On this bright sunny day northern cardinals begin fighting their reflected images in our windows, and they will continue to do so regularly. An occasional northern mockingbird or American robin perhaps, but why cardinals so invariably? Are they the most undiscriminating? This behavior lasts with decreasing intensity into summer, for cardinals produce their third and fourth broods as late as August. Why with such vigor now? Is it the spring rush of hormones? Are they anxious yearling breeders? It's not the lack of a tree canopy that causes image reflection, because cardinals are still at it well after the trees leaf out.

A neighbor calls to say that a large owl has been banging on her window for the last several days. I go to the house with a book in which she identifies a barred owl. It fights one particular pane in a large array of windows and does so with and without lights turned on inside or out, day or night. I've never heard of regular window fighting by an owl and can't figure out why it concentrates on just the one window pane and why in daylight. So I walk outside to get an owl's-eye view. Inside, directly across the room from me, is a large mirror in which I see a puzzled naturalist. My neighbor moves the mirror, and that's the last of it.