About a month ago, I bought a different kind of bird food just for a change of pace for the birdies. It was more peanut-based than black oil sunflower seed-based, and though the birds seemed to like it well enough, I noticed they were pushing a lot of it to the ground with their beaks, more so than they did with the other food I usually had out there for them. Presumably, they were fishing for sunflower seeds.

The squirrels, who have been thwarted from the feeders themselves thanks to the squirrel baffles I have, were loving the peanut bits that were scattered on the ground, and I saw as many as six or seven squirrels at one time under the main feeder to get them at various points, which is a lot more squirrel action than we normally see.

SEE ALSO (VIP) -->> Caregiver's Diary Part 24: The Bird Feeders

Sadly for the squirrels, we're back to the black oil sunflower seed-based bird food, which the squirrels will, of course, still eat, though perhaps not with as much enthusiasm.

What's been super cool to see this season is the arrival of the young cardinals who haven't yet "turned" - they don't yet have the typical feather coloring or the bright beaks associated with Northern cardinals, which is what lets me know they're still youngins.

Something I've read in my research about cardinals and their habits is that even after the babies leave the nest, the mom and dad still help them out for a while with food in terms of finding it and feeding it to them.

While I've seen plenty of sweet "beak to beak" transactions between male and female cardinal couples during courting season, it wasn't until Wednesday evening that I witnessed my first ever beak to beak transaction between a papa cardinal and his babies.

I'd recently spotted two young cardinals who are in the midst of getting their coloring. To my knowledge, they've never flown to perch on either feeder, choosing to grab what's on the ground underneath it instead.

While I'd previously seen them on their own, on Wednesday, I saw a male cardinal nearby as the two young ones pecked at the ground. Thinking nothing of it, I watched for a few more minutes when the male cardinal began feeding the two juvenile cardinals, and it was the absolute sweetest thing to see.

Here's one example:

I’m watching a dad cardinal feeding his baby 😍🐦🐥❤️ pic.twitter.com/b2HsUk3uaj

— Fiona-bananatiel & Sidney (@fionnualatiel) May 20, 2020

And another. So precious:

Daddy cardinal feeding his baby 😍 #cardinals #birdlovers pic.twitter.com/1maup6YPq4

— MarDays (@mardays1) May 26, 2020

I had a pretty challenging day on Wednesday. Not a bad one, just hectic with a lot going on. Needless to say, seeing that at the end of it helped wash the stress away.

I'm so glad we have those feeders, and I'm immensely grateful and blessed to have Mom with me to enjoy them. Her face lights up whenever she looks at them, and that, too, makes my heart sing. While we don't take vacations much anymore due primarily to logistical challenges, watching the birds is pretty close to the next best thing.

RELATED: To read my previous Caregiver's Diary entries, please click here.