zleonska

:: and Eyes Beginning to Open

Stuffed and sound asleep

The pictures I took yesterday were out of focus. Cause: shaky hands, old eyes and tiny phone. Effect: white fuzzy blurs, black eyes and bright red mouths exhibiting no details. Okay, today take two. The chicks parents fed them so well, even an intruding human finger didn't disturb their sleep. I was sad I missed the upright heads and wide open beaks. Their mouths are a bright red. Kind of scary when you see in out of focus snaps actually. Maybe catching them snugly settled in their nest was the better photograph after all.

:: Additions to the Family

Yesterday evening held a surprise for me. Whilst doing my nightly food and water check on the canaries, Lily aka Knothead left her nest. Since I was on the step ladder I took a quick look. I then dashed down stairs to tell my sweetie - to the enjoyment of the hounds! We have baby chicks! It appears there are four little ones, covered with downy fuzz. This is the earliest I have discovered hatchlings. The females sit tightly on the nest, not giving anyone a peak. You sort of go by the approximately two weeks timetable and try to catch an open nest to sneak a look. The last thing you want to do is spook the hen into abandoning her nest. This happened with Fern and Troubadour's first clutch; Chewie bumped the next box.

:: the Tale of an Over-Achiever

a sweet over-acheiver on her nest

These are the birds in the third tier of the cage rack. The bird on the perch is the chick from the first nest. He is a knothead crested like his mom. The orange boy in the feeder is Minstrel, filling up on seed to feed his family. Fully fluffed out and setting is Lily AKA Knothead. The moniker was bestowed on her when she took longer than expected to learn where the food/water was in her fist cage.

But you cannot but take note on how quickly she accepted her mate, built a nest and laid her eggs! She knew what she was about. This was evidenced in the perfect hemp twine nest she built. It appeared complete in a few hours. From this nest she and Minstrel raised the one chick, both feeding and caring for it. Once Lily had made the second nest, Minstrel took over full care of the fledgling. He also makes sure his mate is fed whilst incubating the eggs.

:: Arthritis Pain Today

I had a marvellous time cleaning the cages and steaming them to make sure they were really clean. They look so shiny and the glass drinkers are such a bright green under the cage lights.

Sadly, it was a full days activity... simply doing something I love resulting the pain of arthritis in my hands. You work and enjoy it all the while knowing the next few days will be frustrating days of little use of my hands and fingers. And this was with Steve helping wash up the vacated cages and accumulated accoutrements. With the arthritis hanging over everything I do I am so thankfully for my loving husband.

:: Sweetie Designed and Built!!

the perfect canary cage set-up!

Since I mentioned cleaning canary cages yesterday (which I didn't…) I thought I would share pictures of the rack of cages my sweetie designed and built.

:: 3 Canaries - 1 Swing

“Get off the swing!”
“Make me!”
“If you don’t get off the swing I am going to poop on your head!”
“Hah! Like to see you try”
(flutter, flutter, flit, flutter, churrr, churrr, flit)

“If you don’t get off the swing, I’ll knock you off with my Evil Eye!”
“ooo terrifying! I’m so scared”
(very indignant PEEP)
“Trust me, Hawk you’re not”
(flutter, flit flutter, ting, flutter, ting, flit)