Week 47 - A family of Cardinals living at a Cub's house

Christmas Wreath

      OK, I know this isn't exactly an "excellent adventure" and Bill and I should probably think about doing something a little more exciting, but we spent almost a month watching a family of Cardinals hatch and grow in a wreath directly outside our front door.  As you can see, the wreath is a Christmas wreath that I had started to take down when I saw a nest on the very top  next to the eave of the roof.  The nest was protected from wind and rain, but every time we walked out the door or the paperboy came

 or we looked out the door to check on the nest, Mama Cardinal would fly away and leave her babies to the dastardly deeds that we were undoubtedly planning    So at those times, I would set out bird feed or take pictures of the progress they were making.  It was fun to watch the eggs hatch one at a time and turn into little pink blobs with white fuzz.  I would enlarge the pictures to try to make out a beak or a foot, but the five little blobs looked like just that...blobs.

Five Blobs

     As the blobs began to grow, they got more white fuzz and started to outgrow their nest.  Mama didn't sit on the nest as much.  I imagine they could keep themselves pretty warm as it was crowded in there. But finally we could see little eyes and beaks and wings take shape.  We

Five Fuzzballs

 watched both the parents feed the birds, but when I moved to get a camera, they would once again fly away and leave their babies to die their horrible death at the hands of the giant humans.

Trying to hide from the camera

 Standing on a stool, I took a picture of the growing birds with feathers on their bodies and fuzz still on their heads.  But at least they were beginning to look like birds!  They had outgrown their nest and were living on top of each other.  Every time I put the camera up to the nest to take a

Remaining teenagers

 picture, their little heads would lower and they would try to hide. 
     One morning we noticed that there were only three birds in the nest.  The other more adventuresome two had already flown away.  I took one last picture of the remaining three and the flash

Empty Nest

 was enough to make them decide that they could fly also.  We watched them fly to the tree in our front yard.  I took a picture of the empty nest with the gobs and gobs of bird poop around the outside of the nest.  I guess it had to go somewhere!!

Surprise!!

      We decided to wait a few days in case the family needed to come back to the nest for whatever reason.  You never know about teenagers.  They like to fly the coop, but also need the security of home.  After a week, I decided to take the wreath down

Second Family

and noticed there was another egg in there and another Mama Cardinal (I don't think it would be the same one) sitting on the nest.  Yesterday I took a picture again and found 5 speckled eggs inside.  I can't figure out why a family would want to move into a used nest with a half gallon of bodily secretions left behind, but I am not one to judge them.  They have been fun to watch.