Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: A vine-y mess hiding a cardinal's nest (center top)

According to Wikipedia, cardinals like to camouflage their nests behind lots of foliage or vines. Having seen a female cardinal darting in and out of this nest-y structure (with her bright red male companion on the nearby fence), I am hoping that means that we will have a family underneath our garage roof awing this spring. 

I'm, of course, worried that my spotting their activity yesterday and the pictures I took today might have scared them off. But, given that it's already May, it's possible they already have lain their eggs (https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/attracting-birds/bird-nesting/cardinal-nest/). Plus, as I was saying to Shawn on the phone today, cardinals are urban birds. No way they'd be able to procreate at all if they were scared of a little human foot traffic. So, fingers crossed. 

This particular spot has been home to a set of robins, but despite the remains of a ready-built nest there, we don't tend to get a lot of birds choosing this area. I suspect, in part, because the local outdoor Tom, Mr. McMuffin (his given name) has our garage as part of his daily prowl.

So, I know the cat's name because I once found Mr. McMuffin's collar in my backyard. I'd worried that he was lost, so I called the number to return it to McMuffin's people. We have gotten to know McMuffin's people because they are only a couple of houses down and a couple of years ago, they thought McMuffin had, in fact, gotten lost (or worse) because he had not returned for dinner at their place for some time. Their people were worried enough that they went door to door and put up signs and so we agreed to keep a sharp eye out. I suggested that we should exchange contact information in case we spotted McMuffin and so they're now in our cell as Peter (the human's real first name) McMuffin.

PLUS, this spring the Midway possum took up residence in our garage. Midway is inordinately fond of its possums, all of whom we claim is THE Midway Possum. There has been poetry composed for the Midway possum. We have on our spice rack some art devoted to the Midway possum, which we picked up in a little free library in the neighborhood.


Image: opossum art. A close-up of a collage of a possum, her babies, dried flowers, a keychain with the word "love" on it, surrounded by a popsicle stick border saying "Snelling" on one side and "You welcome us" on the other.

But, you know, possums eat birds and their eggs. 

So, this isn't necessarily the greatest place to build a nest. I hope they did, anyway. More than that, I hope they flourish here. I'd love to watch them raising their young in my backyard.