An unexpected visitor

This morning as we were just about out the door to church, Shadow our flat coat retreiver became very interested in our gas insert and had her nose against the glass and was pawing at it. I went over to investigate and saw something brown moving around in our gas insert. At first I thought it was a mouse, but upon closer inspection it was a little male house finch. I wasn't quite sure what to do. The little

guy was pretty freaked out and I wasn't enthralled with the idea of roasted bird for breakfast. So we delayed going to church while I tried to figure out how to get the bird out. I ended up going outside and taking the vent cover off. That provided a 4 inch opening and eventually the little guy saw the light and was free. Shadow was probably very disappointed and I'm sure spent the whole time we were at church staring at the fireplace hoping for some more excitement. As it turned out, there was a start of a nest in the vent pipe. One of the wire meshes was bent and allowed birds to get in. No eggs though, so I while I ruined a nest, I didn't ruin a family.

He probably didn't want to start his day off this way either.

There was no way out and I'm sure Shadow was freaking him out.

Grace was also pretty interested in the house finch. Check it off the list of birds seen in New Mexico.