Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!
So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.
I didn’t get a photo.
But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!
He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.
And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.
And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.
I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.
And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.
We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.
Everything seems early.
And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!
I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.
Last year’s oriole, announcing that the grape jelly was running low.
Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.
Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.
Last year’s downy woodpecker and female hummingbird sharing a lunch date.
I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.
A 2022 image. I’m waiting for him to show up this spring too. I put his favorite food in the flat feeder this morning. Just in case.
Here in Michigan spring can be a long time coming. Oh, I definitely have specific things that herald winter’s exit, like the sound of red winged blackbirds and singing frogs hanging at the pond across the street.
Announcing his arrival in the neighborhood.
And there are the marsh marigolds brightening up banks of our local streams.
These are from last year, but I bet if I go look they’re up this year too!
Still, we know that the snow could return any day, and likely will. We dream of warmth and trilliums, still a few weeks away.
One of my favorite signs of spring, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Goldfinches turning yellow are a definite sign we’re finally on our way out of the gray, cold weather.
In the winter both the male and female goldfinches are an olive green. But once the weather warms up the males start to sport bright yellow feathers. I began to notice the color change last week, even as the icy rain continues.
Miserable, he’s waiting for me to fill his feeder.
Today I glanced up and my finch feeder was full of birds, all cold and hungry. You can see the patchy yellow on the male birds.
Shot from the other side of the living room, through the window.
I could feel sad about all the grey skies and cold rain. But it’s impossible to feel down when my finches are turning gold!
Stop typing and come fill the feeders, lady!
Spring is here, I’m positive. And I dare mother nature to even think about snowing on us now!
What you talkin about, lady? Of COURSE it’s gonna snow again!
Walking through the living room this week I noticed two hairy woodpeckers on the feeder. That’s unusual. We don’t get hairy woodpecers often, and when we do it’s always a single bird chowing down.
Adult male hairy woodpeckers (similar but bigger than downy woodpeckers) have a red spot on the back of their heads.
I stopped to watch, from across the room so as not to startle the. Sure enough, one of them was a youngster, eating away happily while dad was on the other side of the feeder…
The young one enjoys a succulant oiler as dad eats on the other side of the feeder.
…but happily accepting a special morsal from dad when he offeres it.
This time of year seeing parents cater to their teenage, soon to be adult, children is pretty common. They don’t seem to notice that their kids are eating just fine and on their own when they’re not being waited on.
Can you see the love in dad’s eyes as he feeds his youngster?
I’m glad I happened to wander past their special time together when I did.
That was a good seed, wasn’t it!
Note: I’m not sure if the kid is a boy or a girl. There’s no red spot on the back of it’s head which leads me to think it’s a girl…but there IS a spot just above the beak and I don’t know what that means. If you know, please comment below!
I’ve been hanging around our my house a lot. I’m sort of bored, so I bug mom and dad by poking them in the knee. If mom’s on her stupid phone I jump up next to her and knock it out of her hand. That’s her cue to take me to a park.
It usually works.
Yep, here we are at another park.
But this past week while we were at a park I asked mom if we could please do something more fun. Like with friends and stuff. Because, not to be rude, but walking around in the trees with my mom all the time gets sort of…well…repetitive.
Can’t we do something different, mom?
And you know what she did? She took me with her to visit my dog mom, Vivian, and her bestie, Oliva!
Olivia has the ball and Vivian is just full of joy to be running!
And even better we got to play in their yard, all three of us together! At first I wasn’t sure about the rules and I hung back on the deck observing the craziness below.
Olivia seems to be the owner of the ball.
But then I figured it out. The rules are that there ARE NO RULES! So game on!
Wait for me you guys!
It was a warm day so we didn’t run too long, but while we were running, we were running hard!
The infamous two headed sheltie.
And let me tell you, three excited shelties chasing a ball on a beautiful late spring day sure make a lot of noise! Mom was hoping the neighbors were all at work.
Let me at that ball!
We went back inside after a few races around the yard, to cool off and settle down.
This is my mom, Vivian. Isn’t she beautiful?
