The Delawares Are Laying

The Delawares hatched in late September (as did the Barred Rocks, a year before).  In early January, the rooster started crowing (same time frame as the Barred Rock rooster, Psycho, in 2021).  The Barred Rocks started laying in mid-February last year (which surprised me; I wasn't looking for eggs so soon).

The same thing has now happened with the Delawares--also in mid-February.  As with the Barred Rocks last year, the first eggs have been small.

 

In the picture, an egg from the Barred Rocks is on the left, and the rest are from the Delawares.  As happened last year, I expect the egg sizes to gradually increase.  Even though they're small, they're fertile:

The white spots on the yolks show that.  So the rooster is doing his job.  I'm not hatching any out now, but that may come at some point.  For now, it's nice to be getting eggs in quantity again.

Cardinals in Heat

 The seasons progress.  Although it is still winter--trees are still dormant and it was 18 two weeks ago, the daffodils are up (though not blooming yet) and we're entering a sort of peri-spring period. The roads are covered with dead skunks--they mate mid-January to mid-February--and squirrels have been getting active.

Another early-season mating period is apparently that of the cardinal.  For the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a bird fluttering around the mirrors on my truck, and then I noticed this:

Somebody has been spending an awful lot of time on my front bumper.  I then started to pay attention and saw the cardinal (or maybe there's more than one) flying away from the front of the truck every time I walked nearby.

The picture isn't the greatest--massively digitally zoomed and through a not-so-clean window--but you get the idea.  He's seeing himself in the chrome and in the mirrors and fighting his own reflection, trying to drive the presumed rival male out of his territory.  Not surprisingly, this hapless soul doesn't have a female with him--which is doubtless part of the frustration.

All birds apparently are prone to this, and the impact of a mirror on a male betta fish is well-known.  Cardinals may be more susceptible than most other birds.  There are plenty of pictures online of the phenomenon.  Hopefully this soon passes--then we'll be progressing to male woodpeckers and carpenter bees.