Vengeance

Taking care of five finches, harbored since birth, is a lot of work about nothing. I recognize that. I just like feeding birds. And their call is musical, sweet and homey. I've fed seagulls french fries in a SoCal parking lot - Seagulls some of them are hughmonguous - and two or more species of birds probably Finch-related, french fries in McDonald's parking lot before venturing off on the death trap freeways. Soothing somehow. Sparrows are Finch related. In the book (not very good really) Finches for Dummies I read that Darwin brought Finches back from the Galapagos Islands in the 1800's.

The cage I keep them in isn't very big. Consequently I must tend to their water and food twice a day, especially the water they bathe in. Wow does that water get discolored and dirty quickly!  Can anyone tell me if Finches practive birth control? I have no definite proof, but when an egg is laid I think they eat it.  Gruesome thought in this oh so daintly modern world of 'propriety.' Okay, so eating babies isn't such a hot idea. Wot do you want me to do? Punish them? Besides, I have no proof. When they were only two they pronto laid four eggs and three chicks survived. The fourth egg didn't hatch.  Two plus three = five.

My in-progress photo-essay about stray cats in the neighborhood is on hold. Bloggers like cats apparently and hate birds.  Heh. So far only three cat shots. They are flighty. It'll be easier with the new camera's longer lens. My central subject is why do cats like us? It's obvious why they like our garbage, but I sense they are lonely wand want and need to be stroked. THAT'S why people like cats: identification!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha, we're just felines and Toms...... IMO.

Barry

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• #2 Comment from bgilmore725 
  1/6/08 4:19 PM | Permalink

  I know that when mother hamsters experience great stress, and feel threatened, or anxious... they will eat their newly born babies. They will also stuff them into their mouth pouches to protect them. I had read about it, didn't believe it until it happened amongst our hamster brood. Many years ago, when our son was a boy, he had several hamsters. There were four glass (acquarium size) boxes, one for each set of two hamsters. Females and males kept separate. Wire lids on top to prevent them from climbing out... but one night we miscalculated a lid's tightness, and during the night one of the males climbed out of his cage and into another. The next morning, we found him in her box. Removed him. A few weeks later, there were many tiny babies... what are hamster babies called? Anyway, she must have felt threatened by our presence, always looking in on her. I picked up the babies to look at them. The next time I checked in on them, they were all gone. Just disappeared. I figured she ate them. What else could have happened to them. It happened within their first few days of life. So could finches do the same? Fish eat their own eggs. I hadn't heard about birds' habits under stress. Maybe they are overcrowded and are very stressed in that cage? Or maybe the fourth egg just wasn't viable. You could probably do a search on the care of finches... I don't know much about them. I think cats like people because we allow them to lounge around our homes, we are not a threat to them, and like you said, we like to pet them... they like being petted (sometimes). I really think they can take us or leave us! bea
  
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• #1 Comment from aimer 
  1/6/08 2:16 PM | Permalink

  Looking forward to viewing your photo essay. I've never been certain if cats really like us or just tolerate us!--Sheria