Some Cardinals are Hatched

One such lives in a little nest built deep inside our by now tree-sized forsythia shrub. Brigitte discovered it the other evening and then, as we alertly watched in the still mildly glowing darkness, we saw its mother coming home and just made out her form bent down, feeding her off-spring. Both mother and chick have brilliantly red beaks. The sex of the chick is still undetermined. I tried my best today with ladder and such, but the nest’s too deep to permit a photograph, hence I bring an image of a “juvenile” from the Internet IBC Bird Collection (link). Having just recently dispatched Castor and Pollux, the butterflies, we are delighted to welcome Cardinals, no less, to Rancho Mariposa. The birds are, formally, Cardinalis cadinalis. Now there is a bioname that’s easy to remember. The song of these birds is stunningly sweet, especially in the gathering dark, very close to us just above our heads, as we sit on these very stained white plastic chairs and the sun is about to set.