I noticed a mama cardinal swoop up to the chain link fence and then hop into the top most part of my over-ambitious rose bush. I looked closer and saw that there was a nest hidden behind the ovate leaves, moving closer I looked into the intense paused watchful eye of mama cardinal sitting on the nest. Intrigued by her intensity and stillness, I watched for a minute. Then I left her to be alone and watchful for other creatures much more dangerous than me. Like the neighborhood cats.
The next day I looked for her and she wasn’t there so I moved in closer and saw this tiny body heaving inside. Its quick breathing made it seem all the more delicate and exposed. More so than its flesh marked in lines of fresh downy feathers growing in. Its midline down the back was lined with a dark concentration of new feathers but outward from there was its pinkish skin revealing its newness. The tiny black wings on each side rose and fell with its breathing and I was stunned by my protectiveness and awe for this small thing. Not being able to see its front, its body curled face-down, the head so round, the midline so delineated, to me it looked like a small human sleeping restlessly and growing angel wings.
Here is a video I took of it:
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