Al, the baby-killer zebra finch, beat up on Lynn one day last week and Lucille chased him out of Lynn's cage. The next day Lucille discovered a dead boy and wondered who on earth it might be. Identifying dead males finches is a problem when all the guys look identical.
Then she noticed the peacefulness in the bird room. And she noticed Lynn had deserted her fledgling babies at long last and moved in with a new man. Lucille thinks it's Del. And the babies no longer holler and fuss. They're cool with Mum being gone. Interesting developments.
They prove that it was Al who died and that he'd been a trouble-maker, constantly threatening Lynn and the babies and not letting Lynn have Del. Never mind that Lynn was beyond done with Al. She beat him up the first time Lucille let Al back with her after he was banished for a couple weeks.
Lucille looked up our finch records and discovered that Al was seven years and seventeen days old when he died! Our longest-lived finch yet. Except Fizzy is older! She's going strong, looks just the same as the day we got her.
Clay is a day or two younger than his brother Al. Clay is so much better. He was getting up five minutes later than everyone else and coming straight out of the nesting house and chasing Sandy. So I put him on five drops daily of Systemajuv, the dose that keeps Tippy feeling fine. Within a few days there was no chasing and he got up the same time as everyone else. A couple days ago Clay crowed around and wanted sex. I got distracted and didn't see if he got any, but Sandy was looking thoughtful about it, so it might have happened.
Now it's been at least a week since I started Clay on Systemajuv and both Clay and Sandy spend the day yanking on artificial leaves, making love, preening each other, eating, bathing, fixing their nesting houses--all good finchy fun.
And Lynn has herself a new and better man in Del who was a sweetheart mate to Dot until she died. He's not the type to beat up on women and children, so Lynn will be pleased.
Her babies are happy living together and going through puberty. So far it's still looking like the darker one is a boy and the one with white on the wings is a girl.
All is well for the moment in our two flocks. Did I tell you about the new society finch? Next time.
