Update

This morning when I left the house for work, the nest appeared empty, so I decided to do a quick climb up to check on the eggs. I don't understand why I do this. It's not as if they grow or change in any way. Or at least they hadn't until today.

This morning, instead of eggs, I was greeted by a nest filled with teeny-tiny, half-fuzzy, half-naked baby cardinals. One must have felt the vibrations because he lifted a proportionately huge head, wavering on a still under-developed neck. Eyes glued shut, he opened his mouth, hoping for a morsel of sustenance. I wasn't able to oblige him.

It took a few minutes to visually sort through the tangled mess of body parts in the nest, but it appears there are three chicks there. Woo hoo!

The bad news is that they'll probably fledge while we're gone on vacation. Right before he went to bed, I asked Pukka if we could skip the trip and stay home to watch the babies leave the nest. He just laughed.