Another Kind of Family

A cardinal couple and their two teens have come to my feeder twice -- morning and evening -- a day each day for almost a week. While the parent birds watch protectively, the young birds balance a bit unevenly on the pole, testing their wings and hopping about. When one decides to try flying down to the perch, the flight is ungainly and often unsuccessful. A parent follows to the ground and urges the baby back up.Today, one of them perched atop the feeder pole and fluttered and fluttered and fluttered. Yesterday, when the father flew up to him, it was to feed the baby. Today, however, he merely checked on the bird and tried to encourage him to spread his wings. I photographed the birds just before sunset through a closed window.

I took a few photos and a movie, but nothing as crisp as what I found on the Internet. No matter how weak my photographs, however, my eyes feast on the young birds and their stuttering.