On the evening of April 23, 2006, Eastern Daylight Time, this photograph of Frank was #1 on Google Images, and #2 on Ask.com's image search for the phrase "white headed nun." A photo of Frank sitting on the peach concrete perch (pops) showed up either #15 or #16 on Excite, MetaCrawler and Dogpile; these search engines must all use the same bots or crawlers to find pictures. This pretty photo of Frank sitting on the white concrete perch (pops) was #18 on Google Images. AllTheWeb had this photo of Frank and Sally sitting together on the white concrete perch (pops) at #20.

And this lovely photo of Frank, Bosco and Sally was #40 on Yahoo! images. That's most of the search engines, I think. He didn't show up at all on MSN, which doesn't say much for their image search.

Thank you, Internets, for making Frank the White-headed Nun so popular!

I was thinking of Frank last night because as I pulled some food out of the freezer, I came across the small, plastic tub that has Frank's body inside. Still. Somehow, the crocuses, daffodils, dandelions, forsythia, azaleas, magnolias, cherry trees, baby squirrels (pops big) and 70-degree weather haven't prompted me to take sweet Franksicle out of the freezer and bury him in the now thawed-out ground.

Sorry, Frank. Guess I just wanted to keep you around for a little bit longer. Or, you know, I'm a lazy slug.

Lest you think the sparrows and the Finsters are the only ones thinking about building nests, let me catch you up with what Peanut has been doing lately. He's still flying around a lot, and being pretty feisty. And he regurgitates for me periodically. But recently, he seems to be exhibiting actual nest-making behavior.

First, he hopped down to the floor of his cage — which he does once in awhile — discovered the back corner, and quickly chewed a bunch of spit balls out of the poop paper. He was squeaking and chortling the whole time. Although this photo cuts off the top of his head, it's the best of the bunch. You can click here for a big version.

A few days ago, Bruce hid some sunflower seeds in Bob, the ficus tree, to try to get Peanut to spend time in it. Bob was an early present for Peanut, but he's never really liked the tree. Who ever heard of a bird that doesn't like a tree, right? But sunflower seeds can convince Peanut to like almost anything, and they were doing a pretty good job of making Bob look mighty attractive, when Peanut discovered the mirror. He started the trip into Bob on the back of the couch, and from there flew to the top of the nearby lampshade (I've mentioned the flying, right?). From there, he flew to the old radio/cassette player (it still works), and then it was just a hop to the casino coin tub (don't laugh, I once won $150 in dimes) where he could sidle around to be right in front of the mirror. Where, after a few minutes of consideration, he decided he loved himself. Looooooove. Well, who wouldn't? You can click here for a big version. So far, the very handsome bird in the mirror has been more attractive than any seeds that might be hidden in Bob.

Then today, Peanut discovered the dish drainer. First, let me point out that a plastic-coated dish drainer would make a fine play gym for a small bird, particularly if you can get a drain board that's bigger than the dish rack. It would be very easy to clean, you could attach extra perches and things, and you can move it around anywhere. But I'm pretty sure Peanut was thinking about more than playing when he discovered the silverware holder. I think he was checking it out as a possible nesting site. See him defending his territory? It's a little too deep for him, but it's very interesting. Big version here.

I found another picture of a nesting sparrow on my computer, so I present it here. The photo isn't much better than the last two, but even so, you can click here for a larger (and worse) version. As you can see, the Blockbuster sign is very popular: this nest is in the "B," while the other nest was in the "S." The "A" from a chain pharmacy is also pretty popular, but I don't have any pictures. Some architects plan buildings so they won't attract nesting birds, and some building managers place spikes and wire in places that turn out to attract nesting birds. But if I had the opportunity, I would plan any building or garden or public space to encourage nests. If you plan for nest mess and poop splatter, it's easy enough to clean up. I say.

Here, the Finsters show what happens when they don't get enough raffia:

I'm guessing raffia is popular because it's easier; after all, it miraculously appears in the Finsterium in nicely-trimmed pieces. Poop paper, on the other hand, has to be dampened from bathing and then carefully torn into shreds. Soon I will replace all the nest boxes so I can see just how much stuff has been crammed inside. And then I will trim more raffia so the Finsters can rebuild. And weigh all the material they take inside, so I can marvel at their building prowess.

House sparrows are busy making nests in the letters of store signs. Here's a little fellow with a nice piece of grass, showing off to the girls. Same bird, twice, since neither picture turned out well.

We miraculously found a baby fox squirrel sitting at the foot of a tree. No other squirrels, or signs of a nest were nearby. When it started walking toward us, we decided to take it home and keep it warm in a box while we waited for the squirrel rescue people to come. Click here for a big version of the picture.

Society Finches at the pet store are sitting on eggs they've laid in their food dishes. Apparently, there's no place better to be — whether you're hungry, laying eggs or just not feeling well — than a dish full of tasty seeds.

The Finsters continue to fill their nest boxes with pieces of raffia, molted feathers, strips of poop paper, and sprigs of millet spray. So far, they show no signs of having enough nesting material. So far, they show no signs of sitting on eggs. Still, the nest building keeps them very busy. There are tugs of war every day, on the floor, on the perches, and in mid-air. Even Earl Grey has started to steal nesting material from other birds' boxes!