Riddle Riddle Ree...What Do I See?

Persistence

I work from home so that I can have total silence in order to get my work accomplished.  Sitting in silence you often hear various sounds.  There was one day in April that I keep hearing the sound of a thump.  Thump...Thump...Thump...Thump

I stop working and went around the house looking to see what the sound was coming from.  I checked to see what our dog was doing, sleeping as usual.  I walked with caution to the basement.  Since I was a kid, I hated investigating sounds that came from the basement because of the basement monsters.  But, I reluctantly went in the basement and looked.  Still, I couldn't find the source.

Thump...Thump...Thump....Thump

Now the sound was driving me insane.  What was making the noise?  And then my eyes were drawn to the mini blind on the back door moving.  Okay something was outside the back door.

Thump...Thump...Thump...Thump

I grabbed a knife from the butcher block, just in case the basement monsters escaped and where trying to get back in the house.  I slowly walked to the door.  Where's the dog, he will protect me.  Oh I forgot he was sleeping.  But, I was sure that he would come to my defense if the basement monsters got me.

Thump...Thump...Thump...Thump

I began to open the mini blinds and to my amazement there was nothing there.  Then THUMP! Right in my face as something hit the glass.  I screamed!  THUMP!  What was that? Then I looked at the patio chair.  There sat a cardinal bird that continued to fly into the window.  Why?   I backed away from the door to watch and to see if he would do it again.  THUMP.  He hit the door again. I went to my computer and typed in Google Search "Why does a bird fly into a window over and over?" The results from http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/wildlife/index.php?subject=Birds:%20Behavior&id=17 stated that the male cardinal will do this during the mating period because he believes it is another bird trying to move into his territory.  And that this "window fighting" behavior may last until August.  How was I going to handle months of a bird flying into my window?  I decided I wasn't going to be able to handle it and I needed to find a solution.  So for the next weeks began the experiments.  I started to notice that he only did this during a certain time of day when the sun hit the glass and made it reflective like a mirror.  So, I started hanging mini decorative stain glass window art from the door.  That stopped him for a couple of days.  I let the dog out during the time he was doing flying into the window.  That stopped him for twenty minutes, because guess what my dog did.  My dog found a nice spot outside and went to sleep, great guard dog.

So I gave up, I began to accept that this male bird was being protective of his mate and their offspring.  If he was going to be persistent, then I was going to be accepting.  So developed my love for my cardinal bird and his family.  I can always tell when she is sitting on the nest, because THUMP he hits the door for weeks.  Then I will see him and her sitting on the patio table after the nesting period is done.  And of course, he flies into the door again...THUMP...and she sits there and watches as I do with pride knowing he is protecting her and their offspring.

Riddle Riddle Ree...What do you see?