This is a fledgling who appeared with Red in my Wednesday post. This is such a fun year with a possible three babies to watch with Red and Mrs., my backyard cardinal couple.
Add to that multiple quail families with babies ranging from brand new and itty bitty to rangy teens.
Baby quail.
Papa guarding his babies.
A family of older babies hanging out in the shade under a bench with daddio. Smart birds! It’s gotten hot!
These are the itty bitty babies.
Then there’s the backyard bully bird — the Curve-Billed Thrasher. He doesn’t look so mean perched on a pink flamingo a friend gave me from Costco for a birthday present.
A female Gilded Flicker can make a quick dent in the food block.
Do you have a favorite photo? If so which one?
What’s on the agenda for the first weekend of June?
This is one of two Northern Cardinal fledglings that made an appearance in our yard this past week. He’s with his dad. Although the coloring of the fledgling looks like an adult female, fledglings beaks are gray or black while the adults’ beaks are bright orange.
The Latin name for the northern cardinal is Cardinalis cardinalis.
This is the smaller fledgling. They are gray until about three months when their coloring appears. Until then I won’t know if these are males or females. If they are male they will get splotches of red. If female, they’ll get the orange highlights of the female adult.
This is Mrs., our adult female cardinal and mom of the two fledglings.
We have had a cardinal male and female in our yard for two years. I’ve named them Red and Mrs. I’ve been waiting patiently to see if they’d have a family, and I’m beyond excited to see their fledglings.
The female lays three to four eggs and incubates them by herself for 12 to 13 days. The young leave the nest in about nine to 11 days after hatching. Once they leave the nest, they are called fledglings. Both parents feed their young but often it is the father.
Here’s Red feeding his large fledgling.
Fledglings will often hide in bushes or shrubs while most often the male will feed them for a few weeks. They become fully independent after about a month. I am curious if they will stay in our yard, or will find their own home away from their parents.
UPDATE:
A day after I wrote and scheduled this post, I saw Red with a brand new fledgling or possibly fledgling number 2 who I named “Mini me”. Here are a few photos:
The way the baby moved and was so shaky standing while I got photos gave me the idea that it may be Cardinal fledgling number three. I read that eggs are laid over time and they may hatch over several days or even weeks, which is why they can be different ages and sizes.
I have gotten comments on my Next Door app and friends that fledgling number one is the adult female. The color of the beaks, black vs. orange, plus and seeing Mrs. in the backyard with fledgling number one lets me know for sure that they are separate birds
What do you think of my Cardinal Fledglings? Do I have one, two or three?
I’ve been reading a book this past week called, “From Strength to Strength: Finding success, happiness and deep purpose in the second half of life,” by Arthur C. Brooks.
I read a chapter each day I take my husband to PT or to his doctor’s appointments. It’s better then scrolling on my phone mindlessly.
I have a chapter left, it’s only nine chapters. It’s written by Brooks who was a musician from Seattle, near where I grew up and exactly where I went to college. His dream in life was to be a professional musician playing in an orchestra on the French Horn. He had early success in his music career. At age 19, he left college to play professionally with a chamber-music orchestra ensemble touring the country.
But something happened. He began to decline in his musical abilities. No amount of practice or hard work could get him through it. In his mid 20s, he went back to school via distance learning and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics before age 30. Then he went on to earn his Master’s in economics.
Through the twists and turns in Brooks life, he learned about two types of brains we have in our lifetimes. In our early years we have a “Fluid Brain.” Approaching mid life, we transition to a “Crystal Brain.”
I found this handy dandy chart when I googled the difference between fluid and crystal minds. This is thanks to Gemini AI who organized this information from a website called Verywellmind.com
A double cactus bloom in our backyard.
As we enter middle age, we have more wisdom, we have gathered a wealth of knowledge and we often become more spiritual. I found the book to be enlightening and encouraging. The purpose of this book is to help us make the leap from a fluid mind to a crystallized brain and continue with a purposeful life.
Brooks uses examples from his own life in this book as well as from famous philosophers, Roman leaders, and composers including Beethoven and Bach. As a Catholic who became more religious later in life, he traveled to India to study with a Hindu guru. He learned about the four phases of life that is recognized in India — which you can learn about in his chapter about that adventure.
I managed to get a photo of the lovely couple together! Although the focus is not that great, I was happy to see Red and Mrs. together.
Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend.
What plans do you have for this weekend in mid May?
These are birds and the squirrel that I photographed in the last week or two. I never get tired of watching and photographing them. I am not posting the quail babies or momma and papa quail, since Wednesday’s Bird of the Week was all about quail.
This is my favorite photo I’ve ever taken of Mrs. I posted it on a photography group I follow on Nextdoor and it was selected as the featured photo of the week. Someone commented and asked me how I knew it was a Mrs. and not a Mr. Well, as you can see Red looks a little bit different than Mrs. I think people who aren’t familiar with Northern Cardinals don’t recognize the female as one.
