Oriole nest decorations

When I was taking the photos I showed you yesterday, I happened to notice a baltimore oriole nest in our maple tree. They have made a nest in that tree every year for several years now.

I also noticed that this nest had something blue hanging from it. If you look REALLY close, you can barely see it in this next photo, below and to the left of the nest.

I took those pics in the morning, so there was too much contrast against the sun to see very well. I had also taken them through a window. I waited till late afternoon, and then I went outside to get some better photos. See? Now you can see the blue I was talking about:

You can see how it was woven through the nest, and some comes out the bottom:

You know what it was? It was ribbon! Ribbon for wrapping packages. The kind with the ridges on it so you can curl it with a scissors. If you click on these last two photos to enlarge them, you can see the ridges.

There were also some bits of blue and orange twine woven through the nest. Pretty fancy decorating, I'd say! I wonder where they got the ribbon. Off a balloon, perhaps?

As I've been writing this, the more I look at that photo at 100% size, the more I see. That nest is amazingly elaborate! I cropped that one photo down and loaded it at full size below. Click on it to enlarge it and see all the details. It's amazing!

I can't even tell what it's made of. It looks like a lot of man-made materials, not grasses or anything. There are even some green strips of 'something' holding it to the branch. Wow!

I sure would like to see them build one sometime, but of course when they do it, it's all behind the cover of leaves. I rarely know the nests are there until the leaves fall off the trees.

They got a trim

Grandpa and his farming brothers arrived yesterday morning with a chain saw to clean up the broken mess of the trees on our lawn. This ash tree looks much improved although bare in places.

They got rid of the biggest branches. I began working on the mess of twigs in the afternoon.

The ground was covered with little branches and twigs like this.

I managed to get everything picked up there. That's a lotta sticks!

The guys trimmed the poor maple tree, too. It looks better....

... and reminds me of an elephant. :)

I just barely got started raking under it. There are a lot more branches there than there were under the ash. It's gonna take a while. Maybe I can bribe convince Courtney to help me. Hmm... how can I turn this into a "craft project"? ;)

Looking up, I noticed this baltimore oriole nest from a couple years ago survived all the ice and falling branches. Pretty amazing builders, those orioles are!

While I was taking pics, these big birds tried sneaking by in the background.

Did you notice how green the grass is getting?! It'll slow down, though. It's gonna get cold again. Bah! The only good part of that is that it'll delay mowing a little longer. I won't mind that at all.

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!)

I found another one!

Do you see what I see?

C'mon, look closer... way up high!

Closer yet....

Zoom your eyes in there!

Okay... here's my best shot.

Now do you know what it is? Remember those baltimore orioles I fed during the summer? Well, this is their nest! I happened to notice it when I was out on the deck washing windows a few days ago. They sure do have a way of hiding their nests, and they're usually up near the top of a tree.... as this one from last year was also.

Now if only I could get up there and get a closeup look at how it's made.

See what I see!

From our basement window, I kept noticing 'something' way up in a tree south of our driveway.

After several days, I finally remembered when I got upstairs (my memory's pretty short these days) to grab my binoculars and take a closer look.

I do believe it's a baltimore oriole nest! I'd been wanting to find one for a long time, knowing there had to be one around here somewhere, since the orioles are usually here all summer. Sure wish I could see it right up close and see how it's made, but I guess that won't happen unless for some reason the branch falls to the ground. But it's cool to know it's there!

(Click photos to enlarge.)