LONGVIEW, TEXAS — Last night, Shroud told me that Molly’s eggs had hatched. He was very excited: “We’re grandparents!”

So this morning, I went off to photograph the young House Finches, but I stopped by the dining hall first for breakfast. I ended up eating with the director of campus security, who cuts quite a figure with his cowboy boots and thin but remarkably vertical hair. He asked me what I was going to photograph, and I told him (with a tinge of embarrassment) about the birds nesting in front of my friends’ apartment.

“What kind of birds?”

“House Finches,” I said. “They’re, uh, small…” I gestured with a thumb and forefinger.

“I’m a bird watcher.”

Thankfully, I didn’t drop my spoon. YOU are?

He went on, in his East Texas drawl, to tell me about his four feeders and eight male cardinals and the other visitors, including one he was especially proud of. “A deal called a Blue Grosbeak,” he said. He described the bird with what I guess I’d have to call enthusiasm, and it did indeed sound like a Blue Grosbeak.

Will wonders never cease?

The nestlings seem very young — two or three days at most, I’d guess.

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