Shrubbery

We have these two overgrown yew bushes on either side of our front door. We usually prune in the spring, but judging from the current level of overgrowth I think we may have forgotten to prune them last year. They're beginning to block the windows -- well, that's actually putting it kind of optimistically. They were beginning to block the windows some time back, and are now hitting the point of really seriously getting in the way of our front windows, not to mention in the way of the mail carrier, etc.

This afternoon, miraculously, it was not raining. (It rained this morning, but then cleared up.) Ed was outside with Molly, so I took Kiera out as well, got the hedge clippers and the pruning shears, and Ed and I attacked the shrubbery on the north side of our door. We managed to get it sort of under control, though on inspection, it's still blocking the bottome six inches or so of window. What I think I'd really like to do is rent one of those chainsaw-style hedge trimmers, but in the meantime, getting both bushes under some sort of control is of more pressing concern, so Ed went inside to get the sunblock, and I started in on the bush to the south of the door.

Seriously pissing off a pair of cardinals in the process.

I called my parents (who are more informed on the nesting habits of cardinals) and found out that yes, in fact, cardinals do nest in overgrown shrubbery. In fact, that's pretty much their first choice for a nesting habitat. Ed peeked in the bush and spotted the nest, though he didn't take a long enough look to determine whether there were eggs in it.

I have now googled cardinal nesting habits and determined that the eggs hatch within two weeks and the babies fledge another week and a half later. However, cardinals are prolific little birds and the mother will industriously start on a new clutch of eggs while the father is teaching the last batch to fly. So when, precisely, will I be able to trim that southern shrub? (Assuming that we have another non-rainy day before July?) Anyone know?

I am not so considerate of the feelings of the cardinals that I'm going to stop using my front door -- they built the nest there while we were going in and out, so they can bloody well put up with us continuing to go in and out. I'll leave the bush alone, though, despite the fact that it now looks really stupid, as we have one nicely trimmed bush and one massively overgrown bush. Also, our outdoor faucet is in that bush. It's not as if we've needed to water recently, though, so I guess I won't worry about that for now.