Saturday, June 16, 2012

Oriole or not?

My yard is home to various birds: my two cardinal pairs, a pair of noisy blue jays, at least 3 chickadees that visit my patio to drink the water that is in my glass flower, numerous robins, my three hummingbirds, the chimney swifts that fortunately aren't living in my chimney any more making a big mess and twittering away all night but still are flying around my house far  above and now, maybe, a pair of Baltimore Orioles. I looked up and there was the male on one of my shepherd's hook. All I saw was the bright orange breast. I thought he was bigger than a robin (who has an orangish breast too and often are on my patio getting the worms from the soft dirt of my garden beds). Last night as I sipped gin and tonics I could see him again with another bird way up on the top of my locust tree. Orioles like tall trees; robins seem to nest within ten feet of the ground. Now if I can just find its pouch -like nest, I will know for sure. Today I heard what might be his song. I quickly listened to known tapes of orioles and they sing loud and have varied songs, sort of like the cardinals. One of my cardinals likes to sing birdy, birdy, birdy over and over again. The other male has a more varied song so maybe I was just listening to him. I could see the putative oriole preening 70 feet high with its black head and orange breast.


The hummingbirds mainly visit early in the morning and as the sun sets. Then they dive bomb each other. They don't like to share my feeder and their fights are fun to watch.

Today I ran and biked a little before the sun got too hot and then visited garage sales turning my living room into more of a toddler paradise. All of my decorative glass stuff has been removed.

2 comments:

Holly said...

Are you coming to visit your Santa Monica friend anytime soon???

Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer said...

She is supposed to visit me here soon,

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