[mou] Orioles back at the jelly

[Thomas Maiello]

The B Orioles are back in the jelly again.  Back where the grape is 
their friend.  Where the sugar is sweet and they just can't miss a 
beat.  Yes they're back in the jelly again.

My first RT Hummer arrived today so I had to take my red ribbons off the 
feeders because the wind caused the feeders to turn quite a bit.  Those 
little bills have a harder time poking into a moving target.

Received an interesting email from Kelly suggesting that my Downy 
Woodpeckers following my frenzied Hairy Woodpecker at Rice Creek Trail 
Park in Fridley a while back could have been young Hairys.  That got me 
to thinking of how quickly I go to an answer or conclusion instead of 
staying with a question and accepting additional information.  My first 
few words in response to the emailed opinion was to defend my point of 
view.  Then I stopped and deleted it and took a second to dwell a bit on 
the possibilities.  What did I really observe?  Was it just the smaller 
birds size that had me say they were Downys?  A bit like the Starling 
young aggressively pursuing the adult.  Judgment, reaction, defend, and 
be right.  My how the birds teach those lessons if I am just open to 
seeing the whole picture and not just settle on my first reaction.  I 
wonder how many birds I have missed because I assumed they were one bird 
and didn't stop to confirm an eye ring or leg color or other identifying 
characteristic or the lack of them.  I looked through my bird books a 
bit and noticed how close some of the birds I am saying I haven't seen 
have similar characteristics to the ones I consider familiar.  I am 
catching myself sticking to only one or maybe two identifying 
characteristics without looking at the whole picture and who knows what 
I miss when I snap to an answer.  My appreciation to Jim Ryan and Steve 
Weston for that lesson to look long enough to figure out what a bird 
isn't as well as to what it is.

Oops, gotta go, my pair of Brown Thrashers are trying to look for bugs 
under some plants I am transplanting into my garden.  There goes another 
plant face down.  Bye now.

Thomas Maiello
Spring Lake Park