Crazy Cardinal On Home Stretch

For reasons now obscure to me, I took in a "Botany 101" outdoor class at our local Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve yesterday (100 degrees, 80% humidity.) But I had the opportunity to check in on a nesting Northern Cardinal who built her nest close to the nature center building and the path leading to its front door. I thought this was a potentially insane idea: people coming by frequently and high risk of snake predation... but against the odds she's still there and is in her last days of tending the eggs. This is one tough bird, I must say. She is enduring the unseasonable heat and endless distraction. I can't wait to hear about the fledglings and perhaps catch a glimpse of their first days in one of the otherwise safest places in the city.