Monday, June 28, 2010

Listen... and LOOK!

This sound caught my attention yesterday. Listen.





If you looked verrry closely, you could see a wee bit of yellow-orange. Maybe. Probably not. The video's too small.

Here it is below, but I bet you can't see where it is at all, can you? It's on that branch sticking out to the left.


Okay, here's a closer look:


Try this one below. Can you make out the eye?

There's a definite beak in the next picture.


And in the bottom left-hand corner above is the nest. The baltimore oriole's nest!

Here's a better look at that:

Looks like a cantaloupe, doesn't it?

And that was one of the young orioles sitting next to it! First time I've ever seen a baby oriole. It was apparently practicing its call. Over... and over... and over. In fact, it's still doing it today. :-)


Below is the daddy who was getting quite frustrated with me. He had a very different sound. A warning sound to his kid, probably... "Stay put!" Or to me... "You stay away from my kid!" Or something like that. Use your own imagination. ;-)

I didn't see the mother oriole, but I'm guessing it's the one with the injured wing. I still see her come to the feeder occasionally.

I was glad it was somewhat windy, or I'd never have seen the nest or baby at all. Orioles certainly have a way of hiding their nests! But the wind blew just right once in a while, letting the sun hit it. I was snapping pics like crazy, hoping that I'd get lucky and get a few at the right seconds. I guess I didn't do too bad.

(Enlarge any pic for a better look!)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well your experience matches mine.
You are so right about how clever they seem to be in hiding their nest from view. And, sometimes you can hear them calling but not be able to find them.
You've probably heard that we had major wind damage ( if not tornado )at LC. I haven't had the time to see if orioles survived.

Dale

Grandma G said...

Yeah, I heard about your mess. I bet lots of nests went down with your trees. :-(