Feathering Our Nest

I wouldn't say that we are particularly fond of birds over here, but they seem to be playing a large role in our daily life right now.  First, we have birds in the basement.  Uncle Ben arrived on Easter weekend with chicks, fresh from the farm!  The 8 baby chickens are currently residing in our basement bathroom, in a large (lidded) incubator.  The kids are thrilled to hang out with them in the afternoons, change their water and feed, and handle them.  (I'll also note that having a huge tub full of cute baby birds sitting next to the toilet does provide some interesting incentive for a certain potty-training family member to spend extra time on the potty...)  The chicks are growing rapidly, and the last time Hi-Hat opened the wire mesh lid, one of the chicks tested his (her?) wings and flew out!

(unrelated note - I think this is the first photo I have ever seen of Fancy that bears even the slightest indication that she might be my daughter.  I never see one bit of resemblance between the 2 of us, but in this photo, I actually do. :)

The two on the left were apparently oblivious subjects of the meeting being held by the four on the right.  Something about their rear ends must have been causing a stir.  

The chicks will reside with us for about 4 weeks, until they are ready to leave the incubator and live on the farm.  And I do mean a real farm, not the big metaphorical farm in the sky where many beloved animals end up.

And I'm just about out of laptop battery power, so I'll have to wrap up.  We also have nesting birds in a tree in our front yard. We came across this sad sight on our front walkway yesterday morning:

After a little research (and repeated admonitions to Fancy that she was NOT to touch the egg), I determined that the egg belonged to a cardinal.  I have noticed a beautiful bright red cardinal hanging around a tree in our front yard since the winter, so we did a little investigating.  We found this:

I couldn't get a picture of the mama cardinal, because once I got the camera outside she had flown off, but when we first found the nest we did see her head bobbing around, and she got a little noisy to express her displeasure that her home had been discovered.  The red papa cardinal comes and goes from the tree, and he often hangs out on our neighbor's gutter, making lots of noise at all the kids who ride and run by.  The nest is pretty high up in the tree, but we can see that there is insulation in the nest, most likely debris that flew over from across town during the recent tornadoes.  We've been finding the insulation all over the neighborhood, and I guess it's good that it can be recycled into new building projects. :)  I'm going to keep my eye on that nest, and if I can capture a glimpse of the mama bird in the nest again or, better yet, newly hatched babies, I'll be sure to post!