Sunday Breakfast

Grape jelly is
beak smacking good on a cold winter morning!

Not the best picture, since the ISO was pushed to the max to get enough speed in the morning light. (Shot hand-held by Mrs. Pion with a 300 mm lens on the Nikon D70.) Half the pixels were discarded to resize it for use here.

We think this same oriole has been visiting our yard every winter for the past three years. It first showed up two years ago in February, snacking on our hummingbird feeders. (We usually get some rufous hummers in winter, but not this year.) It has been showing up in January the last few years, which is still a bit late for this area.

We got the oriole feeder you see in this picture after the first sighting, but it still visits the hummer feeder that hangs directly in front of the kitchen window. We take the bee guards off in the winter. The hummers don't care and the oriole just pulls them off.


Mrs. Pion took this one (also cropped and resized by 50%) from about 10 feet while sitting on the kitchen floor. The oriole is only about 6 inches from the window.

Hint:
If you have a hummingbird feeder and find the base lying on the ground, you might have an oriole visiting your yard. I have had to reinforce the mounting plate inside the hummingbird feeder with epoxy because the oriole is too heavy for the original design.