My hopes of having Baltimore oriole hatchling and fledgling photos were dashed yesterday when, after two days away from the pond, I found the nest to be empty!
Looking back on my history of photos of this nest, I think it’s possible that the young birds did fledge in my two-day absence. I’m so disappointed to have missed more photos of the nest activities.
On May 28, I saw the mother oriole’s beak just poking above the top of the nest. At this point, I think she was waiting for her eggs to hatch.
From the 6th to the 8th of June, I captured lots of feeding photos. I know the focus of these is not great, my excuse is the swaying of the nest in the breeze, the low light conditions (resulting in a slower shutter) and various obstructions, the most pesky showing in the photo below – an errant twig that would wave in front of the nest constantly, causing the camera to repeatedly make attempts at refocusing! The best shots here were probably done with manual focus.
While the four photos above show an attentive mother at work, today, in honor of Father’s Day, the next photos show the diligent father being both protective and providing of food while also…
…taking out the trash (a poop sac), shown below in his beak.
I’m afraid I was off in my estimate of the age of the baby birds and so misjudged when they would fledge. The hatchlings take 11 – 14 days to prepare. I think now that they hatched around the first of the month and departed on the 13th or 14th.
Also, I suspect this nest had only one or two hatchlings. It was a much quieter nest than one that holds several birds, which I’ve had the pleasure to watch in the past. Only once did I see a beak in this early summer nest, shown below, poking up for a bit of food from its father.
SilverLining 