Baltimore Orioles

When I first spotted a bright orange bird with jet-black wings at the feeder in the pouring rain in mid-April, I looked up Baltimore Orioles. I got nothing but baseball articles. I had to put the word bird after it to get anything relevant.
After positively identifying these beautiful little song birds, we began feeding them.






Unlike many of the resident birds, Baltimore Orioles will not feed on sunflower seeds or most suet blocks. (There are wild bird suet blocks that contain berries and I have heard they will go to those.) But they like grape jelly and oranges best of all!


First we devised a simple tray hung by wires with a larger wire wrapped around the tray to hand off as a roost and orange spear. Later we bought a fancy dispenser.

The males showed up first, then the older females whose black feathers are as dark as the males. Finally the young males and females flocked in, their yellow feathers and pale backs not yet black.

We put grape jelly (which I happen to keep in the cupboard to feed hungry boys) and the single Oriole told his friends. I do not mean this metaphorically. The male Oriol stood on the perch and called out to the others. Initially I though he was calling, "Come and join me friends! I have found delicious jelly!" But after watching these birds' behavior for weeks, I have decided that he was probably more accurately yelling, "Stay back! This is my jelly! I found it first!"



Either way, the Baltimore Orioles filled our yard. One morning, around 10 o'clock, in late April I counted 20 of these birds in the trees and around the feeders!


Orioles are social animals, migrating over long distances from Mexico, Columbia, and Venezuela, to the north central and north eastern parts of the United States. But when it comes to feeding, they quarrel and make quiet a racket! They talk with a wide variety of tones. Their are gentle, melodic whistles and sharp or raspy chirps as well as a terrible ACK, ACK, ACK!

I had hoped they would stay, building beautifully crafted handing basket nests in the tree tops. And teaching their babies to fly over our yard.
















But as the heat of May rose, they disappeared the opposite as they had come. First the male left, then the older females, and finally even the yearlings, with their pale yellow feathers left. Leaving the grape jelly feeder to attract flies. So we put it up and we will wait for next spring to witness the migration again!

Pelican in the Lake

We saw a large white shape at the far side of the lake. We thought it was a log or limestone rock. After zooming in with our camera, we discovered it was a pelican...

Birds on the Hill

We feed the birds...

 The red-bellied woodpeckers (who have red heads and pale bellies), downy woodpeckers, and rose breasted grosbeaks.

 The rose breasted grosbeaks, both male and female, were the first migratory visitors of the year.

 We attracted a young summer tanager, whose yellow feathers were turning red.

 

The indigo bunting is shy and feeds on the ground beneath the feeders.

 

 

 

But the Baltimore Orioles have been the most active birds at the feeds.

Perhaps because of the grape jelly and oranges!  

Highs and Lows

How high is high? How low is low?
Well that depends on the altitude where you begin!
I have had lows like you wouldn't believe. 
And here I am at my peak. Because all I ever wanted was a peaceful place to watch the birds, listen to the water fall, and grow a little garden.
To me, this feels like the top of the world!
But it is really just a little hill...

Floods of Spring

I live on the hill above the spillway of a lake. Here we grow food, we watch buuterflies, and feed the birds. In the woods we find salamanders under the logs, cadisflies under the stream stones, and cliff swallows under the bluffs. Our adventures just outside the front door are endless.

 

And when it rains, the lake floods and the spillway fills, then floods. The clear waters turn brown and the smell of water is replaced by the smell of mud.

 



 

Downstream the roads close and the fields becomes marshes, but on the hill above the spillway we watch the birds come in and collect seeds after the storm.