A few weeks ago, Earl Grey got a piece of raffia stuck in his toes. You can't see his feet in this photo, but trust me: the start of it is stuck in his toes, and it dangles about four inches below the nest box. It was so long I thought I might just be able to catch him to untangle it, but it was really light. No way could I catch that bird. A short while later it broke off about where you'd expect: at that "fork" near Ginger's belly. And a short while after that, it came completely loose.

This is not the first time Earl Grey has gotten something stuck in his toes. There were two unfortunate incidents with potentially dangerous pieces of cloth (here and here), and once his toes got stuck in a piece of lettuce. Really.

But Earl Grey doesn't really have magnets in his toes — they're just shaped funny. No pictures, sorry, but I'll try to find one. His front toes are a little curled, and may be a little short. I'm pretty sure he was that way at hatch, but he has gotten a little less dexterous as he's gotten older. It sometimes takes him a couple of wing flutters to balance on a perch, for example. It isn't a bad handicap, but he is a bit more prone than most Finsters to get things stuck in his toes.

I've blown up the picture of Ginger's head because it shows the beginnings of a bald spot — she has kindly twisted her head in this photo to show it off. You may not be able to see it very well, but interestingly, on the right, Photoshop picked it up easily in several of its automatic filters.

Remember that sweet little cowlick that has shown up from time to time? Well, apparently somebody in the Finsterium doesn't like it, and has been plucking it off. In fact, Ginger's head is quite a bit balder now than she was in this picture. She looks like a tiny, feathered, tonsured monk. I'll try to get a better picture of it, but usually she isn't so accommodating as she was on this day.