Happy Presidents Day to all!

What a great weekend to sit by the back window and watch the birds for the
GBBC! I took an hour this morning to see what would show up at my humble
feeding stations, and was rewarded with an immature (or as Sibley describes
it: "drab 1st year female") Baltimore Oriole. Compared to the mature male
that I had a month ago, I guess she is less "showy." But she does exhibit
her own exquisite beauty-similar to the beauty that I find in female
Northern Cardinals. She has been eating peanut suet and hulled sunflower
chips. I have one of those large cylinder "squirrel-proof" feeders with the
suet cake holder insider. Little birds like wrens and house sparrows have no
problem getting inside. Larger birds such as blackbirds and woodpeckers have
to stretch to get at the suet. The oriole got tired of craning her neck, so
she managed to squeeze inside. I was a little worried that she might gorge
herself to the point where she wouldn't be able to wiggle back through the
cage. (You know, a little like trying to squeeze a fat round peg out of a
square hole.) But she was able to get out-I didn't have to perform any
emergency rescues!

Also had an immature Cooper's Hawk drop by-which flushed the feeding
stations temporarily. Took a few photos of it before it took off-fortunately
(for the songbirds), without any victims. 

--Sue Probst