As mom and I settle in for what hopefully will remain a doctor appointment-free month, it occurred to me that I haven't given an update on the bird feeders since mid-June.
I'm happy to report that the birdies are still giving us immense joy, and were particularly comforting to watch in July, a month that turned into AppointmentPalooza for mom, which, in turn, amped up the stress and anxiousness levels quite a bit for both of us. At times, things were tense, especially when the time came to wait for test results. But checking outside to see the birds doing their thing would often help bring on the calm.
I'm also pleased to share that, as far as I know, there has been no more snake activity at either feeder, although I don't know for sure considering I don't watch it 24-7 - though I've considered putting a camera where we could keep an eye on the goings on in the backyard from time to time when we're not in a room where we can see them.
READ MORE (VIP) -->> Caregiver's Diary Part 33: High Drama at the Bird Feeders
The summer has been a little different than the spring in terms of bird watching. Whereas in the spring there was a near-constant stream of activity, the summer months have seen it happen in waves. There are blocks of time where I'll be sitting in the recliner working on the laptop and don't see a single bird.
Mom and I figured that it might have something to do with the heat, as we had several days of 100-degree-plus temperatures in July especially, and even when it wasn't 100, the feels-like temperature was over 100.
The first couple of weeks in August, however, we had a cool (for the south) spell, with highs some days only reaching the 70s to the low 80s, and along with that came a fair bit of rain. We've seen a lot more bird action during this time, something we again attribute to changes in the weather.
We continue to see what I call "baby" (juvenile) cardinals, the ones whose coloring is still evolving and whose beaks haven't turned bright orange, and we've also seen a lot of something we didn't see much of last summer: cardinals who have shed their head feathers.
I admit when I first saw this (last year), I panicked and worried that something might be wrong with the cardinal. But I found out it's a normal process for them (and some other bird species) around this time of year:
Birds’ feathers will wear out, causing them to need to be replaced. This process, known as molting, takes place once a year for cardinals, in late summer, after breeding season is over. This process typically isn’t visible to us, as most birds molt a few feathers at a time. Many cardinals, however, will molt all their head feathers at once, leaving them bald until those feathers are replaced. Better for them to look shabby in August than in April, when they need to appear their sharpest during courtship.
A bald Northern Cardinal, they look so rough when they are molting. It's pretty cool you can see their ears.#norterncardinal#TwitterNatureCommunity pic.twitter.com/an55qA61QR
— G H Holt Photography 🇺🇸 (@ghholt) July 22, 2025
Did you know?! Many birds, including northern cardinals, have a late-summer molt. This causes temporary bird-patterned baldness! This bald cardinal is still cute as ever, though. 🐦
— City of Saint Charles, MO (@SaintCharlesMo) September 12, 2022
Learn more with @MDC_online: https://t.co/Kr1eQcH84t pic.twitter.com/NXFlvbg6Ka
One of the sweetest moments we've seen to date at the bird feeders involved a balding male cardinal.
There was a juvenile cardinal fluttering its wings on the ground under the feeder. Presumably, he (or she) wasn't super confident about getting on the feeder on their own. There were a couple of male cardinals on the feeder. One was balding, the other wasn't.
The non-balding one bumped the other one off the feeder, and the bald cardinal flew to the ground. The baby cardinal proceeded to trot over him and put its beak close to the older cardinal in hopes of getting some food, so that's when I realized it was a father and his "Baby C."
Papa C was persistent and flew back up to the feeder, ate a little bit, and then flew back down right where Baby C was. After a few seconds, he fed Baby C. This happened about four times, where Papa C would fly up and come back down to take care of his little one.
SEE ALSO (VIP) -->> Caregiver's Diary Part 30: These Birds Are Made for Feedin'
Maybe about 15 minutes after that, Papa C flew off, but Baby C stuck around. Then came a female cardinal a few minutes later on the ground, and Baby C went up to her and stayed close by. In that moment, I knew I'd just witnessed a cardinal family, though they hadn't been all together at the same time.
Unfortunately, Mom couldn't see the cardinal activity that happened on the ground because it wasn't visible from her vantage point. So I gave her a play-by-play of things as they happened, and we were both squeeing like schoolgirls, as we sometimes do when the birds surprise us.
It's amazing. It costs nothing beyond the price of bird food to be on the receiving end of this kind of joy. These are the types of simple moments that I pray stay with Mom and me for many years to come.
DIVE DEEPER: To check out my previous Caregiver's Diary entries, please click here. Thank you!
