[mou] Orioles (how to get them to stay)

[Cathy Gagliardi]

Hi Sara,
  You've got some of the right ingredients for Orioles...and it couldn't get any cooler right now.
I've never seen so many Orioles in all my years of catering to them specifically, as they are my favorite songbird by far.

  Orange halves: cut an orange in half (not sliced) and present it "upright" like a bowl. I pound a finishing nail in my fence post half-way so that I can push the orange halve into the nail and it stays put. Orioles are hitting oranges hard right now but that will end soon, once nesting starts and they go into their insect-mode for high protein.

Grape jelly: somehow get a dish of this out there real soon....this is what will make them want to stay, especially if your surroundings are ripe for building a nest.

Nesting material: in that suet cage that you have your orange slices, take the slices out and offer them nesting material in this same suet cage. Cat/Dog hair is an excellent choice and if you have yarn, cut it up into 6 inch strips and put that in the suet cage also. (If your yarn is longer than 6", it can actually strangle an entangled nestling in their purse-like pouch they build for a nest.)

Mealworms: prime food source to offer when Mom needs high-protein for her egg development and eventually her young will too, once they hatch. You can put your mealworms right on top of the jelly and they will welcome this immensely.

Nectar: they are hitting this hard right now too so if you have a Hummingbird feeder that has the portal-flowers that can be removed for a larger beak (Orioles), pull them out and the 2 species will share this feeder with no problem at all.

 If all of these ingredients are not available for your Orioles, (especially mealworms) you will see the next month go by thinking they have left.
If they do nest with you, no specie can survive on all these sugar-enriched ingredients like nectar, oranges and jelly. Offering mealworms will be an added delight for them, as well as you, and you will still be able to see them on a regular basis when their high-protein diet kicks in.

After the kids have fledged, they will ALL come back to the sweet stuff and right around Labor Day they will head south again.
4 months with them and then 8 months without them, just doesn't seem fair.
I guess, enjoy them to the fullest while you can.

  Best of luck to you,
  Cathy Gagliardi
    St. Paul, MN
   
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sara Rene' Martin 
To: mou-net at moumn.org 
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:53 PM
Subject: [mou] excellent morning.



If I weren't so new to birding I would have a lot more to report.  What I was able to correctly identify out my front window put a very wide grin on my face!

 a pair  of rb grosbeaks (first for me)
yellow warbler  (another first)
black and white warblers  (another)
Yellow rumped warblers
GBH
cardnals
robins
my nesting chipping sparrows
other warblers and it makes me crazy that I don't know which ones!!
what I think was a flycatcher and another beautiful tannish bird I couldn't identify.

My backyard yield not nearly so great.  Although I think I had a cat bird at my oriole feeder.  Alas, no orioles ---How do you put jelly out?  I don't have a feeder for it.  What recommendations do you have?  I have oranges sliced in a suet cage, an oriole feeder and a hummer feeder with no visitors - What am I doing wrong?

My husband put screws in my peanut feeder  - it has been knocked down again but mostly peanuts intact.  Much to the dismay of my 87 squirrels, 2 foxes, and who knows how many raccoons.  I did have a large downy on it moments ago.  

What fun!  Is it always this cool?
sara
South Saint Paul


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