Little Rays of Sunshine

My birthday dawned drab and dreary with intermittent rain. As I sat down with my morning coffee, I glanced out the front window toward all the bird feeders and thought, “Lord, it sure would be great if an oriole could come on my birthday.”

Well, I no more than thought that thought when TWO orioles landed on the orange feeder!! Little rays of sunshine sent to brighten up my birthday! Unfortunately, when I jumped up to grab my camera, they both flew off. It was probably just as well because a few moments later a hummingbird appeared but the gray darkness of the morning made photos impossible.

Even if it was my birthday, I couldn’t just lollygag in front of the window all day, I still had to go to work.  On Tuesdays I only work in the morning so after work I enjoyed shopping and lunch out with my co-workers. It was nearly 4 p.m. when I returned home and thankfully, the orioles had returned, too!!

I have to apologize that these photos aren’t as good as I would have liked, since they were taken from behind the picture window glass on an overcast, drizzly day. But still, these guys sure did brighten up my day!

Birthday Baltimore oriole.

Oriole samples the orange.

Now trying some grape jelly.

Showing me his best side.

This morning we had heavy fog but by time I returned from work in the afternoon, things had cleared up considerably. Along with the real sunshine, came more rays of bright orange sunshine to make my day.

Baltimore oriole.

I liked this one, with the orange pulp hanging from his beak. 🙂

I had so much fun watching the oriole circus outside my window, it was nearly impossible to get anything else done. There were so many of them and they don’t like to be on the feeder at the same time, so sometimes one of them was hanging off the bottom. Unfortunately, I couldn’t successfully photograph two of them on the feeder at the same time. Every photo I took was blurry. I think my camera couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to focus on, and the light color of the tree bark in the background also messed with the exposure. So, you’ll have to take my word for it that it was a fun time, and enjoy these photos of singular birds. 🙂

Oriole pole dance.

Such a handsome fellow!

Hmmmm, wrong feeder!

I can’t forget the ladies!

Pretty female Baltimore oriole.

It was after 3:30 when I returned home from work but even so, my first priority was refilling all the feeders. I noticed that the mealworm feeder was empty and I thought that was odd because I had put fresh meal worms in it this morning. I was happy that something was eating those expensive live worms! Imagine my surprise when a short while after putting out fresh meal worms, I saw an oriole land on the feeder and start chowing down! I had no idea orioles ate meal worms. So, that explained where this morning’s meal worms went!

Baltimore oriole eating mealworm.

Getting some grub.

Orioles weren’t the only bright spot of color today — there were plenty of rose-breasted grosbeaks, too. Here’s a handsome fellow still getting in his full coat of breeding plumage.

Male rose-breasted grosbeak getting his breeding colors.

Oh, I may as well throw in another of the handsome guys. 🙂

Male rose-breasted grosbeak.

And here are some pretty girls that were attracting attention.

Female rose-breasted grosbeak.

One of my favorites of the day! 🙂

Female rose-breasted grosbeak.

We were supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon and head up north for Mother’s Day weekend, which has been our tradition for more than 15 years.  But Mark is feeling overwhelmed with everything that still needs to be done around here, so we have decided to cancel our trip and stay home.  I am still going to take Friday afternoon off work and since it is the start of The Biggest Week In American Birding, Mark says we will go somewhere for the afternoon to do some bird watching!  So, hopefully I’ll have something interesting to post over the weekend.

I was going to apologize for all the photos in this post, but then decided against it. I was having so much fun watching and photographing these beautiful birds, I just couldn’t keep myself from posting the best of the bunch! I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did and that these little rays of sunshine brightened your day, too!