Saturday
Rain again all day.
In the morning, there was a thick fog that I could not see further than 100 feet away. By 10 am the morning for has cleared (as if Richard Harris has made a royal decree). Light drizzle all day long.
Went to OceanView to the UCart Concrete place and picked up 3 pieces of #4 rebar (1/2″) 20 feet long – cost $58.00 – OUCH!
My friends, Bert and Ernie, two red headed cardinals about the size of a sparrow, have me well trained. They see me sit down in the gazebo and then they fly in from who knows where, and sit on the flower pot or the logs I plan to use as the uprights in my railing around the lanai.
They look down at the concrete, then look up at me as if to say, “Well, where is our food?” So, I get up out of my chair and get them a cracker – not just any cracker, but a butter cracker like a Club Cracker. I crumble it up into crumbs and dump them on the concrete. Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie have retreated to the branches of the tree above to wait. After I return to my chair, they fly down to the logs or to the flower pot.
They look at each other, . . . then they look sideways, looking all around, then at me, then back up into the trees, then they look at each other as if to say,”Well, is it clear?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“Well, I think it is alright.”
“OK then, go ahead.”
“No, you go first.”
“Not me! You go first!”
“Do you really think it is safe?”
“Yeah! So far, so good.”
“OK then. Here I go”
Then they fly down, jump down, hop down, the last foot from on top of the logs to the concrete by the crumbs. All the time, glancing at me, and back into the trees, and all around, checking that it is safe. One at a time, they arrive at the pile of crumbs.
They peck at the pile, picking up small crumbs, chewing them, them pecking again to get more. If they grab a larger piece, they will fly off to a branch above and place the crumb on the branch. Then they will peck at it, pick it up and bang it on the branch to break it up. If one flys off, the other quickly follows.
I have noticed that they are on the lookout for the full sized red cardinal. He is a bully and tries to take the crumbs away from them after they have picked them up and flown up to a nearby branch. He doesn’t come down and get his own, but tries to steal it from them. Because he is a red Cardinal, I call him Larry Fitzgerald!
They are quite comical to watch, as they come in between rain showers.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 