The addition of 4 baby finches in our home has brought so much excitement, awe and joy into our home, that it is very hard to put those feelings into words. I'm going to do my best to describe the little joys that fill our days since their arrival, and tell you a little bit about our previous, less-joyous bird history.
Birds are constantly flying into our windows. We have high ceilings in our living room, and windows out every direction you look to allow lots of natural light in, and the opportunity to look out and see nature while in the mosquito-free comfort of our home. This feature helped to make our home 'THE' home when we were looking for one, but there is one little caveat to having such airiness....the birds outside constantly try to fly in! On average, we have about 3 birds a week randomly smash into the windows (both front and back) and either lie there stunned only to fly away, or stunned and later die. We have had a few die instantly. The mourning doves aren't really missed, (sounds terrible but enough hours scraping bird droppings from your car will make this sound like a perfectly practical statement), but the 'pretty' birds like titmouse, yellow tailed something, blue jays and a few other birds we've never even seen before make our lives difficult, as the Meissler kiddos have a thing for saving injured animals.
One day a particular bird survived the window accident AND a failed attempt at dinner for our cat Brisket, and even accepted some of the food and water the kids had fed it. Since the bird had made it so much longer than any other up to that point, but couldn't yet fly, the predicament came as to how we were going to house the bird. Thanks to a chance posting on craigslist, we were able to buy a bird cage for cheap just 2 days later. Craig & Ella set out to pick up the new cage, and the bird died before they had even made it home...figures! In any case, it was that incident that made the kiddos beg and pray and whine for birdies of their own to care for...one bird for each child (of course).
On Christmas morning 2009, Santa brought 5 finch birds gift wrapped in the once empty cage. Only before the kids had a chance to find the gift wrapped surprise, our newest cat CoCo decided to alert us all to the birds by knocking the cage over. We had birds flying everywhere, with the exception of 1 well behaved bird who believed his chances of survival were greater inside the cage. That bird happens to be one of the 2 we still have from that gift!
Since the arrival of the finches, we've had 1 die of a heart attack after Craig surprised them by releasing a helium balloon by their cage (apparently they spook easily and have weak hearts). We've had 2 others fall victim to being nearly pecked to death by the others in the cage, so they were released to the wild, and (believe it or not) we still see them in our greenbelt. Up until that point, we had 2 unsuccessful batches of birds hatch. All were thrown from the nest and neglected, and after waking every 2 hours to feed and maintain the heat for them only to have the fragile little things DIE was just too much for us. After seeing 5 new eggs in the birds nest it was decided if they didn't care for this batch, we were going to release them in the wild too, because it was just too sad for us to see the babies die, and we were mad at the dumb birds for not caring for them!
Thankfully, our birds have taken fabulous care of their brood, (the 5th egg having been stillborn). It has been so fun to hear there soft peeps turn to obnoxious squawks for feeding, and now to hear them attempting to mimic their parents song rhythms. They prefer to 'stay low' and cuddle into whomever is holding them, or low in their nest, or (just today) the bottom of their cage as they attempt to flutter and hop back UP to their nest they just figured how to get DOWN from. The children perch themselves on the stairs and admire the birds and their progress numerous times during the day, and it is gratifying to hear their conversations about them. To see David's face melt when he holds a little bird close to his chest is absolutely priceless!
The other night Craig found a HUGE bird cage so we can accommodate the larger family size of our bird family. It was a bargain $19.99 and has multiple layers and doors and a slide out cleaning compartment on the bottom so I don't have to lift the cage while on a ladder changing it. (the birds are in the decorative loft above the front walkway so as to keep them safe from the cats, but this means they are only accessible by ladder!) Once the baby birds are flying, we'll be setting the family up in their new digs and posting pics on the blog. We are SOOOO happy to have them!
After committing a full blog to the progress of our birds, I am frightened and appalled that I might now officially be becoming the 'bird woman'. Lord help me if I start to wander to picnic benches with bird seed!
Love Much,
The Meissler 7
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