Finch Friday (yes, on Saturday again)

I finally got around to taking some updated photos of last week's featured finches, those gouldian finch babies that I hand-fed from day 1. The following photo shows ,my favorite (yes, this mommy has a favorite) of the babies. His name is Duncan & he really is pretty special. He weaned at 4 weeks old (probably a record) - a full 2 weeks earlier than the other three. And if that wasn't cool enough, this baby who had never been fed by a bird, started feeding his less independent siblings. In the past, I've seen a couple of juvenile gouldians help their parents feed newly fledged babies of the next clutch, but by that time, those juvie helpers were at least 10 weeks old. Little Duncan was only 5 weeks old when he began to help feed his brothers and sisters of the same age. Here he is, just starting to get some of his adult colors:





Here are his two brothers. Speck is on the left. On the right is Color Boy - so named because he has more of his adult colors than the others, unfortunately not viewable here since he's not facing the camera.








gouldian finches

A dog for all seasons

Once the daytime temperatures dip below 70F, our pups don't have much desire to go outside. A leash in my hand will send them "deeper undercover".








So it's nice to have a neighborhood black lab join us for our morning walks. The cold doesn't bother him. His name is Meany. He doesn't live up to his name.

Making do

In her post, Sharon was lamenting the fact that she had no way to cook up sulphur shelf mushrooms with just a coffee pot in her hotel room. Maybe so, but I did make use of my motel room coffee maker in Cape May to reheat my delicious leftover pasta primavera.

Finch Friday

Lately it seems that photos of my gouldian finches are few & far between on this blog. So I've decided to start "Finch Friday" where I will post photos of my gouldian finches each Friday. If this sounds suspiciously similar to Somewhere in NJ's Mid-week Bunny Fix (which come to think of it, I haven't seen lately), it's because I shamelessly "borrowed" the idea from her. And try not to let the fact that my first "Finch Friday" was posted on a Saturday distract you. I will try to be more timely in future weeks. In my defense, I did upload some of the photos last night.


These are babies that I hand-raised mid-August through the end of September. The parents dutifully sat on six eggs for 14 days, then abandoned them. Gouldian finch eggs usually hatch 16-18 days after the start of incubation. Since they were so close to the hatch date, I moved the eggs to an incubator, not giving much thought to the hours I would need to spend feeding the babies if they hatched. Four of them hatched on a Friday. Here's their first baby photo -





The next day another one hatched. And then there were 5 -






I continued to feed and they continued to grow-






The little sweetie on top of the penny didn't make it to day 10.






We took a road trip over Labor Day weekend and I started to get lazy with my daily photos, so this was the last baby photo that I have.





They're almost 3 months old now & I still don't have any more photos of them. 3 boys and a girl - sweet, tame & starting to get their colors. They live in a cage in my computer room, but spend lots of time out of the cage sitting on my shoulder and yanking my hair.

the lava lamp

I am so easily entertained! (and I have no idea why most of the photos are crooked.)

















lava lamp

Our next project - Osprey Platform

Here's a photo of my husband getting started on the next project on his crazy wife's wish list. Yes honey, we do need an osprey nesting platform... I searched the web for plans and we decided to go with those of the NJ Dept of Fish & Wildlife. Our progress so far - choosing a location and buying the materials.





osprey nesting platform

Sunset Beach, Cape May NJ

I returned home from Cape May almost a week ago, but nobody has ever accused my blog of being timely, so, here are a couple more photos from the trip. After 2 days of rain, I was practically giddy when the sun started shining on Saturday evening. After our birding and beach walk at Cape May State Park, Laura suggested that I head to Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. Beautiful...

Great black-backed gull

I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge last week on my way to Cape May. Sitting on the top of almost every street lamp was a great black-backed gull - pretty cool! Sometimes I'm able to get some pretty good photos by pointing the camera out the passenger window as my husband is driving. But this trip I was alone and it was pouring rain, so I didn't get any photos of the gulls on the lamp posts. But I did get some photos a few days later from the Cape May Ferry.


In flight...





and enjoying a bubble bath...

Cape May State Park

I'm blogging with fellow bloggers Susan, Delia and Laura at Cabana's bar in Cape May. No wireless at our inn unless we sit outside & it's cold and late. So we thought we would be dorks and take our laptops to a bar.


I'm guessing that they will be posting photos of birds, so I thought I'd go a different route - kids, a dog and a crab -

Sleepy Hollow

Notice the cobwebs across the entrance. Empty for the past two years, but that's now how it used to be. For four years in a row a pair of bluebirds raised multiple clutches in this house. It hangs from a shepherd's hook on our deck and we loved watching the parents and the babies. Maybe it's our shabby duct tape repair job on the roof that caused them to move to the Frank Newell bluebird house down by the lake.

Head shots

Native to Asia, but I took these photos at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park -

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

A boat ride with friends...





This was Travis's 2nd boat ride. On his first ride (the previous evening), he never stopped shaking. But he looks quite relaxed here -

My husband's fan club

OK, I'm his biggest fan, but he has some groupies...





Here's our favorite girl - we call her "Beakless"





Not totally beakless, but if you click this photo to enlarge, you can see that she is missing a piece of her bill, making her appear that her tongue is sticking out.





I like how the next photo turned out - the pink is a geranium flower on our dock.

The turtle pad

Remember that fancy turtle pad that my sister made for me?





The turtles are loving it!





Here come #4 and #5. Maybe they will fit on the pad,





but I don't think there's enough room for the geese.

Watching...

One day last week, the sunlight was shining nicely on our bird-feeding-table, otherwise known as our deck railing. I thought it would be a good time to take some nice photos of the bluebirds eating mealworms. We put out mealworms daily, ring a bell, and the birds come flying in. Usually nuthatches, titmice, chickadees and 2 families of bluebirds show up within seconds of the bell ringing. For whatever reason, the Carolina wrens haven't caught on to the bell signal. Instead, they tend to check the railing all day long, just hoping that there will be worms. Often they show up just after the mealworm bowls have been emptied by the rest of the gang.


So that day I was happy to see a wren show up first,





before all the worms were gone.





Then I waited, camera ready, for the rest of the birds to show. And I waited...and waited. For the first time in my memory, the feast of mealworms lasted more than 10 minutes. I rang the bell again - no response. Then I looked up and saw this guy waiting, just 15 feet from our railing. I'm glad the bluebirds were more observant than me.

Carousel of color

It's been awhile since I've posted photos of my gouldian finches, so here goes...




















gouldian finches