Tag: baltimore oriole male

The Baltimore orioles arrived two weeks ago. Their lovely songs fill the trees and thicket on the far side of the pond. Sometimes, I catch a glimpse of their brilliant orange, as above, while other times they sit long enough for a portrait, as below. Both photos are of a male.The female (below) is not as brilliant an orange color, but she fans her tail feathers and calls to the male in their spring mating rituals. I don’t know what the sweet thing pictured below is! A friend is going to look at this picture and try to tell me. It’s such an ordinary looking bird that I should be able to identify it. But sometimes it’s the less ordinary that is easy to distinguish. I love the quality of this photo – the lines of the branches, the blue of the sky, the calm posture of the bird.
One day in early May, a female common grackle was singing her heart out, apparently to get the attention of a male, which she did. He arrived as she postured like a tea cup and stood perfectly still. He approached her and put her beak in his. I’m not sure if this is his way to claim her as his, or if he was simply silencing her!
The red-winged blackbird is fast at work, establishing relationships and nesting areas. It passes back and forth over the pond, stopping in favorite places – in the pond reeds, at the top of trees, or on an outer branch of a tree. Often, the image below is how the bird presents – a darting black bird with striking red at its shoulders.

I was caught by surprise one day in early May when six goslings paddled alongside a pair of Canada geese. But as it is May, the birthing season is upon us. Perhaps it’s the chilly and rainy weather that has me not quite believing we are this far into this phase of the season.To convince me, an American robin sits patiently on her nest whenever I walk by. I am anxious to see her hatchlings. Already, I anticipate much frustration as I try to capture their picture against that milky sky behind the nest! I’ll be hoping for deep blue skies once they arrive!