The dogs did not appreciate having 4 hungry cardinal babies making so much noise, so they decided to tear the nest down... I feared the worst when I saw this mess under the nest but fortunately they did not succeed at anything except ripping my spider plant apart. Rosie can jump at least 5' in the air! I knew I had to move this hanging pot out of the yard or this family was surely doomed. I decided to take the other pots down and move the one with the nest over a few feet in the direction of the side of my house that is outside of the back fence.
The cardinals were so upset! They did not find the nest again for 3 hours, they kept landing in the spot where the nest had been, and anxiously looking for it, even though the babies were desperately calling from a few feet away for lunch! I felt sick about it but had to try to help. Finally, the male cardinal found the nest and they kept feeding! I guess they just had to reset their internal GPS. So for the rest of the day I kept moving the pot over a few feet at a time every 2 hours or so until it was out of the yard. (I never realized how many bugs a nesting pair of cardinals will catch, great for gardeners!!)
I won't be able to take pictures anymore of the nest, since I made a new spot for it in the corner under the eaves. But I did peek inside as I was moving it, this morning there were still 4 very cute babies, all have their eyes open now, and one who must have hatched first has quite a lot of feathers. I hung another plant nearby to shade them from the afternoon sun - and provide cover from the next problem:
I have seen a pair of Blue Jays at my bird feeder - I hope to keep them happy there so they don't bother my young cardinals!!! The yard is a dangerous place for my 4 day old cardinal family!! It really is a precarious time for my little cardinal family - wish you could see the parents darting around catching bugs.
It might be hard to imagine but these innocent looking little dogs become dangerous predators for any young bird that might land in the yard.
Well, hopefully things are calm now, the cardinal parents worked very hard all day catching bugs for the growing family. So... I went on a late bike ride (it was still 90 at 7 pm) and noticed the barred owls always come out just after sunset...
Under a bridge near the high school I found this cave swallow, sitting in her feather-lined nest made of mud and sticks.
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