Starting Over With A New Blog

Since nearly all of my pictures are gone, and some of my pages, I've decided to just go ahead and start over.  Here's the link to the new blog:

http://finchtales.blogspot.com/

Apparently The Blog Is Having Some Difficulties

I just noticed that ALL of my older photos are gone, and that some of my pages won't load.  I have no idea what's going on unless the blog servers are having difficulties.  I do have backups of all my photos, but I'd probably never be able to match them up with the correct posting.  Major UGH.  Hopefully the missing photos and pages will reappear.

Here's Turkey! ;-)

Here's the baby bird I'm calling "Turkey".  It hatched just before Thanksgiving.  I've banded it with a pink band.  :-)

I've got two other hatchlings in that same cage (different nest).  They hatched on approximately 11/27/12.  I'll get them banded when they're a little larger, to help make sure the bands don't slip off their tiny legs.

Cage #1 has 3 viable eggs, 1 egg that I'm not sure about, and 1 dud egg.  The viable eggs should have another 7-9 days before hatching.  This is the trio whose last clutch was a flop (moth in their nest scared them out for too long and the eggs/hatchling got too cold), so hopefully things will go better this time.

The 4 babies in Cage #3 are doing great!  At least two of them are definitely crested.  I can't tell yet on the other two.  The youngest one's noggin is still just as bald as it can be! LOL!

Note to self:  Available band colors are red, purple, light blue, and gray.

Current cage setup:

Cage #1 - M/F/F trio, all fawn pied. Male is crested.

Cage #2 - Community cage with:

1. Kenny (chocolate pied male - two dots on head)
2. Lucy (fawn pied female)
3. Ethel (fawn pied female)
4. Nameless (fawn pied crested male - green band - from Cage #5)
5. Elvis (chocolate pied male - "sunvisor" on head" - from Cage #3)
6. Dolly (near-white fawn pied female)
7. Ricky (fawn pied male - navy blue band - from Cage #5)

Cage #3 - M/F/F, all chocolate pied. Male is crested. Four youngsters (orange, yellow, black, white bands). Two are crested. Too soon to tell on the other two.

Cage #4 - Not in use

Cage #5 - Community cage with:

1. Puff (fawn pied crested female)
2. Pepper (chocolate pied male)
3. Nameless #1 (fawn pied female)
4. Nameless #2 (fawn pied female)
5. Nameless #3 (chocolate pied crested male)
6. Everest (chocolate pied crested female)
7. Turkey (chick, pink band)
8. Two unnamed hatchlings (not yet banded)

Cage #6 - Not in use

Photo of Chicks

Here's a quick photo of the chicks that hatched approximately November 12, 2012. I just banded them (orange, yellow, black, white). Looks like they'll all be chocolate pied.  Too soon to tell if any are crested. :-)

Four Hatchlings!

Awwww! :-)

Hatchlings!

Best as I can tell without pulling the nest, there are either 3 or 4 hatchlings now.  One is very small; it was probably the last to hatch.  Hopefully it'll catch up with the others and not get smooshed beneath them.  Their crops are nice and full.  :-)

One of the hatchlings was tossed, but it's back end looked like it was shaped strangely, so either it was laying in an odd manner or it could've had something wrong.  Unfortunately I'd just gotten out of bed, and it was too late when I found it.  Nature knows best, I suppose, but I still hate to see little ones tossed.

Unless there are any cresteds, these youngsters will be up for adoption when they're old enough.  :-)

I trimmed Dolly's toenails earlier.  Whew!  She did NOT want a pedicure!  LOL!  It took both Robert AND me to trim them.  He had to hold her, while I operated the clippers.  Even so, she kept managing to twirl around in his hand, hiding her feet from the dreaded clippers.  ;-)

I Am SOOO Far Behind In Posting!

Things have been hectic lately. The birdies are all doing great!  The 5 chicks that I posted about below have fledged, been weaned, and 4 of them have a new home as of this past weekend.  I kept the crested one.  It's a male, and he's learning to sing.  :-)

The chocolate trio in the bottom of the stack of cages have 3 hatchlings at last count.  There were 4, possibly 5, viable eggs, so hopefully the others will hatch soon (they may have already).  Their previous pair of chicks turned out to be both male, and both are very vocal singers.  One is rather tame-ish.  He won't let me touch him, but he will sit on one of the food cups without flying away while I change the one beside it.  He's curious when I talk to him, and sits near me, tilting his head back and forth, listening. :-)  Both are big, healthy teenagers.  I've got two ladies set aside to be their mates later on when the two boys are old enough.  :-)

And the birds in my community cage are on eggs again ... 8 at last count.  They're taking turns incubating them.  It's too soon to tell if they're viable.  Looks like I'll have to separate my community cage occupants by gender after this clutch, to keep them from producing another huge clutch of youngsters back-to-back.

The eggs in the top cage fizzled.  :-(  There was one chick that hatched, then it passed away within a day or so.  After inspecting the nest, I think I found the problem.  There was a big moth in the nest box, wedged between the nesting materials and the box itself.  I believe the moth flew in, fluttered around and got stuck, and the fluttering upset the birds to the point where they left the nest long enough for the chick and the eggs to get too cold.  Once the moth died, the birds re-entered the nest and began incubating again, but by that time, it was too late.  It had to have happened while we were asleep; otherwise I would've noticed the freaked-out birds.  I removed the DIS eggs and will let them try again if they want.  Just a lousy twist of fate on that clutch.