June 8, 2005
I swear, there is nothing perkier looking than a young cardinal. There's something about their little topknots--kind of disheveled--and the bright, alert way they look at the new (to them) world. Anyway, a young cardinal, I think the one I mentioned in an earlier post, has been hanging around my pond area. He drinks from the waterfall and looks longingly at the seed feeder. I haven't yet seen him try to use it. And I don't know if he has yet learned to crack sunflower shells. His dad was with him earlier in the day, but then took off--perhaps to care for younger birds still in the nest.

The road runner, too, has apparently decided to make my habitat part of his hangout. I saw him several times today, and yesterday afternoon watched as he hurried across the pond area with what appeared to be a nest in his mouth. I wonder what THAT was about!

Today he vocalized several times: a hoarse, eerie kind of low-pitched honk that I am convinced sounds EXACTLY the way dinosaurs sounded. (The bird book describes it as a low-pitched cooing, but it sounded anything but dovelike to me.) I hope he sticks around; he is very interesting to watch.