Cardinals, as in birds, and things ...

The resident cardinal family appears to have two young ’uns right now, instead of the usual one at at a time of past seasons.

I no longer provide bird seed in the yard because having little baby mice doing acrobatics under the bird feeder was just way too much. If they had had the sense to stay mostly out of sight, well maybe ... but really to flaunt and caper in front of anyone who walked by was more that I could take. Though the mouse population did entice an owl family and once I was even visited by a baby or at least juvenile horned owl (which is NOT a small bird, by the way) who stayed in my yard near the bird waterer for several hours.

Anyway, I was writing about the cardinal family. Instead of feeding the birds generally I put out a few walnuts in the morning for the cardinals (and since they are real busy right now feeding the youngsters I sometimes also put a few more out in the late afternoon, specially if papa cardinal comes up and looks in the window). The nice thing about cardinals is that they know where those walnuts are coming from, or at least they know who provides them. Doves, now, doves know nothing, nothing. Like rabbits they have to reproduce lots and lots of themselves in order to survive. I won't get into where humans fit in this continuum between doves and cardinals.

What I was thinking about when I started this post was that one of the young cardinals is very fixated on playing with little flowers --when it's parent isn't close by at which point it goes into baby bird mode shaking its feathers and saying feed me, feed me, now, now. So I was wondering, is this baby's behavior playing with flowers, behavior I've observed frequently over the past two or three days (and, no matter how it may appear, I am not always sitting here in front of the window) ... is this behavior, interest in, or fixation on something other than food happening because they have, in addition to their usual diet, a few extra and easy to obtain walnuts to provide a little bird leisure for the contemplation of their environment? ... or is it genetically defined pre-nesting behavior?

Ain't life interesting.

A lot of noise going on Or where's the camera when you need it ...

My yard is raucous with the sound of baby and adolescent birds.

The cardinal's young is already following him around the yard as he shows her/him what to eat and where to find it.

Today, beautiful sunny and warm (84°F, 10% humidity), seems to be bath day. I was sitting outside in the shade not 3 feet from the birds' water basin when first one, then two, then three young birds came down to lurch around in the water spraying themselves and everything else. One of those chubby feathered balls was just a baby yesterday, hiding on the ground behind a flower pot. Today it's an adolescent ignoring the calls of frantic parent(s) trying to warn them that there was a scary human sitting in a chair almost within arms reach. In fact an adult bird dive bombed them twice, I assume in some effort to strike some fear into the little wayward things. Perhaps they're more akin to teenagers than adolescents. They appeared to ignore all parental input.

Here's a picture (probably, unless there's more that one couple in my yard) of mamma or poppa:
Click on image for larger version.

Yesterday's Graphic and more Bird Pictures ...

Click on image for larger, complete image:

Bird Pictures ...

Mostly grackles, except for the little sparrow, wren or finch or whatever it is ... Click on image for larger (and more complete) version:

Making Tucson more habitable for birds ...

... would also make it more people friendly. My yard is 'packed' with birds in the summer. I have water for them and trees and shrubs, all in a small area using little water (much less anyway than some of my neighbors who have grass). Some of the birds, like my cardinal, stay all year, but many others just visit for a time, either to raise a family or on their way cross country. I occasionally spot a hawk and appear to have an owl in residence at night. I've also seen quail looking for a home though with dogs in this yard and cats all around the quail do not settle down here.

Then there's the lizards. Cute little geckos, little lizards and then bigger lizards whose cold, fixed stare makes one wonder what's going on in their mind and thankful they are no larger.

The side benefit of this bird friendly enclave is that its a few degrees cooler in summer than the surrounding area.

Group wants emphasis on better bird habitat by Tom Beal

Some people think Tucson is for the birds, or should be.
The Audubon Society wants Tucson to be dotted with multi-storied vegetation and striped with riparian ribbons of green so that its members can get their feather fix without venturing too far — and so that we all can experience a greater variety of early-morning chirps.
This whole xeriscape thing has gone too far, say the bird lovers. Birds can't nest or rest or hide from their predators in decomposed granite. The sameness of our vegetation is producing a boring bird mix.

Making our world greener and more comfortable costs no more than producing these sculptured heat sinks of cement and granite.