Last Saturday, we saw a Baltimore oriole in our yard for the first time. We
put an orange half in a hanging bird bath (where it came to drink), and
hoped for it to return. A friend that has Baltimore orioles nest near his
yard told me they have never had success with feeding these birds with
orange halves or a nectar feeder. Well, at least we were going to try..
Last evening my wife commented that the half of orange looks pretty decrepit
by now. However, when I got in from the turkey woods this morning, my son
told me he got good photos of two Baltimore orioles. Both pecked at the
orange half.
Well, we now have a nectar feeder hanging now as well as a fresh tangerine
half. The birds returned a number of times by mid-afternoon, though I
haven't seen them on the nectar feeder yet.
This afternoon we visited friends near Linville and got to see a pair of
red-headed woodpeckers-a treat for us. On the trip home, we saw a
meadowlark along a pasture.
Yesterday we went on a wildflower jaunt and found a barred owl in an area we
have previously seen one. He was silhouetted against a white sky but with
some Photoshop work we were able to get a fairly decent photo of it.
Because of the distance, we used a 2x converter on a 400, f/2.8 lens.
Since the real tripod didn't get packed, I could only use a lightweight
Bogen and camera shake was an issue. To deal with that, I used a 2-second
timer setting. It was an interesting science trying to rustle leaves or
make some other unique noise to get the bird to look our way and stay
focused on us while the camera took delayed exposures.
This link has some photos of the Baltimore orioles and the barred owl.
http://www.dogwoodridgeoutdoors.com/v.php?pg=50
Kevin Shank
Rockingham County
