Big Family

One interesting consequence of the Great Christmas Snowstorm of 2010 was finding out just how large is our Northern Cardinal family group. In the crush of birds, I observed no less than eight birds. There is ample evidence now that we did likely have three successful broods, and there's a certainty of major territorial warfare come spring. For now, it's pure pleasure. We especially enjoyed our "Cardinal Tree": a Red Maple whose branches seemed to sprout Cardinal fruit (each bird on its own branch.) It's rather sad we can't expect to keep them all. But it never seems that our territory is large enough to support more than one breeding pair. This big family will only last the winter.