Scratching our heads

One of the ‘target’ species we hoped to see at our feeders this year are Baltimore Orioles. About a week ago one landed on the hummingbird feeder trying to get the “nectar” and we broke out the oriole feeder. Molly filled up the small recesses with grape jelly. For the past week we have been graced with at least 4 mature males, 2 mature females and what we think are juvie males.

We must have been the place to be for Orioles. They hit the feeder hard. We were refilling it twice a day. They were eating so much jelly, Molly went to the store and bought a bargain brand so she would have some Welch’s for her morning toast. It has been a lot of fun to see these colorful visitors.

This week has been a different story. Oriole activity is down. After looking at the migration /nesting area map, we see that our part of Missouri is on the borderline between “just passing through” and “setting up housekeeping”.

We aren’t sure if they are in the process of leaving or are busy building nests etc.

A trio of shots– not Nat Geo but we didn’t have time to do the ‘bird on a stick’ set up. Tomato cages have to be fabricated so Miss Molly can get her garden set up and I’m running behind. 🙂