shredding

For the past several years, we've had a male cardinal who attacked his reflection in our windows. We called him Don Quixote. Open drapes or closed, Don would thump against a window over, and OVER, and OVER. Even soaping the windows didn't help. Covering the windows with newspaper on the outside worked, but then he would move to an uncovered window. Plus the newspaper melted in the rain and needed to be reapplied regularly.

He was a tattered and torn mess, distinguishable from a distance from all the other males in the spring when they sparred for territory. We couldn't figure out how he ever won his spot, or a mate for that matter.

We wondered when he found the time or energy to eat, let alone help raise nestlings. We figured he would have trouble surviving winter since he was in such poor shape. But he came back every spring to build a nest outside our bedroom window.

Until this spring. This year there is no thump, thump, thump. I don't know what the lifespan of Cardinals is, but he seems to have finished his.

I kind of miss the loony old bird.