When we moved here to our country home (converted barn) it was a couple of weeks before Christmas. That first Christmas morning my husband and I woke up to snow, beautiful fluffy sparkly snow. We have 11 pine trees surrounding the barn. Of course the snow covered the pine branches. I looked out the front window , and there sitting on one of the pine branches was a bright red Cardinal. It looked like a Christmas card, all white with some green and red. I wish I would have had a camera ready at the time. It was just so perfect. It gave us that warm fuzzy Christmas feeling. As we sat and drank a cup of Hot Cocoa and a Christmas cookie. I hope we have fresh snow for Christmas this year. patti

This exact thing is happening to mine as well, it does look like root rot since they pull out of the ground easily and are mushy but that doesn’t make any sense since they are marsh plants. I live in georgia and when I first noticed it I thought I was over watering so I limited the water I gave them but its Been almost a month and they are still suffering. My best guess is that it‘a either under watering or some kind of fungus/disease. I’m going to attempt to give them more water and spray them down with a fungicide and see if I have any success, if you’ve happened to figure out what went wrong with yours I would greatly appreciate any advice.

My guess would be that the hatchlings died and the parents disposed of them. I've seen this on numerous occasions--especially during a cold, wet spring. We once had a pair nesting in a yew right under our window. We watched them sit and hatch 4 nestlings. One week the weather turned, and the nestlings died. We watched as one of the parents picked up a dead chick and flew off. I guess that explains why occasionally you'll find a dead baby bird in the middle of nowhere. I think this has been a particularly tough spring. I've noticed more failed nesting attempts at our houses than usual.

Did not know that! How cool. Marilyn, we have black squirrels here. They are very pretty, a lot smaller than fox squirrels. We also have small red squirrels (scrappy looking/ not pretty)--small, but with an attitude! And tons of fox squirrels. For a couple of years, we had a 'two-tailed' red squirrel in the neighborhood. Really a forked tail. 2-3" from the end of the tail, another short tail forked off from the main tail. Hubster didn't believe me when I told him about the two-tailed squirrel that I had seen, not until he finally spotted it for himself. Carol, we have a mated pair of cardinals that attack anything reflective on the front of our house. All spring/ all summer. Every day, all day long for the past two years. Garage windows, car glass, car mirrors... As much as I love watching cardinals, this pair is really bothersome. They're not around right now but I suspect they will be back after the thaw. Supposedly territorial behavior; thank goodness for getting a winter reprieve.