Under our Porch
“She’ll end up giving up,” Keith predicted.
Through the glass of our double doors, we watched a female cardinal flying to and from our back porch. On each trip, she would bring in her beak a twig and drop it on the farthest corner ledge under the porch.
We kept
watching her ‘mission impossible’: flight after flight, the twigs would fall to
the ground.
“She can’t
figure out that the ledge is too narrow!” I sighed. “What if we could put something
there to make it wider?”
Then Keith found
a wooden stick and nailed it across the corner ledge.
By the end
of the third day, Mama Cardinal had built a nest!
Yet, for a while, the nest
remained empty. We were somewhat relieved to think we would not
need to avoid getting out on the back porch and risk scaring Mama Cardinal…
Until she
returned. Night and day she lay there and rarely left, committed to her
soon-to-hatch eggs…
Today, Papa
Cardinal flew in, bringing something in his beak. Three tiny heads wobbled up from
the cup-shaped nest, with beaks wide open…
Mama and
Papa’s sole mission now is to feed their Babies… When Mama Cardinal is in the
nest, Papa flies in and passes on to Mama’s beak what he brings in his (almost
like they are kissing!). She then swallows it and regurgitates the gooey
substance into their Baby Cardinals’ open beaks…
Every time
we hear some chirping, Keith and I stealthily look out the glass doors… And we
marvel at how Mama and Papa take turns feeding their fragile offspring.
I did some
research and found out that it might take Baby Cardinals (now known as
Hatchlings) nine to eleven days from hatching to learning how to fly. After their
first flight, the Fledglings will stay close and be fed by Mama and Papa
Cardinal until they are ready to survive on their own.
What I could
not find out: reports of cardinals building nests under someone’s porch!
I can only guess that these lovely birds have gotten used to being in our
backyard and, as much as we have watched them, they have watched us, as we walk
and sit around… or when we fill the bird feeder with sunflower seeds and replenish
the bird baths with fresh water…
Here in Central Texas, Spring is teeming with new life! The privilege of watching the beginning of a new bird family at such proximity is an unexpected blessing: a beautiful testimony to God’s creation!
This Almighty God, who designed and created male and female to procreate and populate His planet, once more reveals Himself through His creatures in the most unexpected places: even right here, under our porch…
Genesis 1:1
“In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Job 12:7-10
“7 But
ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and
they shall tell thee:
8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall
teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
9 Who knoweth not in all these that the
hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
10 In whose hand is the soul of every
living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”
Colossians 1:16
" For by Him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by Him, and for Him.”
1 Corinthians 8:6
“But
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.”
Revelation 4:11
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”
