That looks to me like some kind of bromeliad. Vrieseas can look that way when they're not watered correctly. If your plant is a bromeliad, then you need to water it in the top, pouring water into the middle of the leaves, for it to look its best. BUT, if it's not a bromeliad, you could cause it to rot by watering that way. Can you describe the flower it had? Some more pictures of the whole plant from a couple of angles (particularly from above) would be helpful too. This post was edited by PatchyJack on Fri, Jun 13, 14 at 4:56

Thank you so much!! I will do that. First I better tell you the area we're in. We live in Illinois between the Mississippi River and Rock River in the Quad Cities (Ever hear of the Rock Island lines or John Deere of Moline, Illinois?...well, we're from the Rock Island/Moline area.) Here is the wading bird that's so dark looking. I'm so sorry these photos are so small and hard to see...there was a huge marshy area between me and the birds. I'm in the market for a better zoom lens, but WOW have you seen the price of them?? This is the swooper...some sort of plover or sandpiper maybe? At first I thought it was a swallow of some sort...then when I saw the photo I thought maybe a killdeer, but I don't think so. Sorry these are poor photos too...it flashed by me so quickly, I just snapped away as a spur of the moment thing! Would someone please confirm that this is a female redwing blackbird? This one was from a different day in the woods. There were lots of orioles, bluebirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a myriad of other birds in this area. I was wondering if it could be a female oriole...the tail doesn't seem long enough. Again, sorry for the quality, it was a long way away from me. I did unspeakable things to this photo to get it to even show any markings but the color is just not there. Thanks so much for any help! Ginni (the bird challenged)

Hmmm, no wing bar, spotted chest, eye line. Perhaps a palm warbler, but I don't feel real good about that ID. tj

Here are the cardinals about a week later.Then again a few days later still. Feathers are really coming in now, and they're extremely vocal. They've grown so much since they were tiny featherless babies They were nearly filling the nest. The next morning they were gone......... the nest was still perfect, no blood or pinfeathers anywhere. Then we saw a chicken snake in the yard that afternoon. I knew the nest was low and unprotected. But it sure made me sad to see the empty nest after watching them build it from the screen porch. Every day they were busy building, then incubating, then feeding, then poof! Gone.