Morioles

Yesterday morning, while I was having a cup of coffee before heading to work, Tom went downstairs and threw together an oriole feeder. He took a bit of lattice left over from the deck, a metal pole and a few scraps of lumber and put it together in a quarter of an hour or so. He set it up out by the other bird feeders, sliced a couple of oranges in half, slipped them into the holes in the lattice and, voila! The lattice holds the oranges nicely (with a little help from skewers) and the metal pole discourages squirrel climbing.

The man is amazing. Just don't tell him I said so.

The orioles love it. I saw five at the same time out there on it or by it this morning. Orioles are apparently quite shy and it took some effort to get even these two little photos through the dining room windows, our prime bird-viewing post.

The hummingbirds also are interested, although they seem to be feeding off the blossoms on the sand cherry bushes beside it more. Tom says the sand cherries are not doing well, but the hummingbirds seem satisfied.

Although it does not seem to have any relation to the oriole feeder than a coincidence in time (sort of a post hoc, propter hoc thing), a beautiful indigo bunting has also shown up to bring more color to the yard.

Plus kudos to Tom who keeps adding plants and cleaning up and all that good stuff, even on a cold, rainy day. We may have a low temperature in the upper 30's again tonight and tomorrow night. At least it won't be quite down to freezing.