, I would get up and go to the bathroom and there he was…He would sit on that window and almost wait for me. I would go back to the bedroom to get dressed and he would be there. If I would go to the living room he would be there. I am not exaggerating.”
For the complete story, see this week’s edition of The Elgin Review
