My resident pair of cardinals, who I call Momma and Poppa (very original, I know), have finished up the breeding season and are now literally empty nesters. About a month ago they were bringing a couple of fledglings with them to the feeding station, but I haven’t seen anyone but the adults in a little bit. That’s probably good, too, since both Momma and Poppa are looking a little bit rough. The breeding season is tough on adult birds. They expend a lot of energy foraging for food both for themselves and for their babies. These two raised three broods this year, so I’m sure they are both very tired!

When breeding, the parents line the nests with moss, grass, hair, and their own feathers, so by the end of summer they always look a little bit bare in spots. In the photos, it looks like Momma has new crest feathers coming in, so I suspect they are also molting into their nonbreeding, winter plumage. It’s now time for them finish their molt and fatten up before the weather starts to cool off and they need the extra body fat to stay warm. Fortunately, since Hurricane Idalia made landfall about 50 miles north of us, we got plenty of rain to relieve our drought situation. Since the storm we have had rain every afternoon like we normally do all summer. It’s too soon to tell, but hopefully the trend (NOT hurricanes, just rain) will continue into the fall. That means more for the wildlife to eat, and more for me to photograph.