On Sunday, when I got back from the autocross, Mrs. Cardinal was sitting on her egg. When I got home Monday afternoon, she wasn't in her nest. I don't know what prompted me, but I decided to look for the egg. It was gone. :-( It's been two days now, and we've not seen or heard her. The nest itself looks intact i.e. no fowl (ha ha) play, but clearly something happened. What could have gotten the egg? Did Mrs. Cardinal leave because the egg was gone or did something happen to her, too? I guess we'll never know.
Either way, I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to watching this all develop.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
WDCR Autocross Championship #2
Yesterday was our second championship autocross event at FedEx Field. The email list was flooded with posts about not washing your car and everyone must bring rain gear to try and appease the rain gods. We did not want another rain event!
Everyone must have headed the call because it turned out to be a *gorgeous* 70 degree sunny day. It was fantastic outside.
Steve left at noon to go down to the event (in hopes of getting a course walk), and I stayed with DJ until my parents arrived around 1pm, knowing that I would not get a course walk. On his way down, Steve called me to tell me that the Check Engine light on my WRX wagon turned on. ARG. Who knows what that means. It could be anything from a oxygen sense to a turbo going up. I'll have to find out who can read the code...
Meanwhile, my drive down was uneventful. Once I arrived, Carrie and Mike paid us for what is no longer our CRX, and then I turned around and paid John N. for the miata trunk lid we were taking home in the wagon.
The event was running smoothly, and we were done 6th heat runs by 5:15. For not having had a course walk, Steve ran great, I think. He's disappointed that he coned his fast run, but it wouldn't have helped him in our class standings, just in overall PAX placement. He even spun his 3rd run... woah, wait, he NEVER spins the car! That's my job!
As for my runs, well, my first run was going to be a throw-away since I didn't have a course walk. My second run was clean, so I pushed a little harder on my 3rd run and coned. I also realized on my third run that I'm driving scared... can't figure out why. My fourth run, I found a little bit of a spine and drove better, but not well enough to place better than 8th. At least I wasn't last in the class. And I think that's what's going on... I'm scared to toss the car. I'm scared the car won't stop (since it doesn't have anti-lock). I'm scared I'm going to do something stupid in it, which is ironic since I could drive the STi and it's got way more power to get me in way more trouble way faster. Then again, I was scared to drive the STi for awhile, too. Afraid I couldn't deal with the power... until I learned how good the brakes REALLY are. I still never mastered that car, but I'm wondering how much the pregnancy is messing with my head when it comes to the Miata.
On our way home, Steve was following me, and he saw, as did I, the blue yaris (?) cut over 3 lanes to exit onto 50 from the Capital Beltway... and he missed my bumper, AFTER I slowed down, by inches. I had the horn laid on from before he even started to cut me off, and all the way across my car's nose. He forced me to downshift from 5th to 2nd... if it wasn't Steve behind me, someone would have rear ended me, and I'm really thankful someone didn't rear end him.
Then, on the Baltimore Beltway, out of nowhere, there's a tire tread in my lane. Now, how is it that I didn't see it coming or at least anticipate it? Because the truck in front of me just ran it over, no swerve, no nothing, so I wasn't given any indication that something was amiss. Talk about autocross-holy-cow-DODGE-THAT! swerve. Steve said I even managed to stay in the lane but if I'd hit it, it would have destroyed my front bumper. Like we need ANOTHER car in the body shop... (the STi is getting both bumpers repainted, the Miata needs to go in next... oy). It was quite the adventure to get home, to say the least.
Everyone must have headed the call because it turned out to be a *gorgeous* 70 degree sunny day. It was fantastic outside.
Steve left at noon to go down to the event (in hopes of getting a course walk), and I stayed with DJ until my parents arrived around 1pm, knowing that I would not get a course walk. On his way down, Steve called me to tell me that the Check Engine light on my WRX wagon turned on. ARG. Who knows what that means. It could be anything from a oxygen sense to a turbo going up. I'll have to find out who can read the code...
Meanwhile, my drive down was uneventful. Once I arrived, Carrie and Mike paid us for what is no longer our CRX, and then I turned around and paid John N. for the miata trunk lid we were taking home in the wagon.
