There aren't any babies in the Finsterium, but I discovered a clutch in town, on top of the Wilkinson Luggage shop sign.

Folks in town have gotten pretty good at keeping birds from making nests, but Nature usually wins. Most of the cubbyholes on top of this sign are stuffed with what lookes like hardware cloth, but the second from the left got cleared. And guess what's inside?

A nest of House Sparrows. You can click here for a close up of the baby.

Yesterday there were two babies, and I stopped by just when the parents were feeding them, beaks wide open. Today I only saw one baby, and it looks just about ready to fledge. Dad was resting in the nearby tree, and baby was winking at me and preening.

As you may recall, Goober's illness got the new Finsters more used to me opening the big door to the Finsterium. Oh, they're still not happy about it, all flying frantically up to high perches when I do it, staring at me with eyes glaring and Beaks of Doom wide open. But they tolerate it, and don't fly out of the cage.

Today I got some pictures. Because I like to keep the door as closed as possible, the best spot for picture taking is the right side of the Finsterium, where the plastic nest box with the wooden dowel sits. In this photo, Oolong is inside the nest, and Wasabi (Peas) is on the porch. It took a few minutes to get this shot, because while Wasabi (Peas) was being pretty calm and photogenic, Oolong kept hiding inside. You can click for an extreme close up of this photo. And here is an extreme close up of Wasabi (Peas)' wild long back toenail. Now remember, he just got his toenails clipped on June 3, so how this back nail got so darned long is beyond me.

Another Spice finch sat in the nest box, too, although since the photo isn't very good we'll keep it small. I think it might be Peppercorn (Mélènge), but I'm not sure.

This is a pretty popular nest box. It must seem pretty safe, since it's in the corner. I can't tell if anyone sleeps in it at night, but lots of Finsters sit on top or on the porch during the day, and a few even sit inside. Oolong has even taught Earl Grey to sit inside it with her!

The New York Times has a new article out about Teflon pans and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, the chemical used in them and other items. The article "Is There an Extra Ingredient in Nonstick Pans?" by Marian Burros gives a good overview of the safety issues, and the current legal inquiries into the chemical's use.

If you have pet birds, you probably already know that you shouldn't be using non-stick pans, since an overheated, empty pan can release dangerous fumes. DuPont says that only happens at 600 degrees, but the Environmental Working Group says 325 degrees, or a medium flame. That isn't very high. I've heard anecdotal evidence that barely-warm pans have killed birds, and that incredibly hot pans don't kill birds. Still, it's safer to stay away from it.

What was new to me are fluorotelomers, chemicals used in food packaging as well as in rugs and clothing. These break down into PFOA in the environment and when ingested. Current studies want to describe PFOA as either a likely human carcinogen, or as a suggestive human carcinogen. Fluorotelomers are used in microwaveable popcorn bags, in packaging for fast foods like sandwiches, chicken and French fries, as well as in packaging for pizza, bakery items, drinks and candy. They are also found in paper plates.

Although there is currently no way for consumers to tell if packaging contains fluorotelomers, it seems to me if you have birds you ought to at least stay away from microwaveable popcorn bags. These chemicals and heat are a bad combination. Try putting regular popcorn into a regular paper lunchbag instead. Alton Brown does it, check out his Plain Brown Popper recipe.

Remember when a trip away from home and a well-placed web cam proved that Peanut really does sit like a lump all day when he's all alone? Well, here's proof that the utter joyousness of eating a tasty seed will perk him right up!

Here's a little movie of Peanut eating a sunflower seed.

As you can see, quite a bit of yelling and head-bobbing takes place during the eating process. This, I'm told, aids in digestion.

Matt from the blog Who Loves Appetizers? recently found The Finster Log. He sent me a note, added a link to his web site (thanks!), and even dedicated a post to it: "Finch blog," which talks about woeful deaths, and how birds get such strange names. This last was a reference to my habit of calling all small birds Finster, and more specifically, the late Zebra finch named Little Naked Finster Buddy. (He really was quite naked.) Matt had a Society finch called Little Buddy that died not too long ago. Partly because Little Naked Finster Buddy has two middle names, and partly, I'm sure, because I obsess about my birds so much, Matt decided that I'm "officially weirder" than he is.

Which made me laugh. Especially after I read some of his posts about his birds, particularly the one called "Bird song." See, Matt sings songs about his birds. Here's the lyrics to one:

Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Buddy all day long.

Because, you know, that's pretty weird!

Just now, Jen from the Bug Blog pointed out that Julie has a wonderful sale going on at eBay. Usually, Julie sells molted feathers from her giant flock of birds, but right now she's offering to let her MASSIVE MAD MACAWS MUTILATE the MYSTERY MERCHANDISE of your choice. What a great idea! I wrote to Jen that I was sorry I hadn't thought of that, and Jen e-mailed back "I can see that now - 'send me your photos and Peanut will take hundreds of tiny little bites out of the edges.'"

YES!! EXACTLY!!!

Because, really, the best people are the ones that let their pets Mind Control them into singing songs, giving them funny names, and letting them destroy glossy photographs of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

So in the spirit of Mind Control, I've decided to add a poll to determine which bird owner is the weirdest. What do you think?


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I don't love the format of this poll, but I'm not the Code Queen that I wish I were....

As you may recall, I feed Peanut Lafeber's Nutri-berries by hand, for breakfast and dinner. Parrotlets are too small to tackle a whole "berry" by themselves, so it's a nice bonding event for human and bird. Originally, I started out just at dinner, but Peanut quickly Mind Controlled me into both meals. He's since Mind Controlled Bruce into feeding him sunflower seeds for lunch, but that's another story.

The berry is a selection of tasty hulled seeds, oat groats, peanut bits and pellets molded together in berry form, all stuck together with some sort of vitamin mixture. I hold the small, tasty Ball of Goodness while Peanut carefully bites tasty things from it. Sometimes, particularly by the end of the container, the berry gets too hard for his dainty bites, so I break it into smaller pieces for him. Invariably, we end up with small clumps of berry, and individual seeds. Even though it's all the same food, some days Peanut won't eat the kibbles, and other days he won't eat the little bits.

Before you go thinking my bird is too picky for words (not that I'd really blame you), think of this: Haven't you had days when you prefer chips over mashed? Canned over raw?

This is Peanut's version of Joy: being on my head. Last night it was all about the Big Sweaty Hand, but today he's spent most of his time sitting on my head. Nothing like having the Big Bird away for a few days to make the top of her head seem like the best place in the world. Unfortunately, Peanut just took a bath, so I'm due for some warm, wet squirts soon....

Update: Just got one. Lucky me.

It's ironic that the first time back writing in the Finster Log after a long break I'm actually about 2,000 miles away from the birds. Last night on the way to check the bags in at the airport ticket counter I thought, "I can't wait to come back home to see Peanut!"

And despite the allure of the beaches at San Diego, that's really true!

Through the Magic of the Internets, we now have proof of what we'd expected all along: when Peanut is home all alone, he sits and mopes. And mopes and sits. And sits and mopes. All day long. So far the only time I've seen him move is when my neighbor was in to take care of every one: then he bobbed his head and yelled at her. Um, not that I'm watching her, or anything. Really.

He's a little hard to see in this photo, but if you squint your eyes a bit, he's the slightly greenish blob just to the left of the corner line of the cage. Did that make sense? The cage is corner-on in the photo, he's slightly to the left.... Well, maybe you'll just have to take my word for it.

We have a newer camera model pointed at the Finsterium. I'll try to grab a screen shot of that later. Maybe when the neighbor is around. Not that I'm watching her, or anything.