Stack of Finches

Wow, like old time Jiffy Pop in that foil pouch, the nestlings are plumped, stacked, and nearly ready to go! They should be getting ready to attempt first flight any day now. Check back here tomorrow to find out what they will do!

(Click photo for larger image)

Four Minutes to Oblivion

Each morning, as I sit at the kitchen table savoring my Jasmine green tea, I gaze out the window at the day. The window faces the center of a courtyard shared by several other condo units. From this vantage point, I casually survey the weather, the quality of the morning light, the trees and landscaped plantings. I watch the antics of chipmunks, crows, squirrels, robins, finches, and a dozen other species of birds and mammals (including humans) as they go about their business of living. 

The centerpiece of this window on the world – a lovely 30-foot tall Gray Birch tree – grew leaning a bit towards the east, branches swaying gently and appealingly in the fresh morning breeze.

For ten years I have watched this tree respond to snow storms, to wind, to the landscaper's trimmer, and the animal life that flew or climbed amongst its branches and leaves. It showed me the progress of the seasons from dangling catkins and bright green leaves unfurling in spring, to the autumn yellows and graceful surrender of spent leaves falling to earth.

Yesterday, I noticed that after the two days of high winds that raced through our area, it was leaning another degree or so. I remember thinking as I drank my tea that this would alert my neighbor or the landscapers to remedy the situation by attaching a cable to the tree and anchoring it to avoid the further, adverse influence of gravity. It alerted them indeed, but I was in for a shock when the crew arrived with a wood chipper truck and chainsaws. 

"Oh no", I thought, "This is the end. They aren't even going to try to save the tree!" Then I watched as the crew went to work, lassoing the tree to guide its fall, cranking up the chipper and chainsaw. I felt a strong sadness, that was replaced by shock and a bit of terror. The tree was down, limbed, sectioned and fed into the chipper in four minutes flat! Four minutes to oblivion.

I felt disturbed that this tree that had given so much to the world – oxygen, shade, beauty, inspiration, homes and food for birds and mammals, habitats for lichens, moss, and insects – went from a healthy, vibrant organism full of life, to a pile of chips in a truck in four minutes. I don't know how to express my experience of this, but the spirit of that tree didn't have a chance to properly relinquish its life in a natural manner. It was not diseased, or particularly large and dangerous. It was simply judged to be not worth saving. It was viewed and treated as an object that was not functioning properly anymore. 

In the forest, trees may get broken by storms, but they often sprout once more, or at least rest on the forest floor slowly changing form, no longer growing, but continuing to contribute to the forest community that it grew from. A tree takes a long time to die naturally. A long time before the life-force is gone. I have seen storm damaged trees – shattered, broken, uprooted, with limbs torn off – put forth green leaves in the spring!

I understand, of course, the need to remove some trees and manage vegetation of all kinds within our infrastructure of cities and towns, highways and the like. The tree crew that came to take my Gray Birch did not have a personal relationship with this tree as I did. Therefore, they did not try to save it. It was easier just to cut it down.

Feathers for Finches

Observing the finch family outside our door is an exciting event. Every day something observable has taken place, and every two or three days, the photos show how fast these nestlings are developing. In another week or so they may be in full feather and ready to start trying them out for flight, not just for insulation. As this photos taken this afternoon shows, the finches feathers are longer, fuller, and show the familiar coloring of a House Finch.

(Click image to enlarge)Also, the copious amount of excrement that adorns the nest and beyond attest to healthy appetites and growing bodies. The birds don't poop in their nest, but to the outside of it once they are big enough to do so. Initially, the mother removes the droppings from the nest, as well as the egg shells.

Soon the birds won't all fit in in the nest, so I expect the fledge attempts to begin between May 17th and 20th. With any luck, I'll get photos of this event.

Five Eyes Opened

Amazing how tiny bird nests are for the babies that have to fit in them once hatched and plumping up. Today's photo taken this morning shows the first time the eyes on these House Finch nestlings have opened. Take a look at those five eyes (one for each chick) and what do you see? Looking into the eyes of animals somehow connects me to their spirit or soul. For sure, wild animals have different consciousness than mine, but I nearly always have experienced the animal looking back at me, taking me in. It is a curious, and powerful experience.

House Finch nestlings opened their eyes for the first time. (Click photo to view larger).What I see in these birds eyes, freshly opened to the world they now inhabit, is a nearly blank slate. They are just beginning to gather information through the sense of sight. Their tiny bird brains will soon begin to learn about flight, finding food, memorizing patterns of the neighborhood vegetation and structures and objects. They will start to understand and associate a sense of time, or more precisely, the rhythm of the day.

Soon they will jostle each other in that tiny nest as they grow too big for it. At the moment, they need each other, and so sweetly cooperate in a warm huddle. Hungry, their opened beaks will point upwards waiting for mother finch to feed them. How vulnerable can you get? And how tremendous is the effort of the mother, from nest building, to incubating the eggs, to feeding them once hatched, and to successfully teach her chicks to fly and feed themselves.

I can relate to these birds, having grown up as one of seven children stuffed into two small bedrooms. My parents room was even smaller. For many years, we had one bathroom. As we all grew up, the place got even smaller, and we siblings jostled a bit as well. Eventually, we all fledged successfully, too.

Guests of Honor

The 5 blue eggs that momma House Finch laid have hatched! The baby birds, all crammed together in a tiny one room nest, share body heat to stay warm – their feathers are not quite ready to insulate them from night's chill air. Eyes still closed, their tiny blue-gray bodies covered with sparsely distributed feathers heave up and down in panting breaths, beaks wide open, to keep from overheating during the heat of the day. I have not heard them make a sound yet.

It is exciting to watch the process and beauty of nature unfold, and my wife and I are honored to have such guests at our front door. Their story continues in subsequent posts starting here.

(Click image to enlarge)