Well…maybe just to cool off. Three shelties don’t settle down all at once you know.
This is Olivia, the keeper of the ball. She’s beautiful too.
Then after our cooling break we went out one more time to have some more fun. I was an active participant from the start, cause I knew just what this game was about.
It’s all about that ball.
I had so much fun running free without being tethered to one of my folks. Not that I don’t love my walks with them…but seriously, I doubt they’d be able to keep up.
I can fly!
We were just flying around that yard!
I got close to the ball a few times, but I never did get it away from Olivia. I figure that’s OK, it was her yard, her rules, you know?
You’re a really good ball keeper, Olivia!
I’m just glad I got to play in a big backyard with a tree where we could rest in the shade in between bouts of running.
We posed together like good girls…cause mom had treats!
But mostly we just played and played and played.
My hind end wanted to fly away a lot that afternoon.
It was nonstop mayhem!
Hey, maybe we can cut her off at the pass, Vivian!
In the end I didn’t really need the ball, I was just loving the chase. Vivian and Olivia were real nice hosts and let me play with them until it got too warm and we all decided to go inside again.
Hey mom, can you open this door for us?
And then it was time to say goodbye. I had a wonderful time, and I’m so glad I get to stay in contact with my dog mom, Vivian and her bestie Olivia and of course my Mama S.
We need a goodbye treat, ok mom?A girl can only run so farin one day.
I’m a lucky girl.
And I know it too.
There were a lot of sheltie smiles that afternoon!
Signing off, all these pictures of us running have tired me out. Time for a little nap.
As I was leaving Kensington, having been run out of town on the trails by the little birds, and on the boardwalk by a marauding swan and a big group of kids, I stopped at a little picnic area, off the beaten path.
“Are you SURE you don’t have anything to eat? Can you check your pockets again?“
I thought maybe the birds there would be more forgiving, since they don’t get many visitors. I turned on my Merlin app and let it record the birds singing as it identified who was nearby.
“We didn’t want her food anyway. It’s not good for growing cygnets.“
A vireo, a common yellow throat, a warbler, a bluebird, a flicker, a red winged blackbird. And of course a robin.
“I’ll just stay still, she’s not interested in me anyway.“
I could hear the vireo and the common yellow throat coming from down near the marsh, so I crept that way. I spent a long time standing still staring up at a cottonwood tree that I’m pretty sure hid the yellow throat. But I never saw anything move.
No birds, but this daisy was nice.
I’d already been out at the park for hours and I was hungry, having forgotten to bring myself anything to eat either. So I headed back toward the car, past the picnic pavilion where I saw this little guy.
“If I stand real still you won’t notice me, right lady?”
Well, it’s not a photogenic location, but heck, it’s a bluebird. Right?
He flew up into a tree and then over to the outhouse building. Still not a photogenic location, but the sun was pretty on him there.
“From this perch I can see what’s going on all over this picnic area.”
He bounced around there, from the corner of the building down to the ground up into a tree and back to the building again. Then I lost track of him, couldn’t find him anywhere.
“I’m a velcro bird! I can hang out anywhere!”
I decided it was time to go home, and I turned around to head to the car and, little stinker, there he was on the path right next to me!
“Hey lady! Pay attention, you’re gonna step on me here!”
It was as if he was laughing at me as I took my third, not photogenic, photo of him just because he was beautiful.
And then he flew up into a branch and stayed there, posing until I got the shot.
“Thanks for playing lady, I had fun too.”
Well thank you kindly, Mr. Bluebird, for playing along. You sure made me smile that afternoon! And I’m still smiling today!
So let’s see….I was a miserable failure according to the little birds over on the nature trails, so I decided to go out to the boardwalk to see what if anything was going on at the heron rookery.
The sky was clouding over when I got out to the boardwalk.
Every year I try to get out there frequently in the spring to watch the littles grow up. But I never get there enough, and this year I missed all of it.
Perhaps an adult resting after lunch duty.
Cause the littles weren’t so little anymore!
Are the nests empty?
It was about mid-day and most of the feeding activity had apparently already happened. There wasn’t much in the way of adults flying around.
