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Egg laying record

DateEggsNotes on mating, etc.
Aug. 17, 20003Goldie (no mate)
~Oct. 1, 20003Goldie (no mate)
~Dec. 1, 20003Goldie (no mate)
~Jan. 30, 20013Goldie; George not "ready"
~Feb. 28, 20014Goldie; mating with George
May 10, 20014Princess; leg injury
June 8, 20012?Princess
July 1, 20013Princess
Oct. 14, 20013Princess
Nov. 17, 20013?Princess; EGG BINDING!
Jan. 27, 20023Princess
Feb. 27, 20024Princess
Mar. 28, 20021Princess
Apr. 28, 20023Princess
May 20, 20023.5Princess; 4th egg lacked shell
June 5, 20024Princess
July 1, 20023Princess
July 26, 20024Princess
Sept. 20, 20021Princess
Sept. 29, 20023Princess
Oct. 24, 20024Princess
~Nov. 28, 20023Princess
Dec. 11, 20023Princess
Jan. 5, 20033Princess
Feb 1, 20033Princess
Mar. 14, 20034Princess
Apr. 14, 20033Princess
May 3, 20034Princess; hasty, less window "flirting"
May 28, 20034Princess
June 20, 20033Princess; quarrelling and "kissing." George sings loud!
July 13, 20034Princess; quarrelling and flirting
Aug. 14, 20033Princess; Tweety moved in.
Oct. 6, 20033Princess; George molting, not singing.
Nov. 4, 20033Princess; Tweety died Nov. 9
Dec. 3, 20033Princess
Dec. 25, 20034Princess; George resumed singing!
Feb. 1, 20043Princess; new nest on spider plant
Feb. 29, 20043Princess; our trip to Peru!
Mar. 23, 20044Princess; George sings loud!
Apr. 16, 20044Princess; George sings loud!
May 8, 20044Princess
May 31, 20044Princess; George sings loud!
June 27, 20044Princess; Adopted baby died. George molting, not singing
Oct. 8, 20043Princess; some molting, some singing
Nov. 25?, 20043*Princess; One egg broke. Hawks! Some singing.
Dec. 30, 20043Princess; George sings some, mischief "exploring."
Feb. 5, 20053Princess; trip to Costa Rica.
Mar. 7, 20054Princess; new nest in spider plant.
~ Apr. 3, 20053Princess; George sings more.
May 14, 20053Princess (hurt leg); new nest on shelf.
June 25, 20053Princess
Mar. 17, 20062.5Princess; 3rd egg lacked shell
Apr. 14, 20062.5Princess; 3rd egg lacked shell
May 13, 20063Princess
June 16, 20063Princess, in 4 days. George sings loudly.
Nov. 26, 20062Princess; one broke. George more subdued.

Total eggs laid: 158½
None of the eggs have hatched. In almost every case, Goldie and Princess laid one egg each on the successive days following the first date listed above. A few times they skipped one or two days. Some of the numbers of eggs are guesstimates; "~" means approximate date.

No automatic redirect? Please click HERE to go to the new Our Canaries blog page, as explained below.

April 17, 2006 [LINK]

Web site Spring cleaning

As part of my relentless, never-ending efforts to make this Web site more automated and interactive, I have begun a transition to a new blog system that will entail a slight change in Web site addresses. Unless I have slipped up somewhere, you shouldn't notice any differences in page format or functionality for the time being. In a slight departure from blogosphere custom, the blog entries on the archives pages will henceforth be listed in natural chronological order, starting with the earliest date. To me, that makes it a lot easier to review old material. For the time being, the "legacy" blog and archive pages (".shtml") will remain intact, and they will eventually have an automatic redirect to the new pages (".php"). As part of this transition, there will be feedback features in the near future, as long promised. Note that the new Macintosh & Miscellanous page serves as the residual catch-all for all blog posts that don't fit into any other categories. That means general culture, religion, music, movies, science, computer technology, and non-baseball sports. From now on, the monthly and categorical archives pages will include all blog entries, up to and including the current date. Therefore, there will be some overlap between current blog pages and archive pages. Here are the new and old addresses for the main blog categories. Please adjust the bookmarks in your Web browser accordingly, and as always, "thank you for your $upport."

CATEGORY OLD URL NEW URL
Central blog page index.shtml index.php
Baseball Baseball/index.shtml Baseball.php
Latin America LatinAmerica/index.shtml LatinAmerica.php
Macintosh / Miscellaneous Macintosh.shtml MacMisc.php
Our canaries HomeBirds.shtml HomeBirds.php
Politics Politics.shtml Politics.php
War War.shtml War.php
Wild birds WildBirds.shtml WildBirds.php

One of the tradeoffs with this new system is that I will lose flexibility in making cross blog posts between more than one category. From now on, each post will appear on one, and only one blog category page. That is why you will see this blog post (classified as "miscellaneous") on the old Baseball blog page, but not the new one.

UPDATE: Another change is that for each successive day, blog posts on the central blog page will henceforth be listed from top to bottom in reverse alphabetical order of their category (wild birds first, baseball last), irrespective of what time of day they were originally posted.

Reminder: Legacy blog pages (ending in ".shtml") will not be updated after today. Please choose one of the new blog pages.


April 7, 2006 [LINK]

Princess leaves the nest

Princess After two and a half weeks of brooding, Princess finally gave up on her one remaining egg today, and wasted no time in resuming her usual routine of flirting in the perch next to the window. Her excitement is no doubt related to the large number of "eligible" male goldfinches outside the window; they are quickly turning into their bright yellow breeding plumage.

I finally managed to get a good closeup shot of Princess' face today; note that the tip of her beak is always green because of all the kale, spinach, mustard leaves, etc. she munches on. You can also see the black pupil and the dark brown iris, as well as the reflected window light. Compare it to the closeup of George I took last October.

I also put some old photos of Goldie on the Canaries photo gallery page. Some of them are newly-enhanced photos I had posted years ago and later deleted.




Goldie in sun

Brief intro: Goldie

Adopted in June 2000 after she flew into a relative's apartment. Traveled with us to South Dakota September-October, 2000. Laid 16 eggs altogether. Died March 15, 2001 of an apparent infection. CLICK TO SEE PHOTO.

Brief intro: George

Purchased January 20, 2001 (Inauguration Day, hence his name) in Stuarts Draft, VA. Aggressive, curious, superb singer, but more subdued during molting months. CLICK TO SEE PHOTO.

Brief intro: Princess

Purchased April 2001 but suffered tragic leg injury on the day we bought her. Calm disposition but can be feisty around George, and often calls for him loudly when he's not in the same room. Total eggs laid: 151. CLICK TO SEE PHOTO.


Higher meaning?

It is easy to anthropomorphize animal behavior and interpret mating rituals as though they signify romance. Whatever degree of consciousness birds may actually possess, there has to be SOME underlying parallels between the bonds of love that we human beings feel for each other and the obvious affection that bird pairs show to one another. Just as we birdwatchers get a glimpse of divine purpose in the midst of our seemingly chaotic, violent world when we watch wild birds go through their daily routines of looking for food and mating partners, so too can we see our own frail human passions and longings mirrored in the tiny eyes of our fine feathered companions who live with us at home.

As you can see, caring for pet birds is quite an emotional roller coaster, somewhat like raising kids, I suppose, but obviously with much less commitment of time, energy, and money. I hope this page has awakened your spirits at least a little bit, as we really wish we could share the joys as well as the occasional sorrows that come with INDOOR birding.



Any comments? Please contact us at: postmaster@andrewclem.com.

Want to see more? Additional photos of Goldie, George, and Princess can be found on our Photo Index page.

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