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Old 04-01-2010, 07:20 AM   #1
radioattic
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Cardinals: not brightest bird in the bottle

With apologies to all you St.Louis fans...

After my second "Cardinals" incident in as many years, I am convinced that, while visually impressive, the Northern Cardinal is utterly stupid. Please let me explain.



Last year, we camped at Paul M. Grist State Park, near Selma, Alabama. This park is remote and beautiful. I counted six camp sites for RVs; we had one, and an absent work crew occupied a second one (we never saw the workers while we were there). At night, the campground staff goes home, and campers are left alone in the middle of 1,400 acres, with no one but the loons on the lake for company. It was almost scary at night, since we were the only two souls in the park.

Comes six AM. Knock-knock-knock! Flutter! Flutter! Squawk! I opened the blinds by the bed slowly to see a very agitated Northern Cardinal, flapping his wings wildly and attacking the window glass mere inches from my formerly-sleeping head. Cardinal had seen his reflection in the glass and took offense at this huge (to him) thing in which a trespasser (himself, backwards) was hiding.

I opened the blinds and shooed him away. Back he came with even more gusto. The bird whacked himself against the glass, HARD, for over 30 minutes before he finally went away. I figured he'd given himself a birdie concussion and flew somewhere to die in private.

Wrong. Comes six AM, next day. Knock-knock-knock! Flutter! Flutter! Squawk! OMG, he's back! Same routine, but thankfully he must have been suffering the effects of the previous day and left after twenty-some-odd minutes. We left that day, and no doubt (if he survived), the little dummy was satisfied and relieved to see his rival had skedaddled. End of first incident.

I recently purchased a "squirrel feeder" to attract my neighborhood squirrels away from the bird feeders. It didn't work as advertised (another story), but it's fun to watch the squirrels stuff themselves into the big glass jar to eat. Birds, also, have discovered this feeder and eat there after the squirrels are full.



We were enjoying lunch outside yesterday and starting to nod off, an after-lunch nap being one of the joys of retirement. Knock-knock-knock! Flutter! Flutter! Squawk! Good grief, what was that?!? I looked up to see a Cardinal in the squirrel feeder, flapping and squawking with even more energy than last year's idiot bird. After watching it for a few seconds, I realized that the bird could not find his way out of the glass jar! And it's a big jar, with an opening large enough for a ham fist. But Cardinal insisted on trying to bully his way out of the BOTTOM of the jar, which, if he hadn't been a bird, he'd have known was impossible.

I walked over to the feeder and gently pulled the jar out of the wooden entryway. Cardinal was neither impressed nor relieved, and kept bashing his little self against the bottom of the jar.

I set the jar on the ground. Knock-knock-knock! Flutter! Flutter! Squawk! He would not turn around and notice freedom just inches away.

I actually had to pick up the jar again, shake it while upside down, and let gravity rescue the bird, still too stupid to rescue himself. He did not come back for the rest of the day. No thank-you note in today's mail.

So I am convinced that the Northern Cardinal, while beautiful, is hopelessly stupid.
 
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Old 04-01-2010, 07:33 AM   #2
Bill-N-Donna
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Sounds like a real “Bird Brain” to me!

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Old 04-01-2010, 07:41 AM   #3
Art-n-Marge
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Gee Steve, is sounds like the same Cardinal. I'll bet it hitched a ride to your home from the CG.

Funny stories! But next time you want to shake the jar right side up. I think they tend to rely on their ability to fly out of the jar rather than gravity.

What I don't understand is why it's called a Northern Cardinal if you are in the south. But then again, I know plenty of southerners who think that stupid things gotta be from the north.
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Old 04-01-2010, 08:20 AM   #4
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Steve,
Last year while we were at the N.E. Rally we were awakened at 5:30AM by a knocking on the trailer. Went outside and found nothing. The next morning at the same time, same knocking. I found bird droppings on the trailer hitch and smudges on the hitch mirror on the front of the trailer. We had to cover it with a piece of paper. Bird braines, indeed.
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Old 04-01-2010, 09:34 AM   #5
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Last year we had "Psycho Robin". Darn thing would sit on my wife's car and attack the mirror. It also pooped all down the side of her car. I'm not talking about a few hours or even a few days. It did this for weeks and weeks! It didn't bother the other two cars in the drive way, just hers.
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Old 04-01-2010, 10:32 AM   #6
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You should see what a Peacock will do in front of its reflection, some times they open up and others they fight.
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Old 04-01-2010, 10:53 AM   #7
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I have seen male Turkeys pace back and forth staring themselves down in front of a nice shinny bumper. Even to the point of almost wanting to fight.
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Old 04-01-2010, 12:04 PM   #8
radioattic
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Which is really funny; seeing myself in the mirror makes me want to run away!
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Old 04-01-2010, 06:01 PM   #9
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We moved into our current house north of Tampa 5 1/2 years ago. For the first 4 years we had a female Cardinal pecking on our bedroom windows every morning. After the first year, she was joined by a male, and the two of them drove us crazy. They were followed by one of the biggest woodpeckers I have ever seen! Sleeping in was not an option! We finally bought one of those fake owls at Home Depot and put it in the window sill. Birds are now mostly just a memory!
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Old 04-01-2010, 07:00 PM   #10
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Steve--- We must have Tom S's robins cousin here in Omaha. For the past three years we have had a robin banging into the windows of our stick masterbath and master bedroom. We lost the big Ash tree near the masterbath due to a storm two summers ago and figured that the robin that nested in it had gone away! No such luck! This stupid bird has been back for the past two springs banging on the windows again. What I've found out is that the robins see reflections of themselves in the window and they are defending their nesting territory. I don't know where this bird is nesting now but he's driving me and the DW nuts. We've even gotting up and thrown tennis balls at it to no avail! Once they build their nest we have no problems again until next year!!
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