Bits and Pieces

This fuzzy photo is the best I could get in the circumstances under which I was working.  A young female Cardinal (if you look closely you can see her head/beak on the right and tail on the left) has taken up housekeeping in a small hanging basket left out in the freezing cold over the winter. In the carefully constructed nest just below the top of the container are three small eggs, the first cardinal eggs I have ever seen.

The circumstances I mentioned above are (1) that the basket is hanging within four feet of my back door, and (2) opening the door widely spooks her off the nest.  I just opened the door a crack, stuck out my cell phone/camera and snapped without really looking or trying to focus.

It makes my heart glad to see her there, and my heart needed a gladdening.  I discovered her nest this past Saturday morning, when my grandson and I went to the back yard to dig a grave for my sweet Missy cat, who went to play with her baby Sweetie Pie last Friday afternoon.

I now have four cats buried in my back yard: Bubble (the sweetest kitty I have ever had) died in July 2000; her brother Squeak died in May, 2012;  Sweetie Pie went to be with the kitty angels just over a year ago, and now, Sweetie Pie's mama, Missy.  They are all buried in their favorite sunning places.

I think that's the end of my having cats; it's just too hard to let them go, even when it's inevitable.

Tomorrow is also a day.

A Messy Nest

For several minutes on a day last week, I watched a Robin in the process of gathering material for a potential nesting site.  I first spotted her (I assume it was a female, but I could be mistaken)  at the edge of one of my overgrown day lily beds.  She was pulling dried grasses from between the newly emerged plants.  Some of the grasses, evidently, were still slightly rooted, because she would try to take off with a beak full only to be pulled back into the bed. It took her four attempts to finally pull that particular load free of the ground.

I watched in some amusement, and a great deal of sympathy, as she flew the 15 feet or so from the lily bed to the top of the large electrical breaker-box on the outside of my house, a flat site she had selected for the nest.  Plant material more than twice the length of her body trailed behind her.  From the looks of it (above) she was a first-time nest builder. I watched her as she nipped and tucked, but most of the grass was still trailing off the edge, and a considerable amount had already fallen onto the day lilies planted directly below the box.

I've not seen any activity there for the last couple of days and suspect that she has abandoned this particular location as being not particularly well suited to her needs.  I'll leave the area alone for a week or so then remove it, but leave the stuff somewhere in the yard that will be visible to a bird interested in acquiring secondhand building material.  I'll even include, at no additional cost, the green rubber band she seems to have incorporated. Do you see it?

I expect if I looked closely in the bushes and trees in my yard, I could find a few more nesting sites..

Tomorrow is also a day.

ABC Wednesday - "N"

"N" is for Nest

While visiting a friend a few days ago, I noticed that a mama Blue Jay had built a nest on top of the security light in her carport. I don't think I've ever seen a jay's nest before, and I was amazed at the size of the sticks and twigs she used. There's a plastic bag in there, too; for cushioning, perhaps? When I inquired, I learned that the light had been turned off when they discovered the nest building going on. That is a good thing; I imagine that a halogen light would put out enough heat to bake the eggs.


ABC Wednesday was created by Mrs. Nesbitt. Please visit the ABC Wednesday site to view others' interpretations of this week's letter, "N."