Finch Hatchlings

While all of this lunar eclipse hullabaloo has been going on, Lucy‘s been sitting on the nest on the back porch and Ricky’s been feeding her.

In my research re: house finch husbandry I had seen that this was a sign that the egg hatching was imminent.

Then I started occasionally seeing Lucy gone, but Ricky at the nest. He was dipping his head down into the nest and something in there was moving.

A-HA!!

I haven’t gotten a decent picture of the chicks yet, mainly because getting this close will get me dive bombed by a couple of house finches that are trying to peck my eyes out. Since I like my eyes just as they are, i.e., unpecked, I’ll try to respect the privacy of the finches. Or at least not try again until I have some decent safety goggles.

It looks like all four eggs hatched. It’s tough to see heads popping up at feeding time, so I don’t know if all four still are viable.

Part of the problem is that Ricky and Lucy are extremely gun shy about letting me even look at them from inside the kitchen. Their nest location is directly across from the sliding glass door out onto the patio. If I get within five feet of the door, they’re outta there. So at feeding time, I’m actually standing on the far side of the kitchen, as much out of sight as possible, watching with binoculars and the big telephoto lens. But that angle (and shooting pictures through the glass) sort of sucks. I have seen at least two little heads popping up with maybe a third, but the four of them never have lined up for a proper family portrait.

How antisocial, especially considering that I’m not even charging them rent!