That's Life, But...

Tonight we arrived home after being gone for 2 weeks.  

Legoland, Disneyland, and the beach...followed by my 20 year high school reunion.  

I'll do many a post about our vacation in the next few days, I promise!

I went to check on the garden after we finished dinner.   See if we had any cukes or tomatoes out there.

As I was picking through the vines I saw a female cardinal flying around in the periphery of my eye.

After a few minutes I realized it was trapped in our compost bin.

(It is a large enclosure of pvc pipe and chicken wire with a green plastic barrier fencing as the lid.)

I went inside to get my sister so she could help me "free" the bird.  

I was afraid of literally scaring it to death by an attempt at freeing it by myself.

We opened both sides of the bin and held it open so she could fly out.

She wouldn't.  She kept flying around inside the enclosure for several minutes.

Finally, she flew close to the top and then flew away.

It was when we were closing the lid back that we realized something we hadn't...the female's mate was in the bin.  

Dead.

They must have been trapped in there together and couldn't get out.

Only the female survived.

I know that's life, but it still makes me sad.