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Sacred Earth => Animals, Birds, and all our other creature friends [Public] => Topic started by: nichi on October 05, 2007, 08:41:29 AM

Title: Cardinal
Post by: nichi on October 05, 2007, 08:41:29 AM

We witness death's flight.
Nothing escapes our interest:
So ere dawn, we rise.

V




(http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Virginia/cardinal_byOwnby1.jpg)

(http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/resizedImages/cardinal.jpg)


(http://livingindryden.org/images/birds/cardinalB04052004B.jpg)

~photos snagged from the net

Title: Re: Cardinal
Post by: nichi on October 05, 2007, 08:45:22 AM

References in the literature to nest-visiting are usually very specific, to purpose and breed. For example, cowbirds and cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests, letting the owners breed their young, and a variety of birds, like jays and crows, have been known to steal eggs out of other birds' nests, for food. I've watched a crow fly off with a baby bird, after furtively visiting the nest in question. Some birds will out and out take over the nests of others.

But never have I found any anecdotal material on cardinals visiting the nests of other birds, so something I observed one night caught my interest.

At one of the hospitals where I worked, we had been watching with delight a robin couple raising their babies in the dogwood tree in front of the lobby window. One night, we spotted all too late the stalking of a stray cat, who had gone up the branches and knocked the babies out of the nest. The parents were nowhere in sight.

We ran out and put the birds back into the nest. We just couldn't leave them there on the ground, if they had any chance at all of surviving the shock. (And by the way, it's not true what they say about human scent driving off the parents. Though humans themselves will drive off the parents.) They were still living, at that moment, though it was touch and go for them, and they passed within an hour or so. But before their last breaths, about 3am, a cardinal couple kept coming over. They were looking in on the baby robins, and I half-fancied that they were considering taking over the care of them.  They were tilting and lowering their heads as if to hear better --- they were listening to the babies... (No, the babies were far too large for them to be preying upon them --)

We none of us can know for sure what they were considering, but a thought came over me that they knew they had come to witness the death of those babies.

I leave the matter to your imagination ...

Cardinal in Snow (http://magickcanoe.com/tenbirds/cardinal-large.jpg)

Title: Re: Cardinal
Post by: nichi on October 05, 2007, 08:47:51 AM

It is speculated that the rescue missions of baby birds done by humans are often unnecessary and premature. Our own presence out there in the field or yard is the surest bet to isolate the baby from the parent.

More often than not, the parents are watching everything from a nearby tree, waiting for the chance to drive the babe back up to the nest.

Speaking of cardinals... they taught this lesson to me!

One afternoon, a baby cardinal had fallen out of the magnolia tree and hopped over to the driveway, near the cars, where it was in a precarious spot. It was in the track of some neighborhood cats, it was in the track of the cars.  I sat down on the driveway nearby it, while I decided what I could do, and if I was able to take over its care if need be. (And by the way, caring for a baby-bird is at least a 12-hour a day job.)

The parents quickly swooshed in to disabuse me of the notion. They pretty much dove at me, and the sounds they were making made known their objection. I got up and watched from another part of the yard. They herded the baby back to the tree, and belly-to-belly-to-belly, swooped the baby back up. Case closed! :):):)

So always wait, from a nonintrusive distance, for a while before you decide to pluck up a baby bird!