As I mentioned in an earlier post, my hedge maze was home to an assortment of birds last summer. Around June, I noted a family of cardinals feeding their fledgling babies at one point while I sat on the tool chest. I’d run across many empty nests during the Big Trim, but only one that had eggs in it. I’d yet to encounter a nest in the privet hedges that contained baby birds. In some ways, this was good as I didn’t want to cut down a shrub with any active bird nests. Besides, we have plenty of blue jays and mocking birds in Eastern Pennsylvania, two species known to be ultra-aggressive against anyone who takes an interest in their nests.
So I wasn’t surprised to find a bird nest with two eggs in it at the end of July. It was about six feet off the ground and hidden in a corner shrub to the west that faced my neighbor’s yard. I had some inkling to what I might find, as a cardinal female began to give me verbal grief every time I walked next to this shrub. I waited and saw a female cardinal land on the nest.
I was careful to leave the shrub intact.
