I've just borrowed my neighbor's big mic, which will hopefully do a better job. But for now, here is Frank's Hunka Hunka Burning Love song. Apologies for the poor quality of this MP3 file.

Peanut has been inside his coconut a couple of times since the last momentous investigation I recorded on October 4, 2004. But I've refrained from posting photographs, since they pretty much look all alike. Still, Peanut is so cute, you can also click here to see his first time inside the coconut, and click there to see his second time inside.

Plus, you can click here and there to pop up two new adorable photographs of Peanut exploring inside his coconut. Because you just can't see enough adorable pictures of Peanut hanging out inside a coconut!

Here's another new photograph of Peanut inside his coconut:

You can click here to pop up a big version. No, this wasn't a chance shot of Peanut's back side as he hopped into the coconut. He spent quite a bit of time with his butt posing for the camera. This is a behavior he usually displays while on my shoulder: He leans over and rubs his beak hard against my upper arm. In this case, he was rubbing his beak against the bottom of the coconut. I think this behavior means two things — no matter which location he's in:

1. This is mine!
2. Give me another seed!

Reproduction is very important to most living creatures. The first step toward that for a Finster is to sing a Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, and dance a Hunka Hunka Burning Love dance (if they're so inclined). The Finsters do this all the time. The next step is to build a nest. Or at least try to. I make it very frustrating for the Finsters: I give them nest boxes, but no nesting material. They do their best, though. Bits of lettuce, dried poop, molted feathers, molted feathers stuck to poop, stems of denuded millet spray, lima beans (really), bits of paper torn from the cage liner, and things like that.

The Spice finches have learned how to rip the leaves off the plastic vines that I hot glue to the top of the boxes (pops). The thing is, those leaves aren't very comfortable. Oh, you'd think they'd be more comfortable than big lumps of dried poop — and maybe they are. But you can soak a plastic leaf in drinking water for hours in the hope that it will get softer. If you do that to a big lump of dried poop...well. Let's not go there.

Nest building is a glorious thing to watch, but it can lead to fighting, and — of course — overpopulation. Which is why I don't encourage it, but Bruce has threatened to put some small bits of raffia in the Finsterium when I'm not looking. (Don't tell him, but it'd be pretty fun.) Like big lumps of dried poop, raffia isn't the softest of nesting material options, but I've had Finsters get their toes caught in some of the other materials sold for nest making (anything like string can be pretty tricky). Raffia is a safe choice, plus the birds can put molted feathers on top, and stick it all together with poop.

In an effort to keep Peanut off our lunch plates (it's soup season, after all), I decided to see if quinoa would keep him happy.

Now, he LOVES quinoa, and because I mix it with sweet potato he may actually be ingesting a molecule or two of vegetable when he eats it. Another good point is that it keeps him occupied for awhile. Usually, it takes longer for us to eat lunch than it takes Peanut to lose interest in crackers, oat groats, granola, and the like. That's when Peanut Mind Controls Bruce into giving him a sunflower seed or three (or more).

Bruce is very weak.

Quinoa works pretty well for Peanut's lunch, except for the flicking. You see, quinoa is Flicktastic! I knew this before I introduced it to the lunch scene. In fact, I used to feed Peanut a half teaspoon or so from a spoon, while he stood in my right hand, over the kitchen sink. That way, at least some of the flicked bits would end up in a place that's relatively easy to clean. Unlike, say, Peanut's little table, or the couch. This photo isn't very flattering, but you can click here for a bigger version, which highlights all the flicked bits of quinoa. The photo doesn't show the range of flicked bits, which is a couple of feet, at least.

Oh, and it doesn't stop there. Turns out that the best way for Peanut to clean off his beak is to land on my head and wipe it off in my hair.

Sigh.