The event was running smoothly, and we were done 6th heat runs by 5:15. For not having had a course walk, Steve ran great, I think. He's disappointed that he coned his fast run, but it wouldn't have helped him in our class standings, just in overall PAX placement. He even spun his 3rd run... woah, wait, he NEVER spins the car! That's my job!
As for my runs, well, my first run was going to be a throw-away since I didn't have a course walk. My second run was clean, so I pushed a little harder on my 3rd run and coned. I also realized on my third run that I'm driving scared... can't figure out why. My fourth run, I found a little bit of a spine and drove better, but not well enough to place better than 8th. At least I wasn't last in the class. And I think that's what's going on... I'm scared to toss the car. I'm scared the car won't stop (since it doesn't have anti-lock). I'm scared I'm going to do something stupid in it, which is ironic since I could drive the STi and it's got way more power to get me in way more trouble way faster. Then again, I was scared to drive the STi for awhile, too. Afraid I couldn't deal with the power... until I learned how good the brakes REALLY are. I still never mastered that car, but I'm wondering how much the pregnancy is messing with my head when it comes to the Miata.
On our way home, Steve was following me, and he saw, as did I, the blue yaris (?) cut over 3 lanes to exit onto 50 from the Capital Beltway... and he missed my bumper, AFTER I slowed down, by inches. I had the horn laid on from before he even started to cut me off, and all the way across my car's nose. He forced me to downshift from 5th to 2nd... if it wasn't Steve behind me, someone would have rear ended me, and I'm really thankful someone didn't rear end him.
Then, on the Baltimore Beltway, out of nowhere, there's a tire tread in my lane. Now, how is it that I didn't see it coming or at least anticipate it? Because the truck in front of me just ran it over, no swerve, no nothing, so I wasn't given any indication that something was amiss. Talk about autocross-holy-cow-DODGE-THAT! swerve. Steve said I even managed to stay in the lane but if I'd hit it, it would have destroyed my front bumper. Like we need ANOTHER car in the body shop... (the STi is getting both bumpers repainted, the Miata needs to go in next... oy). It was quite the adventure to get home, to say the least.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Cardinal update
Mrs. Cardinal has been dutifully sitting on her nest since at least Wednesday when we first saw her egg. We try not to make sudden movements (though it's not like we can stop DJ) so as not to scare her away. So far, she seems generally unphased by us. I have a picture to share...I'll post it when I get it off the camera.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
More on Cardinals
I did a little reading about Cardinals since we hope to witness the hatching of a cardinal egg!
It takes a female cardinal to build her nest about 3 - 9 days in dense trees/bushes with twigs. It took this cardinal 7 days.
Cardinals will lay 1 - 5 eggs, typically 3 eggs, and won't start incubating them until the last egg is laid. So maybe we are in for more eggs! They have multiple broods a year between March and September, sometimes beginning the next brood before the last brood has left the nest.
Once she starts incubating the eggs, they should hatch between 11-13 days. Both parents will feed the chicks a diet of insects (ew!!) and will continue to feed them for 1 -2 months even though the chicks will begin to leave the nest between 9 or 10 days after hatching. Does that sound like college life, anyone?
The pair is monogomous, and they live in the area all year long i.e. not migratory. And, the male is very protective of his territory. Males have been known to fly into windows in attack-mode thinking its reflection was another male.
It takes a female cardinal to build her nest about 3 - 9 days in dense trees/bushes with twigs. It took this cardinal 7 days.
Cardinals will lay 1 - 5 eggs, typically 3 eggs, and won't start incubating them until the last egg is laid. So maybe we are in for more eggs! They have multiple broods a year between March and September, sometimes beginning the next brood before the last brood has left the nest.
Once she starts incubating the eggs, they should hatch between 11-13 days. Both parents will feed the chicks a diet of insects (ew!!) and will continue to feed them for 1 -2 months even though the chicks will begin to leave the nest between 9 or 10 days after hatching. Does that sound like college life, anyone?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
An egg in the nest!!!
I checked yesterday afternoon if the female cardinal who's made a nest in our rhododendren has laid an egg yet or if we scared her off. It turns out we didn't scare her off because today, there's an egg!!!!! I hope we don't scare her off now!
Click on the image to enlarge it and you'll see the blue egg in the middle!
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