Chirp Chirp Chirp... Chirp

I was having quite a low morning today; nothing seemed to be going my way. Cat is sick, chores are looming, garden is weedy, the new Friendship fizzled. Then I went to check on the birds. It was chaos in the birdroom! Empty dishes, Mustardseed the cockatiel had escaped from her cage and moved into Kiwi's digs (she has been in the play cage in the front room this week), and there was a blast of squawking, calling, whistling and.... chirping? Infant chirping? I peeked in the nestbox (Violet has been holed up in there for weeks, so I was afraid of her coming out beak first) wondering if a chick had appeared, and saw...

FOUR babies.

It was a sea of soft yellow down, pink skin and dark eyes. The eldest must be almost a week old now - i can see pinfeathers coming in underneath the skin. The youngest is dry and fluffy, so must have hatched late yesterday. How did I miss a week's worth of baby-chirping and feeding noises? Must have been watching too much "Deadliest Catch" and drowned out the sound. The babies all look fat and happy. I refilled the food dishes, made up some veggies, and filled the vitamin cup. Hamlet is holding his wing at an odd angle - wonder if he strained it somehow? I snuggled Mustardseed (who wanted to move back in with the folks) and put her back in her bachelorette apartment. Then switched Kiwi and Beaker in the playcage and now a very happy Pionus is swinging about and throwing seed into the keyboard of the laptop.

My 4 day weekend is looking up! Now I have the excitement and energy to get some stuff done this weekend. Or at least to snorgle baby birds. Mustardseed is also looking good - she is three months old now and still sweet, soft, and does her step-ups without biting. Interestingly, someone at work offered to buy a cockatiel from me last week. If this batch makes it, I guess I will have some available! I wonder if they will all be normal coloring? Ooh what if there are males in this clutch?

In non-avian updates, I dragged the Legend of the Shetland Seas stole out of the depths of the closet and have been working on the knit-on edging. I have also made quite a bit of progress on the brown socks this week. I have done some knitting during lunch at work, while watching netflix on the laptop, and then again last night at movie night at Knit N Stitch. Even found time to re-read _The Red Tent_ this week.