We have a little Cardinal family who must be nesting very near to the house. They are so darling! I haven’t seen Mrs. Cardinal in a few days, but Mr. Cardinal is a frequent visitor to the window here by the computer. The kids and I just got quite a little show from him, and he was so noisy! This little chip, chip, chip sound. I may have to investigate where they are nesting before I trim any shrubs around the house. Apparently they like to build nests in shrubs and after my Robin fiasco last year, I am not keen on destroying another nest by mistake! (For those of you who haven’t heard that story, I decided to finally tackle a huge overgrown azalea bush on the side yard of my house last spring, and toppled a Robin’s nest with four sweet little eggs in it. I was heartbroken!)
I wanted to snap a picture of the chirping Mr. Cardinal today, but as soon as I moved to reach the camera, he was gone! So I dug up a photo online. I will keep trying to document our own little nesting family in the meantime.
Anyway, I think we will skip ahead a few chapters in the “Burgess Bird Book” to cover Cardinals now. The kids interest is piqued and I plan to run with it. We read about the Cowbird and the Oriole this morning, and apparently Cowbirds like to lay eggs in the nests of other species! They are too lazy to build their own nest and tend to their young. Isn’t that something? The baby Cowbird acts like a parasite to the other family because it is usually much larger and eats all the food. Cardinals, as I just learned, as susceptible to the sly Cowbird! We also learned last week about bird feathers and the purposes they serve, and why males are so much prettier than females (in most cases).
Seriously, if you would have told me I would be so into learning about birds a year ago, I would have laughed at you. Life is funny!
Filed under: Charlotte Mason, Homeschool | Tagged: bird watching, Cardinals, nesting
I was never really into birds until moving to KY and seeing the cardinals, and real, actual bluejays (they are so beautiful!!). It is awesome that the kids are interested in them, it would be really cool to find the nest so you guys could watch from afar.
I noticed a lot of birds this afternoon. Don’t ask me what they were since they were perched in the top of our tree……….. But the kids liked it when I showed them.
[...] at Home Sweet Homeschool is obviously experiencing the same thing, as she has some great pictures of [...]
We dont have cardinals out here and I wish we did. They are so pretty!