Houston – We have a Baby Cardinal!

/ Jodi

Baby Cardinal Day 1

The wait is over!

Remember I shared with you that we had a Momma Cardinal building a nest and then laying eggs right outside of our bedroom window?

Well – right on time – on Mother’s Day afternoon – the first baby cardinal was born.

You can barely make the little bugger out above, and he/she isn’t quite what you might call “cute” yet, but oh what a thrill!

And I wasn’t home when it happened!

My Mother’s Day started out with a trip to the gym in the morning with my youngest son, Nick.  When we got back home, I was surprised to find my oldest son, Jake and his wife, Colleen in the kitchen with hubby, Marty preparing a beautiful surprise Mother’s Day brunch.  What a sweet way to start the day – eh?  It began with a Mother’s day toast of orange pineapple mimosas, homemade chocolate-covered strawberries, pastries, bacon-wrapped filet Mignon, cheesy potatoes and luscious miniature spinach and brie quiches.  And as if that wasn’t enough, there was fresh flowers, cards, and a bunch of fun watercolor art supplies.  Am I the luckiest or what?!?

After stuffing ourselves and relaxing and visiting a bit, the kids asked if I wanted to go play tennis (which I haven’t done for years!),  so off we went, leaving Marty and Mikey home to enjoy some much deserved and coveted quiet R&R time.  After about two hours of sunshine and tiring, sweaty, but oh so joyous running around the court and hitting the ball to racket a few times, I got a text from Marty with this photo:

baby cardinal just born

We had been watching diligently as this was Day 12 after Momma laid her eggs, so this little baby can’t be more than two hours old here, and likely less.

As the day grew dark, still only one baby and one egg remain, and Momma is keeping them both warm.

Is that the icing on the cake for my Mother’s Day or what?

Happy Monday friends.

Wishing you joy in cherished moments.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

PS – I thought this photo would be a perfect submission for this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge:  Forces of Nature.  What greater display of nature than this?!  A brand new birth – the most extraordinary force of nature.

48 thoughts on “Houston – We have a Baby Cardinal!”

  4. What a beautiful gift for Mother’s Day! Can’t wait to see more pics of it growing and hopefully you will be around when the next egg hatches 🙂 Tennis sounds fun, when we play I basically am just chasing balls. LOL! Glad you had such a nice Mother’s Day!

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  7. Ahhh that’s awesome, Jodi! So happy for you! My 6 little robins that hatched out last week are all gone now… the evil magpie came and stole them out of their nest to feed to her own, I guess. Circle of life, but it made me so sad! 😦 I’m pleased to see your little chicklet, and hope it lives to display its glorious plumage soon! 😀 MH

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    • oH NO!!! I will be so upset. My first time watching all this. We’ll see what happens. Wonder what the odds are they make it? I just assumed they would – silly me. Oh dear!

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      • Well, magpies are pure evil. I think I might even write a post about how evil they are… one flew past my kitchen window the other day with some poor chick in its clutches, screaming for help. Oh, for a gun…. and I am not a violent person. But… come ON. Scraps everywhere, a feeder full of corn, dead and decomposing animals, bugs, insects abound, and they have to take a live chick?? Makes me so angry… I pray yours make it!!!

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  9. Jodi, my darling, I HATE to cast a pall on your happiness over the chick, but I’ve learned the hard way not to get too attached to baby birds. The bird world is a brutal one and the mortality rate is ridiculously high. Why am I even saying this on your happy post? EGAD. Sorry. OK, let’s hope that this sweet baby makes it out of the nest in one piece.

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  10. So sweet and I hope they do well! We watched the same thing out our kitchen window. She made the nest in a thick rose bush. Like you, I got photos of the eggs and used the telephoto when the babies were born. A blurry pic but I wanted to stay back. Unfortunately, two days later they were gone!! And we were so sad! Not sure what got them in that thick rose bush but they were way to young to fly.
    Interesting that I almost used the same photos for the challenge. Sounds like you had an awesome Mother’s Day!!

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  16. YAY! A sweet baby bird has arrived! What a joyful occasion! And it’s timing couldn’t be more perfect! Glad you had a wonderful day my sweet friend! Much deserved! ❤️ Can’t wait to see what you create with the watercolors!!! 🎨

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  17. Wow, a lovely day with your supportive family and a new life to celebrate! It doesn’t get much better than that (unless they also did the dishes, in which case you are definitely luckiest woman on Earth!)

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    • I sure did – I am such a lucky Momma! I don’t mean to brag – but I just love my kids!!! – my two guys and my sweet daughter in law made a very special day for me 🙂

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    • It is – so much already! But the other egg is still unhatched. Just one baby bird so far – but it doubled in size in a day – amazing! 🙂

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