The piles are getting smaller. Piles of new Finsters, that is, sleeping on top of nest boxes. When they first arrived and settled in a bit, a pair of Spice finches slept on top of one nest box, and all the 7 other new Finsters slept on top of Finsters on top of a four inch square nest box with plastic vines hot glued around three edges taking up precious space. Now, all four of the highest nest boxes have birds sleeping on top. From left to right it is — as far as I can tell without using the Flashlight Of Evil Looking — Oolong, Ovaltine and possibly a Spice finch or two; a pair or so of Spice finches; Frank, sleeping on top of the box that Earl Grey and Goober sleep in; all the rest. There may even be a Spice finch or two sleeping inside a nest box sometimes, although with their dark little faces I can't say for sure. They're practically invisible when they're completely inside, but I have seen a nicely-feathered Spice finch sticking his head outside after lights out.

Where there are Finsters sleeping on top of Finsters — which still happens regularly, both at bed time and during daytime naps — you can be pretty sure that Ovaltine will be on the bottom.

A two inch square sticker of the sweetest little fawn, all curled up, sleeping in a woodland glade, is — when affixed to the front of your T-shirt — Pure Evil. So says Peanut, who refused to come out of his house yesterday while I had it on, and kept stretching as tall as possible, turning his head to one side, staring at it. I took it off, folded it in half, tore it up in front of him, and all was right with the world again.

My newest favorite sound is Earl Grey, sitting inside his nest box, singing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song, with Frank standing on the nest box's porch, head and half his body sticking inside. Makes for some very interesting acoustics.

A jar chock full of a new batch of crumbles is hard to pour into Peanut's tiny dishes, so I used a spoon. Not the Awesome Blue Spoon of Seedy Goodness, just a regular teaspoon. But despite the ordinary silver color Peanut was still drawn to the spoonful of possibilities, and as per usual I put some crumbles in it and held it steady while he ate. Once he was finished I once again used the spoon to fill up another dish — or, at least I would have, except that Peanut was once again drawn to the spoonful of possibilities, and ate some more crumbles. I wonder if he could be so drawn to spoons that he'd eat enough to explode?

Szechwan (Pepper) can totally sing his Hunka Hunka Burning Love song and poop at the same time.

I've pretty much named all the new Finsters, but I still can't quite tell them all apart. Thus the incredible delay in formal introductions. I'm working on it.