The Red Saucers and The Baltimore Orioles

I have read and have had many people tell me how the Orioles love oranges. I don't deny that. I just can't, in all honesty, confirm it. We have had many summer Oriole visitors over the years here in Chemung, NY. And that's all they were...just visitors passing through on their way to parts unknown. All the orange slices weren't enough of a draw to keep them here for very long. Last year we heard they also like grape jelly. Bingo!! The one or two transients became 6 or 8 breeding pairs who have stayed. This year the homemakers have really filled the air with there wonderful songs and calls. They come to the saucers continuously throughout the daylight hours. We are scolded if we are too active on the deck or if we are to close to "their" snack dishes. Oh, and they (The Orioles) are very picky also. No generic stuff for them either. Top shelf is all they will eat. In this case it's Welch's Grape Jelly. They can't get enough. And it all leads to some very beautiful pictures as well as some very happy Orioles. 

 

I'm really in to this Spring Color change.

Perhaps it's the underlining understanding that, this spring, I will no longer be a spring chicken but rather I will spring into the ranks of those eligible for Medicare, that I find it to be so colorful, and meaningful. The going from the winters cold white lifeless landscapes toward this now vibrant burst of rainbow shades of color is a transformation that I haven't quite experienced before. Maybe being retired and staying at home and watching the changes as they happen right in front of me on a daily basis makes me feel this rare emotion. I've seen, as our American Native brothers say, "many spring moons", but none of them have caught my eye like this year has. Shame on me for not paying more attention to this season change in past years. No I can't say that either because I have paid attention over the years. I love the spring time. Life reappears. All creatures and plants have that let's stretch and grow and bloom and become pretty and active again after a long dormant sleep. Could that be it? I can stretch, grow, and be active, but I suspect the bloom and get pretty days are well behind me. The gray has won a long and determined battle and the springing outta bed in the morning just isn't happening any more. I've always been an earlier riser and still am...but..there is no more bounce up and have at it. I take it nice and easy until the circulation takes its hold, and all the moving parts of my being are all awake and..well moving. Grabbing my coffee cup, I head for the deck. Breath deep..stretch..look..listen....Awwww. It's great to be alive and enjoy another spring morning. Listen to those beautiful songbirds. Look at that colorful landscape and all those beautiful colorful birds and plants near bloom. And look at how high the grass is getting. Perhaps I better crank up the mower today.

Enjoy the spring my friends. Enjoy the spring. Enjoy your life. Enjoy our wildlife. Enjoy the changing of the colors of your life and surroundings. 

I'm really in to this Spring Color change. I hope you are also.......

Trout Lily

The Colorful Feathers of Spring

It's so nice to see the opening of a new spring (although, a little less rain and fowl weather would be nice) with the arrival of our resident summer birds. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the Chickadees, Titmouse, Juncos, and the "dull" Goldfinches doing there thing to get us through the long winter. But when the drab pea-green feathers burst open to a brilliant yellow and the first sighting of the beautiful Bluebird and a sudden flash of a Rose breast or Ruby neck appears, well, it's just a nice fuzzy feeling. Isn't it? Even the Blue-jays, who don't do much of anything except eat and make a mess, seem to be more colorful.

Enjoy with me, some of my feathery spring friends:

Now don't ya feel all warm and fuzzy??  

Surprise Surprise

So I says to the wife.."Come on Hon, let's take a ride over to Park Station. Maybe we'll see something we haven't seen in a while". I'm thinking maybe Ducks, Geese, or other Waterfowl that frequent this small lake in the spring and summer months. After an hour or so of driving around and seeing only a pair of Mallards, we headed back home.

In the 80's I was a Deputy Wildlife Conservation Officer with the Pa. Game Commission in the Northwest District of the state (Erie County). As such, I had seasonal duties that at times required for the release of "farm" raised Ring-neck Pheasants. I'd come home from my day job and there would be anywhere from a dozen to 20 or so crates of Pheasants stacked in my driveway. I think their were 10 or 12 Pheasants in each crate with male and female birds. I'd load them in the back of the truck and grab 1 or 2 or 3 of my sons and head out to a couple of game lands and release them. This usually happened close to the opening of ring-neck season. Now having about a dozen ring-necks in a closed confined crate for any length of time, results in an aroma that is really tough to take. Reaching into the crate and carefully getting a hold of individual birds was also pretty messy. (Reason for grabbing 1, 2, or 3 sons).Oh the memories...My boys would return home really disgustingly stinky, dirty, etc. Mom wasn't proud..but I was. Go figure.

With all that said, I moved away from Northwestern Pa, resigned my commission, and transferred to North Central Pa. with my day job in early 1988. I have not seen or heard a Ring-neck Pheasant since. Until I pulled down the driveway from my aforementioned trip to Park Station. There he was...dusting himself in the gravel. My wife had never seen one, so while she was getting her eyes full, I got out and filled my camera lens with pheasant. I only took, over the next 3 hours, about 150 pictures. Gotta love digital cameras. This ring-neck has taken up residency in my front yard it seems as I awoke this morning to the, not heard recently, but very familiar sound of the Ring-neck Pheasant call. It's all good.

I so love wildlife....and the memories of days gone by.