This evening as my potato fizzed in the microwave I leaned my elbows on the counter and peered out the back window sort of absently. And then I saw a flash of bright red.
A cardinal hopped around outside in the grass, and because I thought he was handsome, and was way in the frame of mind to observe Something Quiet And Unimportant, I kept looking.
That’s when I noticed he wasn’t alone. A very small finch was right next to him, focused and pecking intently at the grass. In another moment, it became obvious that the cardinal had no interest in whatever sort of bird gourmet buffet my backyard may provide.
He was totally just stalking that little finch.
The finch hopped and pecked. The cardinal followed. Got right in his face. Chirped. The finch ignored him, hopped further away. The cardinal kept up.
In a nearby tree, a flock of finches fluttered around, nervously moving from branch to branch.
My potato dinged. I hit ‘minute plus’ and shot back to my window. Geez, I thought, by this time totally into this little drama, are they going to help him?
They did. Sort of nervously. But nonetheless.
Swooped down, chased the cardinal away. Back to their tree.
Coast clear, the cardinal flew back to his stalkee(?) and got back to business.
Curious about things nobody else is curious about (if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this post, maybe you dig a good bird story?) I am wondering:
Why that one particular finch?
What was aggressive Mr. Cardinal trying to accomplish?
Was that finch some sort of vigilante of the bird world?
Maybe that patch of grass is Cardinal territory?
Is there a turf war right in my backyard????
*Holy cow*.
