I was so excited to come across eggs in a nest this past month! Previously, I’d been fortunate enough to find another one two years ago but this was a cardinal nest!
I found the nest tucked away at eye level and it had 3 little speckled eggs inside. Oh the joy! I kept checking every morning for about a week but the mom was always sitting in it, warming and protecting her babies.
One early morning, there were no more eggs. Instead, there were 3 tiny little one day old babies who didn’t even have formed eyes yet! Love!
I went out daily to hope and photograph the little miracles and loved watching them grow!
About 8 days later, I came home from work to find an empty nest. I felt empty and robbed! I researched and found that it was about the time the parents try to transport them to higher ground and work on a bit of flying.
Ken was piddling around the back yard watering and cleaning up…I was floating in the pool like a slug since I’d worked all day. Right over my husband’s head came the dad cardinal, flying along the side of the baby bird. It looked like a flight lesson gone awry. The baby bird lost his composure and face planted directly in front of me in the pool with his wings spread out! We were horrified and so was the dad bird, he wanted to help the baby bird but was scared and didn’t seem to know what to do. I threw my phone to the side, broke nail and jumped in to fish the bird out since he was still laying face down in the spot he had splashed into the water. Since the dad was clearly so upset, my fear was that he would drown himself to fish out his baby so he was looking on the entire time. I scooped him up carefully and checked to see if he was ok.
The baby bird was soaking wet and with both parents now flying and trying to get him to fly to safety but he couldn’t because his feathers were sopping wet.
Night came and he couldn’t fly although he finally tried, so we decided to take him inside for the night to dry off, knowing his parents would be at the bird feeder early in the morning. Mind you, he jumped onto my finger and seemed perfectly happy sitting there.
To keep him warm, I covered the cage with a dark blanket and he fell asleep on the perch within 15 minutes. Dude was like a week old…he was worn out. The next morning, the minute I heard peeps outside, I got up and took the cage outside near the feeder. We watched through the window when the dad came and saw him it was magical!
After about 15 minutes, he followed dad away, at his urging…and the whole family has been reunited!
They live in the trees that are higher in the backyard, so we see and hear them all the time! we wonder if he tells them about his adventure in our house.
I love birds and it was such a beautiful treat to see God’s little birds up close and in my hand. We are so glad we were there when he crashed in the pool so that we could help nature. I do realize that you shouldn’t interfere most of the time with the circle of life. I just really wanted to share my story!