This is a Harris’s Antelope Squirrel heat dumping. Stretching out and lying on his tummy is how they cool down in the heat.
Our backyard bully, the Curve-Billed Thrasher.
Another bully bird, a Gila Woodpecker.
A House Finch resting on a cactus.
My second most favorite photo of Mrs. I love her olive-green color.
Red is wondering why he has to share birdseed with the squirrel.
I love Bonnie Raitt and this is a great song. I’ll never forget the news story in 2025 when she won her 13th Grammy for “Just Like That.” The reporter wrote about how an “unknown” won Song of the Year.
Happy Friday! What are your plans for this weekend?
My bird of the week is the Northern Cardinal with the scientific name Cardinalis cardinalis. We have a cardinal couple who have visited daily for more than a year. I’ve named the male “Red” and the female “Mrs.”
Yesterday, I had a close encounter with Red. I slept in and was late filling the bird feeder. As I sat drinking coffee by a window, Red flew a few inches from the window and stared at me. He flapped his wings hovering in place. I got the message. He sat above me on a tree branch as I filled the feeder and was the first bird to hit the feeder.
If Red wants food, he isn’t shy. Usually he sings loudly at me. But approaching the window for my attention was a first.
Cardinals are song birds and they have distinctive songs and calls. Here’s a LINK to their sounds from All About Birds.
Mrs. doesn’t have the bright red coloring of the males. Female cardinals are tan with olive tones and highlights of red-orange on their crest, tail and wings. Their bill is a bright coral. Males are typically brilliant red with a black mask. There is a rare genetic mutation that causes cardinals to be bright yellow. There’s only been a few sightings in the wild of yellow cardinals.
Cardinals are located in North America from the southwest, parts of Mexico across the US to the entire east coast. Their size, according to All About Birds, is length: 8.3–9.1 inches (21–23 cm) weight: 1.5–1.7 oz (42–48 g) and wingspan: 9.8–12.2 inches (25–31 cm).
Fun facts about Cardinals:
Male and female cardinals mate for life.
They are-non migratory and are year-round residents — even in the snow.
Cardinals are territorial and will chase other male cardinals away.
Early settlers in North America from Europe named the cardinals after Catholic cardinals because their bright red plumage reminded them of red robes worn by clergy.
Many people believe that cardinals represent a visit from a loved one who has passed away.
I’m thrilled to have Red and Mrs. take up residency in our backyard. I hope to see fledglings someday. But in the meantime, they are my favorite subjects to photograph.
Thanks to fellow blogger from Down Under Bushboy for suggesting I join the Bird of the Week challenge.
What facts about Cardinals were new to you? Do you have any to add?
Red and Mrs. are my Northern Cardinal couple who live in a cholla cactus in the wash beyond our backyard fence. They have been arriving daily, but separately. Perhaps there are babies on the way and someone has to be in the nest at all times?
Red arrived and sat on his favorite pink flamingo. I watched him nibble and bite at the flamingo’s head. Maybe seeds blew down from the tree onto the flamingo?
Mrs. watched quail, a mourning dove and house sparrow devour a seed block.
I saw a strange sight. Two female cardinals together on our patio. They flew away before I could get a photo. One was larger than the other. I googled how or why two females would be together. First, I learned that it could be due to an abundance of birds in the area — which we have. Second, it could be mother and fledgling.
Mother cardinals are dedicated caregivers, often seen feeding and guiding their fledglings, which are brown-grey with dark beaks and sparse feathers. Fledglings leave the nest within 10-12 days but rely on parents to feed them for several more weeks while learning to fly. Parents, including the mother, frequently feed young on the ground or in low shrubs. –Allaboutbirds.org
Red got tired of being ignored by the flamingo, so he moved on.
The papa quail and mourning dove were more sociable to Red than the stuffy flamingo.
Mrs. told a quail couple about her visit with the other female cardinal.
Mrs. found a perch on the cactus statue to watch over the backyard actors.
For Lent this year I am doing Pray40, which is on the Hallow app. On Sundays, Father Mike Schmitz gives a Bible reading and homily. Yesterday, the theme was “Looking for Joy.” Father Mike mentioned the following quote:
“Suspicion often creates what it suspects.” C.S. Lewis from the “Screwtape Letters.”
My major takeaway was that if we often find what we’re looking for. If we’re looking to be disappointed, most likely we will be. Distrust can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I realized that life truly is what we make of it. It’s was a reminder that our attitudes can be our destiny. If we look for joy, we can find it.
I’m sharing some bits of joy I had this week, birdwatching at home:
The joyful couple together at the Bird Buddy AI feeder.
I watched as Red fed Mrs. and then gave her a turn at the feeder, but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera to capture it. It was heartwarming though!
Quail Egg Update:
I’ve only peeked a couple times on our quail nest. Last week I said we had four eggs. We’re now up to a dozen! I wrote about our quail nest HERE.
