Darjeeling never laid an egg. Her vent area is still messy, although I've seen at least one good-looking poop since she's been back in the Finsterium. She isn't getting around too well, although part of that is caused by a broken back toe – it's an old injury, but I only noticed it when she was in the hospital cage this past week. I've put an extra perch in the cage, and since then she's been less likely to hang onto the wall and sort of flutter-and-climb up it to get to a nest box. I'll add more perches, or maybe lower nest boxes, if she looks like she needs it. I've also noticed her landing in the water dish to take a drink, rather than landing on the edge. But since landing in the dish might help clean up her vent area a bit, I'm not worried about that. As far as I can tell, she doesn't miss Tea.

Earl Grey seemed upset when Bruce first took Tea out of the Finsterium - he kept up a pretty steady stream of chirps. The vocalization wasn't the Society's typical alarm call: loud, sharp, and accompanied by quick flaps of the wings. It was quieter, and the chirps were closer together. He kept that up for ten or fifteen minutes, and then chirped like that again a few times during that day, and then occasionally the day or two after. Safe to say that Earl Grey misses Tea - who was the "alpha" male in the group, and the dad. Now, Earl Grey has always been good at Defending the Realm, but since Tea died he seems much more likely to sit in the opening of the nest box for so long that the other Finsters start complaining, and poking at the back of his head with their beaks. Pretty funny. He's also still singing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, and dancing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love dance, which is a good sign.

I can't tell if Goober misses Tea, although the day he died she spent quite a bit of time being Queen of both seed towers.

It's likely that Frank misses Tea, since they often spent time together on the white concrete perch, and Frank often poked his beak into Tea's Hunka Hunka Burning Love song and dance. I'm concerned, since Frank already lost Sally. But so far he's still singing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, sleeping on top of the box the Societies sleep in, and flying down to the floor to eat with the other birds. Frank has definitely noticed Darjeeling's infirmity: in her efforts to get around she often ends up on top of the nest box he sometimes uses during the day. Since she's less mobile than he is, she usually wins.

Peanut doesn't seem to notice any changes.

The humans in the house are a bit down in the dumps. I got a sympathy card from the vet, which I still can't read without tearing up. Bruce hates to see the Finsterium so empty. We saw the breeder that sold us Tea (and Chocolate and Biker Chick and Bambi) at the bird show on Sunday, and she was impressed that Tea lived to be 7 1/2 years old. She's going off to grad school, so will be selling most of her birds. I'll call her in a day or two to see if she has any finches left.