The Bird Whisperers

So there's a common theme around the Skertich family for the past 40 years that the cardinal is the Skertich family bird. Wherever we have lived, we have had families of cardinals living within our yards and surroundings. Now this is not really all that uncommon, I wouldn't think, because there are a lot of cardinals in Chicago, but nonetheless, it's been labeled the family bird for a generation or two.

And now, we've got two families of cardinals in our very own back yard.  There are two moms and two dad cardinals and they frequent our yard and our back porch quite often, whistling about and just doing their thing.

So here's what happened the other day - we're chilling in our backyard and one of the dad cardinals comes through and hangs on the wire.

So Mae has this great idea of getting our cardinal stuffed animal that has this amazing cardinal whistle when you press his wing so she runs and gets that and we start whistling with it and then more cardinals start to come.

So then Mae goes in and gets her bird's nest and eggs that she made out of clay and brings that into the backyard.

2-3 minutes later we've got four cardinals singing sweet music in our yard... and the tradition continues.