Spring is Near

This morning, as I sat at my desk sipping my coffee and reading my email, I heard the cheerful, and quite loud, song of a cardinal. The energetic and piercing refrain was coming from an area just outside my back door, so, I decided to see if I might get a glimpse of this happy fellow. Standing at the back door of our enclosed porch where it was somewhat darker than outside, I was able to watch, unobserved, the songster for several minutes as he performed in the best vocal quality he could attain. Not three feet from my face in his dazzling array of brilliant scarlet, he sang his heart out just for me, (or so I pretended).

There is a story of tragedy that his song brings to remembrance, however. Pairs of cardinals have attempted many times to raise a family in this same bush that grows beside the steps to the afore mentioned porch. We have made our home here for twenty-one years and only once in all those years have I known a pair of these beautiful red birds to successfully raise a brood there. The bush sits in a ninety degree angle formed by adjoining sections of the house and is well protected from strong winds, and even the sun for most of the day. As a matter of fact, some of the branches are so close to the porch that they are under the overhang of the eves. But, the one thing the nest is never protected from is the cascading water fall that flows off the porch roof in the heavy spring rains. It seems the birds always build the nest in the exact same fork of the bush, and every year it meets with the same disaster. The nest and eggs are dislodged from the fork and washed to the ground with the parent still sitting, bravely defending her home.

From the performance I witnessed this morning, I know another brave pair of cardinals is about to try once again, at great peril, to raise a brood there. Maybe the law of averages, if there be such a law, will be in their favor this year. Maybe I should pray that God will protect them since they obviously feel they are in a safe place.