Nope, not empty. They’re just deep and still hold hungry little ones.
But there was still enough activity to initiate a few anxious moments as the teenagers determined if the adult flying in was their adult.
Guess that wasn’t our order, guys.
Disappointment ran rampant.
This nest held four hopeful teenagers. They were keeping an eye out for mom or dad.
I enjoyed watching this mama (or daddy?) heron working on their nest.
Cleaning up the household.
After she got it the way she wanted it she rested a moment, shook her feathers and then sat back down.
Newborns are just so much work!
I think it’s a little late for eggs to still be there but maybe she has some late arrival babies in there.
I hope my partner shows up soon to spell me for awhile.
Mostly the adults just seemed tired of all the noise and chaos.
I swear, these kids need to grow up and take some responsibility for getting their own meals.
I wasn’t getting anything all that exciting when a group of kids showed up and I figured it was time to go.
Everybody’s having a good time, but they were noisier than the birds.
But then I took a few more pictures of stuff…
Hey! Where is everybody?
and as I was doing that I saw this swan flying toward me.
Incoming…
Directly at me, actually,
Really…..INCOMING!!
Until he (or she) was right there in front of me and then overhead. It was amazing and resulted in my favorite shots of the day.
Duck!!!
Things like being in the flight path of a swan make me want to go out there every day. I was definitely smiling as I headed for the car.
Not duck!!! SWAN!!!! (You see what I did there…)
And I smiled some more when I stopped at a little picnic area on my way out of the park. But that will have to wait.
Penny here. Geeze people, here I am having all sorts of adventures and mom and my aunt take off camping for a couple days and get to post about it for years. Ok. For days.
This is my studious look. I think it works.
But my point is, do I get to post? No I do not. I have not been given access. Until now, when mom finally gave into my pressure. I told her I won’t sleep in her stinking tent until she posts about all the fun stuff I’ve already done this month!
We went to Katie’s park for our annual photo shoot.
I know my friends have been wondering what I’ve been up to and let me tell you I’ve been really busy! And most of what I’ve been into isn’t going to get me into trouble either! Win-win!
Mom likes a good head tilt, and I try to oblige.
First off, as most of you know, my sister Angel Katie always had a spring yellow flower photo shoot with mom. Well, she told me all about it and I demanded equal yellow flower opportunity. I’m pretty sure it’s in my contract with my folks. So mom took me over to Katie’s park one day early this month.
Mom says I did really good. I thought it took way too long.
Are we almost done, mom?
Then when my Aunt Beth was here we stopped near some other yellow flowers and mom grabbed a few pictures. By then I was an expert at being a model, so it didn’t take long at all.
I think the sun was in my eyes that day.
My Aunt Beth and mom and I also went on quite a few walks in different parks. We all had the best time with beautiful blue skies and hardly any bugs!
Aren’t I cute?
I got to show Aunt Beth several of my own personal parks and especially how well I can sit for the camera. As long as there were treats available, of course.
I look kind of small, don’t I.
She was very impressed.
And THEN, the most exciting thing! I got to go on a walk with my Aunt Beth and my Mama S and my mom and even my doggy mom Vivian and her roommate Oliva!
Mom asked them to walk up this trail to set us up for a photo.
It was amazing! Three shelties all going for a walk together. I tell you what, we caused lots of heads to turn when we all walked by!
It wasn’t easy to get the three of us lined up.
OK, so sometimes I was a little rambunctious, and Mama S had to tell me to straighten up. After all, I’m still a baby…right? Oh…what….no? Not so much?
Sometimes a girl’s just got to leap for joy.
Well, I guess I’ll start acting more adult tomorrow, but that day I had so much fun! I got to share one of my favorite parks with my three moms and my aunt!
Yep we had a great time walking together.
I’m so grateful that Mama S brought her girls along on this walk! I promised her we’d do it again soon!
That’s my mom, Vivian next to me (I’m in the center) and her bestie Olivia on the right.
And then, still in the month of May, I got to go on a play day with my friend Lance! I can’t even begin to figure out how mom and dad managed to get this much fun stuffed into one month!
Change Is Hard 