It certainly looked like a good place to make a nest but after the eggs hatched less than a week went by and all activity ceased. The nest was empty. A snake? a hawk? or a scrub jay. All would steal from a nest and we have seen it happen before our eyes.
I removed the nest and used it for a little garden decoration.
So what happened this year was a cardinal started to build a nest again, in the same place in the same tree. Could this be the same bird? For a week it was busy building and then one morning I went out to find downy feathers on the ground beneath the yaupon and blowing around in the potting shed(the door had been open overnight). It looked as though there had been an event. This time I thought hawk. I felt sure it was the end of that nest because there was no further activity. But no, more than a week later I saw the female fly in and when I took a look there were 2 eggs in there and eventually 3. When the female started to sit she would leave the eggs early in the morning. I always knew when she came back because she would sit on the rose and tweet. My signal to leave whatever gardening I was doing. A successful sitting and eventually the eggs hatched and both parent were busy flying back and forward.
I have worried over their survival for over a week now as there has been a hawk flying over daily. Plus the birds are getting noisy. You can hear them from afar. I spy on them from a crack in the potting shed doors and if mother is gone I can take a peak just to make sure all is well. Plus the cardinals are so obvious. That flash of red as they swoop into the nest. Other birds seem to be far more secretive.
She feeds, they nap and so the day goes on. This time I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a safe fledging. It can't be long now. Then the real dangers of the outside world begin.
Best of luck to the little birdies!
ReplyDeleteI'd say pretty little birds, but little birds are actually all very ugly until they get bigger :D I hope everything will go ok and they will fly away soon.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to those bright little birds which will add so much to our gardens year round.
ReplyDeleteAw, so cute!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who worries about nestlings as if they were my own! It's also a bit strange to see you getting excited and anxious about cardinal chicks, since they're one of the staples of my garden each year, with multiple nests. What a difference a few hundred miles makes! :)
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of cardinals here too but it's the failure rate in my garden that had me anxious. And they do make multiple nests here too. As soon as these are on their way mother will be busy again.
DeleteHope they make it.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Red Shoulder Hawk family here. The babies are noisy, just like the smaller birds...only WAY louder.
Haven't seen any other babies, yet.
I love your little bird's nest in the pot.
I need to learn more about their nesting habits as we have hawks here. Not sure which one we saw this morning. Not a Coopers or red tail. Maybe I need to look up the red shoulder hawk.
DeleteI love this, jenny...good luck to them!
ReplyDeleteAll the best to those little fluffs!
ReplyDeleteMy fingers are crossed for them!
ReplyDeleteIt is so heart breaking when something happens. We had cardinals in the star jasmine vine on our arbor. First they fell victim to the blue jay nesting in the nearby oak tree and then I thought it was the feral cats, but it turned out to be the squirrels. They make about four nests a year and one year it happened three times in a row. I hope your little guys make it. Pam Duffy
ReplyDeleteIt's tough out there for the birds. I wish you luck on this one. How fascinating to watch the raising of that family. You have a "birdseye view"! Lucky!!
ReplyDelete