Although Peanut has been known to eat toast during lunchtime, crunchy, warm bread is really a breakfast food - so I'm not adding this to the Lunch Progression.

As you can see, Peanut's love of toast sends polite behavior out the window. Clearly, the toast is HIS, and all should bow before Him And His Toast. Oh, and pick out the sunflower seeds so he can eat them more easily. It's a nice, interactive game for him to play with Bruce.

This morning I discovered that Earl Grey had another bit of old sock stuck in his toes. It was a smaller piece than the last time so we weren't sure we'd be able to catch him in daylight. But after a minute or two of chasing him back and forth with a piece of old sock dangling from his toes, he got worn down enough to get caught. This time, it was a partially unravelled strip of cloth, instead of an intact square; this time some threads got wrapped around his toes, instead of his toenail piercing the material.

For those of you keeping track of dangerous things to give birds for nesting material, today's mishap was typical of cloth-related injuries. This was a more delicate operation, because you have to be sure you get all the fibers unwrapped from the bird's toes. Otherwise, they might wrap up tighter, cut off the circulation, and the bird could lose toes or even a foot. Let's hope we got it all, eh?

Earl Grey seemed none the worse for wear.

Meanwhile, I've started to act like a Finster, and am stealing any pieces of cloth that I find on the floor of the Finsterium. This happens quite frequently, since the Finsters are constantly stealing nesting material from each other, and rearranging their own decor. Cinnamon and Wasabi (Peas) regularly steal from each other. Usually, Cinnamon is stealing from Wasabi (Peas)' box at the same time that Wasabi (Peas) is stealing from Cinnamon's box. It's fun to watch!

I should note that Wasabi (Peas) is building in Earl Grey's nest box, and probably sleeps there with Earl Grey and Oolong. Earl Grey and Oolong have also participated in the nest building. Cinnamon and Ginger are building and sleeping in their box, and Szechwan (Pepper) and Cassia are building and sleeping in theirs. In general, the males spend more time building than the females.

I visited with Kiki again. He's a delightful creature, and has a very different personality than Peanut. Kiki is outgoing, Peanut is shy. Kiki likes to drink juice, Peanut likes to eat sunflower seeds. Kiki jumps on people's shoulders, Peanut flies to my head. Kiki preens people's chins, Peanut preens my eyebrows. Kiki stands right under the faucet to take a bath, and has to dry off wrapped up in a towel. Peanut splashes water on his face, and doesn't really need to dry off. Still, it was a fun visit. Especially coming back home to the Master Of The Universe.

Oh, and there were people there, as well. A few grown ups, and a small child, walking this time.

The Finsters are still having fun with nesting material. Wasabi (Peas) has been building inside Earl Grey's nest box — which makes me think he may be sleeping in there with Earl Grey and Oolong. I've suspected this in the past, but I haven't seen it. Cinnamon has been stealing nesting material right out of Earl Grey's nest box. In fact, Cinnamon will steal a piece from the box right after Wasabi (Peas) has put it inside. Szechwan (Pepper) still enjoys stealing pieces of raffia right out of the beaks of other birds. And Earl Grey, Oolong and Cassia are still very busy with strips of cloth and raffia. They're fun to watch.

But life can be dangerous, when you least expect it. This morning, I discovered that Earl Grey had a piece of cloth stuck in the toes of his left foot. I waited a bit to see if he could get unstuck, but he didn't. Bruce decided that Earl Grey shouldn't have to wait until darkness to be caught and then freed of the Evil Nesting Material, so he went in with the net. Lucky for us, that piece of old (but clean) sock weighed Earl Grey down just enough to make him relatively easy to catch, even during the day.

In the bathroom, we discovered his toenail was good and stuck in the cloth, he never would have been able to get it off himself. Ever.

Makes you wonder how he got it stuck there, in the first place.

I had Earl Grey in one hand and a flashlight in the other, and Bruce carefully cut the cloth away with cuticle scissors. The last bits of fiber were picked away with tweezers. And the whole time, Earl Grey was quiet. If it had been a Spice Finster, there would have been so much bird squirming we couldn't have done it. But Earl Grey was calm and relaxed, and the moment I put him back into the Finsterium he flew up to a perch and sang his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, and danced his Hunka Hunka Burning Love dance.

Disaster averted!

I don't get colds very often these days, but when I do, they're pretty bad. And I think Bruce is taking advantage of this. In fact, I think he deliberately gave me his cold, so that I'd be in a weakened, vulnerable state. Oh, sure, he went out late last night, all nice and pleasant, to get me two new kinds of decongestants to try, plus some whiskey (or whisky, depending on your spelling preferences) just in case the drugs didn't work. And you'd think that was really, really sweet. Except that today, after I spent about six hours dozing on the couch, he took me out to get raffia.

You know, so the birds can make nests.

And being half full of snot as I am, with brain cells not quite working, I agreed.

Szechwan (Pepper) was the first to fly to the lowest perch to look at the new material, but Earl Grey was the first down on the ground, rolling the end of a piece of raffia around in his beak, checking it out, and singing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song to it. Nice! He flew up to a high perch with a piece, and Szechwan (Pepper) and Cinnamon immediately flew over to try to steal it from him.

Get your own, boys!

Oolong was next to take a piece of raffia, and once again, Szechwan (Pepper) and Cinnamon tried to steal it from her. While Earl Grey was able to get his piece into his nest box, interference caused Oolong to drop several pieces back to the ground. For some reason, Szechwan (Pepper) prefers to steal raffia from other birds than pick his own off the floor, and there have been a couple of Tugs of War, often with one bird hovering in midair. Once, Cinnamon got a piece into his nest, but it was so long he didn't get it all inside the box. Ginger stood on the porch, and pulled the end right back out.

Well, two dollars' worth of raffia will provide hours of fun. But I'm not sure it was worth this cold.

The temperature rose above 60 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in the past six months, and that apparently put Spring Up Peanut's Butt. Because, you know, this kind of behavior needs a descriptive, and slightly raunchy phrase.

l apologize now to anyone who got here searching for a really raunchy phrase in a search engine. Nothing but birds, here.

Peanut spent the day yelling at everything, flying really fast back and forth (mostly landing on my head), trying to chew the top off the Finsterium, demanding snacks, and biting at my fingers when I type the letter "T." He needs a wing clip, except that mostly it's fun. Well, maybe not the "T" part. But I can always distract him by pretending I'm about to grab him. Then we play "Chase Me" for awhile.

Peanut also took the biggest bath of his life today. Usually he only splashes water on his face, but today he got a good part of his tummy wet, too. You can click here for a different, bigger photo.

The Finsters also have Spring Up Their Butts. While Szechwan (Pepper) and Cassia have stopped pretending they're sitting on eggs, most of the Finsters are building nests. Bruce has obliged them by cutting up more of that old sock. Strips of cloth disappear into the nest boxes every day, and seem to be dragged out with the birds first thing in the morning. Szechwan (Pepper) and Cassia regularly steal strips of cloth from Cinnamon's nest, and he regularly steals from them. Szechwan (Pepper) and Earl Grey occasionally tear the poop paper into tiny strips, but cloth and molted feathers are preferred. I've even seen one Finster try to steal a bit of old sock from another Finster in mid-flight!

Gotta love Spring.