Wednesday, August 17, 2016

The Cardinal Pole Dance

For months now, ever since early spring, there has been a female cardinal tapping at each of the windows around the house.  Some mornings she hits the bedroom window just as the sun is coming up around 6:00 A.M.!  She does this several times a week and now we are into August when bird hormones and energy are supposed to be dwindling.  Yet still she and her significant other arrive on the patio, bathe in the birdbath, feed each other, and then, while he rests on the back of the patio chair and cleans his beak or grooms his feathers which now are molting hideously, she lands on the doorknob and taps at the deck window.


Somedays she puts on her crazy hat and rushes at the patio door like a suicide dancer scratching as she claws her way from bottom to top.  Maybe this is the feathered version of the pole dance?  Sometimes she just stops and stares a my interior decoration as if she has stumbled upon some bordello.


I chase her away if I am truly annoyed, but she seems to enjoy the interaction with me and laughs when she flies into the woods, so I have given up.  I wash the bird spit off the windows every few weeks, and try to ignore this aberrant behavior.  If she has built nests and was tending young ones, she must have lots of energy left over.



She seems to reflect this hot and angry summer we have been having with her erratic behavior.  We had good rains in July but now we are into high 90F weather with no rain most days, sometimes only an electrical storm; it is harsh.  Even the cicadas seem to sing with a rusty, scratchy sound rather than their rhythmic percussion and I hear not a peep from our frogs in the rain fed depression down in the ravine...and I am going to kill this bird as soon as I finish my iced tea.

12 comments:

  1. Somehow i doubt you will kill the bird, although you are probably fed up with the foolishness. Sometimes i think they see a rival in the reflection of the glass, and try to attack it, but this sounds like more than just that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I hope you don't kill her, I think she looks so comical peering through the window. I think the weather affects us all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That cardinal is certainly persistent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. She certainly looks interested in your world. Is she seeing herself? Yes, he is looking awful spotty. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Strange behavior for sure, I'm guessing a reflection thing, or perhaps just like people, some birds are just crazy and mean.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We watched a Bluebird do that in a camoground once all day long!

    ReplyDelete
  7. the tapping on the bedroom window at 6am would be very annoying. The rest of it is really pretty funny.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh I love this. Birds can definitely be crazy. Just wish you knew what your friend wants. I am guessing an audience.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We had a bird that kept hitting our french doors, but I just realized I haven't heard it since our rain started a week ago. Before then, we were back in a drought! I hope you (and the cardinal) get some relief soon!

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Sometimes she just stops and stares a my interior decoration as if she has stumbled upon some bordello."

    That is too funny. At least she is pretty. Not a dull blackbird pecking away.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I wonder what she is doing? When I have to teacup bird feeder down to keep the squirrels off it, the cardinals will come to sit in the shrub and peer in at me. where's my dinner?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love your photos showing her perplexed peering. Last year I had a hummingbird persist in flying up to my living room window after actually tapping it once which must have told it the glass was an obstacle to flying through. The bird would perch on a Bird of Paradise leaf to rest a bit, seek a bloom for nourishment, then fly to my window again gently tapping. The bird would fly away only to return later and repeat the actions. Other hummingbirds came and went, paying no attention to my window. Curious behavior to say the least -- leaves us to speculate about the bird's motivation.

    ReplyDelete

Glad to hear from you once again. I really like these visits. Come sit on this log and tell me what you are thinking.