the sleppys

just heard the twin sonic booms from the shuttle!

This morning, as I was stretching after my morning jog, I heard some rustling in the hibiscus on the northwest side of the house. There was the male Northern Cardinal, picking bugs off of the plant. He was chirping and whistling, then fly into the avocado tree. I kept stretching and watching him. (This is the same cardinal who lives in our backyard, in the Suriname cherry hedge, and who likes to fight with the cardinal that’s in the van’s exterior mirrors.)

After hopping about in the avocado tree, he flew into the strangler fig about fifteen feet away. His bright red color stood out in that tree as the trees leaves are pale green. (The avocado has some red-violet leaves that conceal the bird.) A few seconds later, another bird followed the cardinal. It was brown and cardinal shaped with a little bit of red. I thought that it looked like the cardinal’s mate (who doesn’t really leave her nest unless she’s digging for bugs in the backyard.) But this bird seemed smaller, however.

Then I saw something I’ve never seen: Another small, brown cardinal flew out of the avocado tree and joined the two birds in the strangler fig. They chirped at each other and hopped from branch to branch. The daddy cardinal flew across the street, into the oak tree, and his offspring followed suit. They spent some time in the grass in the swale by the STOP sign, with the fledglings’ learning to get their own breakfasts.