People sometimes ask where I find ideas for my monthly columns, as if I might soon be running out of story lines after more than 12 years. It occurred to me that they might be gently suggesting it is time for me to cease and desist, fading away like an old soldier. The simple fact is that Mother Nature often hits me over the head with ideas when I take the time to sit around watching her great works. Trigger warning: I have enough material on my desk for at least another 12 years of articles if the good folks at HHLT have not given me the hook by then.

There are many species which deserve an article and photo in print, but I generally wait for the right moment to move them off the “future article” pile. This month’s feature creature is one I have thought of profiling for several years, but I am not often lucky enough to encounter the bird, so I had a limited frame of reference to write in the manner to which I have become accustomed. Yes, I have often seen these birds at a distance but not in the up close and personal way that defines my writing style. Finally, Mother Nature intervened.

While sitting at the table in the cabin eating a late breakfast after an early bird walk, two flashes of orange caught my eye. There on the deck was a male Baltimore Oriole, having landed at the same time as another rare visitor to my feeders, a lovely male Eastern Towhee. When I see or hear Baltimore Orioles it is normally off in the woods around the field, or while walking a trail at Curtis Farm Preserve or another HHLT property. I have also encountered them in distant places like Costa Rica and Panama, where the birds enjoy a break from Maine winter weather. Maybe I am just a bit slow these days but I like my subjects close at hand so I can observe their behavior and if lucky, engage with them a bit.

The initial social call was brief; the oriole took a snip of suet and was off, crowded out by the raucous Blue Jays that bully every other bird in sight. In hopes that I could lure the oriole back for a longer visit I resorted to the standard playbook for attracting these birds: stake out some sweet treats. While orioles do not eat seeds, they love fruit, insects, and nectar. Since I did not have any nectar handy and the Eastern Bluebirds had devoured the last of my mealworms, I resorted to the flashy stuff: navel orange halves stuck on nails in a piece of wood along the deck railing. This ploy had not worked well for me in the past but maybe I could finally break the jinx.

Baltimore Orioles are part of the blackbird family, related to our Red-winged Blackbirds, Bobolinks, Meadowlarks and Grackles. They are migratory travelers, dispersing from breeding grounds across central and eastern parts of Canada and the US as far south as Columbia and Venezuela. Peter Vickery’s book Birds of Maine notes that the orioles have been observed spreading their breeding territories north since the early 1800s and are likely to continue with climate change ongoing. While they are not expected to arrive at my cabin in western New York until May 1, the birds I enjoyed had first come on April 26. There are over 30 beautiful orioles in the New World to enjoy when traveling including Bullock’s, Orchard, Hooded, and Audubon’s Orioles, most displaying various shades of orange or yellow.

It is said that the Baltimore Oriole received its name because its plumage resembled the colors in the coat of arms of England’s 17^th century Lord Baltimore. The name game continued when Maryland’s favorite baseball team was named the Baltimore Orioles, with this lovely bird reduced to serving as the team mascot. With plans for international ornithology experts to begin removing human names from around 1,000 birds, it will be interesting to see if this lovely bird loses its link to an ancient English peer of the realm. No matter its name, this bird will remain a favorite of birders and casual observers, a welcome visitor to feeders around the calendar.

This oriole is a handsome bird by any measure, around eight inches in length with a wingspan of about one foot. The body is strong and upright on longish legs, and they have a long, pointed bill well suited to plucking insects and digging into fruit. In addition to the bold orange and black colors, there is a distinctive white bar on their wings. Once you have seen this stunner, you are not likely to confuse it with other local birds.

Orioles favor open deciduous forests and edge habitats for nesting, partly because those areas offer good hunting for favored foods. While they may be cautious around humans, they are often found nesting in orchards, urban parks, and suburbia with suitable habitat. Since the 1960s scientists have documented a slow but continuous drop in population numbers for the bird mostly due to habitat loss, particularly the death of elm trees, their favorite nesting tree.

Like most of the blackbird family, orioles are gifted songsters, using a series of high-pitched whistles to sing and call across the seasons. Females have been observed uttering a loud screech to warn intruders away from the nest. That nest is a distinctive construction of woven grasses and other materials hanging off the end of a tree branch, up to 30 feet off the ground, with up to seven pale gray to whitish eggs. Both parents are involved in feeding and caring for their young, with a wide range of insects the favored foods including tent caterpillars, which helps to protect fruit producing trees. Orioles have also been observed sipping from Hummingbird feeders if purpose-built Oriole feeders are not on offer.

It took two more days, with a couple sightings of the Oriole along the field edge, but just after sunrise there he was again. This time the male brought along his girlfriend, a lovely bird in her own right but, of course, not nearly so glamorous as her stunning bright orange and jet-black beau. The male landed on a seed feeder, perhaps to see what all the finches were so excited about. The female hung back, sitting on the railing as far from the cabin as possible, clearly assessing the risk/reward situation at hand. The male then jumped to the suet feeder and took a bite of food. Finally, he flew back to the railing and hopped onto the orange feeder, dipping his head briefly to take a quick bite of fruit. The look on his face said it all: wow, this is great!

Over my last two days at the cabin the pair of orioles visited numerous times. When they were not scared off by other birds or my movements inside the cabin, their primary focus was on the orange halves. The female was deferential to the male, and slow to dig into the fruit until I played the jelly card. The classic temptation for Baltimore Orioles is a combination of orange halves and grape jelly. I had no grape jelly on hand so I went with a Maine solution: blueberry jam. Once the female got a taste of that delicious treat, her deference to the male was long gone. She would arrive first, hop up on the feeder and dig into the fruit, making the male wait his turn. Turnabout is always fair game, right?

If you like Ed Robinson’s writing, check out his two Nature Notes books! Click here for more information.