On Saturday I observed a first-year male Orchard Oriole in the morning before heading for the Stewart Park plant sale, and several times in the afternoon at our house a few hundred yards north of the German Cross Road bridge over Six Mile Creek east of Ithaca. As far as I can tell he sang nearly non-stop throughout the day. On Monday I saw first a female and then an adult male Orchard Oriole in our yard, nectaring on our small patch of eight blueberry bushes. They stayed in the area all day, touring the black and sweet cherry trees and returning to the blueberries. They were later joined at the blueberries by as many as four Baltimore Orioles. Now we have had both blueberries and Baltimore Orioles in the yard for many years, but this is the first time I have seen any bird other than the Catbird pay any attention to the blueberries. I am tempted to think that the Baltimore Orioles learned about them from observing the Orchard Orioles. Much to my delight the pair of Orchard Or! ioles continues today, and I hope that they will nest nearby. Surprisingly, unlike the brash youngster that visited us on Saturday they are mostly silent. I have heard the male sing only once, and then very briefly and softly. Otherwise they make a few double-cheks and occasional single whistled note.
Also late yesterday afternoon I was surprised to see two Sandhill Cranes flying very high and roughly parallel to route 79 northwest toward Ithaca. A new yard bird. Tom Nix tom...@earthlink.net -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
