To be honest, I haven't seen any mating going on — although that happens so quickly between Finsters I could easily have missed it. But let me tell you, Szechwan (Pepper) is ready! He's been busy, busy, busy building a nest!

This is a little difficult, of course, since I still haven't been giving him any nesting material. Although Bruce has. Apparently, the Finsters have picked up some Mind Control tricks from Peanut. Twice now I've found some bits and pieces of paper in the Finsterium, and Bruce chuckling in the office, trying to hide.

But Szechwan (Pepper) has been very clever at finding his own nesting materials. There's the occasional sprig of dill and leaf from the plastic vines — and of course, molted feathers. But he's doing better than that: he's tearing little strips off of the newspaper I put down to catch bird poop.

He's gotten more adept as the days go on, tearing bigger and bigger strips. He's a very clever and busy bird!

Szechwan (Pepper)'s girlfriend is Cassia. They hop in and out of the nest box, dragging feathers and strips of paper out with them (by mistake, I'm sure). They also spend quite a bit of time rearranging everything in the box. One or the other will stand on the porch of their box with a feather or stolen leaf in their beaks, rolling it around for a minute, then they pop back inside to place the item carefully back. This has been going on for a little while now.

We're well overdue for the yearly Finsterium cleaning, which includes cleaning and making new nest boxes. There have been two bad fights now that Szechwan (Pepper) is thinking about mating, but those both happened at bedtime, which can be a tricky time even when no bird has thoughts of love in their heads. If I can ever finish the new nest boxes, and clean out the Finsterium, I might just get some raffia and let the little fellow do it right. There's nothing like little peeps in the Spring time!

Of course, if I don't get moving soon, Szechwan (Pepper) and Cassia may just have a little family anyway, poop or no poop!