Chicks and Socks

The third egg finally hatched today! I've had a look at all three babies and they look great. Minerva and Godric are being great parents. Feeding the babies and keeping them warm.

I got so excited about the baby finches today that I entered all of the birdie milestones into my calendar so that I'd know ahead of time what to expect & when. The next step in this process is banding the babies. Sometime around next Friday I will have to take the chicks out of the nest and slip id bands onto their legs. One band is my National Finch and Softbill Society membership band. It has my identification/membership number, the year and a number which will indicate how many finches were born in my flock that year. So I will be using numbers 1 - 3. :) The bands must be slipped onto the legs before the bones harden so it is crucial to get it done within the correct time period or it will be too late. The band never comes off after the leg bones have hardened. I'm putting this band on the bird's right leg.

On the left leg I will put another band that will just be a solid color. This is mostly for personal record keeping and tracking bloodline within a flock. I will probably use yellow bands for these chicks because that will be an easy way for me to tell at a glance that these are Godric's babies. He is my only yellow boy.

I'm a bit nervous about handling the chicks. When you consider that they are only about the size of a cap from a toothpaste tube, and the bands are teeny tiny - you can see why! I will try to get a picture of the babies soon.

In knitting news - I have gone sock crazy. Probably because I recently went a bit wild on Ebay and got about fifteen skeins of sock yarn. Now - I really, really need to make some socks!! Plus - it's finally hot out here so socks is about what I can stand to knit. The portability is really key during the summer too. Today I actually knit outside for awhile while the kids ran under the sprinkler with some of the neighborhood kids. So far I have finished one sock and cast on for it's mate. To prevent boredom I also cast on for another sock in a totally different colorway. I plan to keep this system going - knitting on alternate socks. I know alot of other bloggers do this also - supposedly keeps SSS away. :) I think the main thing that sparked this sock revolution is the realization that I like simple socks - plain old 2x2 ribbing. I have cast on and ripped out at least five "fancy" socks. I just didn't enjoy knitting them. I'll save that kind of detail and concentration for my lace knitting. As for socks - it's all about the process, the busy hands, the endlessly changing color and the different steps that go into the construction. Maybe someday I'll want to get fancy - but for now I'm happy with my plain old socks.