April 25, 2008

Bye Bye Birdie . . .


Well, they're gone.

After three weeks of complete avoidance of all front door use, forcing neighbors and friends to use our dirty garage and laundry room as an entrance and copious amounts of internet research to find information on and learn about our recent house guests, they're gone. And without so much as a "Goodbye" or "We're ready to fly away now, thanks for letting us poop all over your front door." How rude!

I think we five Lee family humans have been duped by a little family of house finches into thinking that there was actually a relationship of some sort there. I am firm in my stance that we will NOT be putting a wreath on our door next spring - or any time between now and October, since apparently the house finch usually has two broods a year any time from February to late August.

I saw mom and dad finch sitting up in the tree, watching me take down the wreath. They weren't happy about it - in fact, they were quite vocal. But I'm pretty sure they felt better when they saw that it took me forty minutes to clean and scrape all the bird excrement off the door.

Do I sound bitter? Maybe I am, just a little. The last time I saw the babies was a week ago. I did want to see them one more time before they "flew the coop" - frankly it mostly had to do with the fact that the last time I looked, they were downright freakish and ugly looking, and I'd hoped to get a picture of them once they cutened up a little. (you know, for the blog) Didn't happen.

So now you get a cartoon drawing of two grown house finches and I get my poop-free front door back. And the lessons about nature I was trying to teach my kids - it totally paid off. When I told them the babies were gone, instead of the sad faces and inquiries as to their whereabouts I got a "Wahoo! Does this mean we can use the front door again?!" Classic.

2 comments:

Anderson Zoo Keepers said...

Gotta love the appreciation of nature. My kids appreciate nature so much that they want their own fly swatters. They love the outdoors and most things in it - but only on their terms.

The Queen Vee said...

Mom and Pop Finch did thank you for housing their baby birdies, that's why they were watching you and were so vocal. You've just got to understand bird speak, or tweet! I'm sorry you didn't get your pic of cute birdies but I think it has all ended well and C, H and RD won't forget this experience with the bird nursery.