The Baltimore orioles returned to the lake two weeks ago. They come here in May, and I don't see as much of them the rest of the year once they've nested. I heard them twittering in the tall oak trees before I saw them, pieces of the sunset broken off and flung into the trees. Alas, I have no good pics of them yet, but I'll be posting below some not so great pics of some of the ones I saw when I first spotted them 2 years ago. I didn't spot any last year.
But first, here's a pic of one of the many cardinals we have around the lake this year:
A couple of weeks ago I saw a male and female pair nuzzling each other's beaks. It was the sweetest thing.
And one of the crowds of robins down by the lake this year. I'll have more pics of these silly little things who like to take walks as they hunt for worms and allow you to get fairly close.
So back two Mays ago, I spotted my first oriole--this female here, if I've identified her properly, with their gold bellies and olive to brown backs.
And here's a breathtakingly brilliant orange and black male.
A female oriole and a bench, too!
A female oriole under a bench!
I may have posted this brilliant boy before. I haven't seen any of the males on the ground--they tended to perch on the heights to sing.
One fellow this year has a very distinctive tune that I kept whistling back at him. Soon I found a few swooping above me twittering to check me out, probably saying: "OMGWTF!! This one talks! Get a load of this!" Since then he's been flying away when I whistle back to him and resumes his song further away--I could almost hear the frustrated sigh as he flies off. I'm being properly shunned now.
As you can see, they come in different shades, from a dull robin-like rust to reddish orange, to orangy gold.
I've got some pics of them this year I haven't uploaded yet, but I don't think they're any better than these pics.
One day I will get a good zoom and bring you some better pics of these beauties.
They're hard to catch--they flit about a lot, and by the time you've got the shot focused, they're usually off to another spot.
I've sharpened and cropped all these pics. I didn't want to crop them further for enlargement and lose more resolution.
And here's one of the oval dangly nests they make high up in the trees. They favored these oaks, and do again this year, as they're some of the tallest trees around, but it wasn't the only kind of tree they nested in.
I wish I had some owl pics for![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hanarobi's birthday, but I have yet to spot one around the lake, although I do hear them in the adjoining woods outside my window.
But first, here's a pic of one of the many cardinals we have around the lake this year:
A couple of weeks ago I saw a male and female pair nuzzling each other's beaks. It was the sweetest thing.
And one of the crowds of robins down by the lake this year. I'll have more pics of these silly little things who like to take walks as they hunt for worms and allow you to get fairly close.
So back two Mays ago, I spotted my first oriole--this female here, if I've identified her properly, with their gold bellies and olive to brown backs.
And here's a breathtakingly brilliant orange and black male.
A female oriole and a bench, too!
A female oriole under a bench!
I may have posted this brilliant boy before. I haven't seen any of the males on the ground--they tended to perch on the heights to sing.
One fellow this year has a very distinctive tune that I kept whistling back at him. Soon I found a few swooping above me twittering to check me out, probably saying: "OMGWTF!! This one talks! Get a load of this!" Since then he's been flying away when I whistle back to him and resumes his song further away--I could almost hear the frustrated sigh as he flies off. I'm being properly shunned now.
As you can see, they come in different shades, from a dull robin-like rust to reddish orange, to orangy gold.
I've got some pics of them this year I haven't uploaded yet, but I don't think they're any better than these pics.
One day I will get a good zoom and bring you some better pics of these beauties.
They're hard to catch--they flit about a lot, and by the time you've got the shot focused, they're usually off to another spot.
I've sharpened and cropped all these pics. I didn't want to crop them further for enlargement and lose more resolution.
And here's one of the oval dangly nests they make high up in the trees. They favored these oaks, and do again this year, as they're some of the tallest trees around, but it wasn't the only kind of tree they nested in.
I wish I had some owl pics for
hanarobi's birthday, but I have yet to spot one around the lake, although I do hear them in the adjoining woods outside my window. Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Over here the cuckoos are so dim that, when the males are calling to claim territory, if one says "cuckoo" back at them (even sometimes in a human-voice rather than a bird-imitation) they not only swoop down to check one out but they have been known to attack because they're too dim to understand that a human isn't a rival male cuckoo!
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I miss robins! I don't think they live here in southern California.
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We've got a huge crop of robins this year--I'll send some your way. (-:
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