Two days ago I went over to our local Ralphs shopping center.  I drove by these birds all taking a bath in some water left by the rain, in a hole left by a car driving over the curb.  So funny because it was literally a mud bath!!  I thought I would catch a picture of them on my way out, but they weren’t there.

Yesterday, I went over to the same shopping center and parked in the middle of the lot.  Walked to Hallmark one way and to Trader Joes the other.  I like to park a distance from the store(s) to get some exercise.  Well, I got into my car, turned it on, and saw that the birds were back in their mud bath!  I opened my car door, leaned out and took a few pictures and then this movie. 

Don’t they look like their having fun?

Tags: Animals, birds, mud bath

I own 5 zebra finches.  2 males and 3 females.  I have owned finches on and off for the last 30 years or more.  I now have an outdoor cage - made for lizards - but works great for the finches.   They have room to fly a bit and they love taking baths in a freshly washed water dish.  Here is their home:

I can’t put a nest in the cage or they won’t stop laying eggs and having babies.  I have already had 5 babies and that was enough.  They lay eggs in their food dishes, but I just throw them out.  Because….  Once I thought I would let them have their babies in the green food dish.  Well, they were very cute, two little babies… until I scared them by feeding the birds and one fell out.  Then the other one fell out.  I tried to move the dish to the bottom of the cage and put the babies back in, but they eventually died on the bottom of the cage.  Very sad…. no more babies born in food dishes.

 Years ago I found a very large bird’s nest out on the street.  It must have fallen out of the Eucalyptus trees and belonged to a large bird….. because Ollie our cat used it for a bed:

This last weekend we helped move a bed from our daughter Heather’s place to our daughter’s Samantha’s room and walking up the steps to the condo I found a little bird’s nest.  Heather said it had been there all week and no one had picked it up… but leave it to me to pick it up.  Here are my three little bird’s nests and a wooden bird that was my Grandma Agnes’s.  The smallest bird’s nest belonged to a hummingbird.  My mom gave it to me.  I found another one just like it in one of the walnut trees at her house about a month ago and stuck it in an outdoor wreath.  Very cute…

Tags: birds