Senior Moments

A male cardinal feeding a juvenile, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. September 4, 2008.

I’ve written about Betsy’s infatuation with birds a couple of times now, and I have to admit she’s getting more and more interested with each passing day.  Betsy can sit watching the birds for hours at a time.  She tries to get me interested, but I don’t have that much patience.

As Betsy has added different feeders and different types of seed she’s attracted many different birds — hummingbirds, bluebirds, titmice, chickadees, sparrows, wrens, flickers, and cardinals.  There are also blue jays; Betsy wasn’t too keen on them until she read that blue jays frighten off squirrels.  (Squirrels can really do a number on our flower beds!)

We can sit on our couch and watch the birds at four feeders on our deck.  A couple of days ago we watched a male cardinal with a young juvenile.  The juvenile got to the deck railing, but didn’t seem to know what to do next.  After a few minutes the male cardinal started feeding the juvenile — the male would peck up some seeds and then take them over to the juvenile and put them in its beak.  I couldn’t get a picture of the feeding, but I did get the above picture of the two of them.

Cardinals will be here year round, and although I know the juvenile will grow up I hope he’ll stop by for a visit now and then.  I wonder if Mister Mom Cardinal will be able to get some rest once the juvenile has grown?

Tags: Birds

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