Nature Found Us

Inspired by MamaKat’s writing prompt: Share a picture that means spring for your family.

In April, Matt and I kept walking out the front door and this cardinal would burst out of the vines climbing our garage to the right and fly right in front of our face. We would duck and wonder why the heck that kept happening but we didn’t give it much thought. Until one day, Matt decided to investigate. He found a nest filled with three tiny cardinal eggs.

You have to understand that Matt is kind of a bird fanatic. He loves birds, he knows all about birds, he enjoys watching them feed at our birdfeeder in our backyard. He was thrilled that not only did we have a nest with eggs in it, but it was a cardinal. According to my bird expert hubby, I guess that’s pretty rare.

As a family, we’ve been fascinated by this special treat. All of us check the nest every day. When the birds hatched, we were so excited even though those baby birds might be the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. We’ve watched them get bigger every day. Their eyes finally opened yesterday. We stand at the front door and watch every day after school. If we go outside, the daddy bird flies away. I had no idea that it was the daddy bird; I thought it was the mommy. Again, my birdie husband pointed out that the males are red and the females are a green camouflage color. Who knew? My Cliff Claven hubby, that’s who. All this time I thought it was the mommy taking care of the babies; turns out it was the daddy. Pretty cool.

We all can’t wait to see the birds grow. We wonder how long they’ll stay. But until they’re gone, we’ll be there, at the front door, watching.

**disclaimer: It’s really hard to take great pictures of the birds because they’re pretty deep in the vines, my camera is bad at macro shots, and I didn’t want to scare them. I haven’t been able to get a shot of the grown-ups.**