Oriole

Once, I saw an oriole stop by my yard for a bit. It flew off, and I didn't see another that whole season. But I did realize that they might be around, so I looked into getting an oriole feeder. Finally, I just put a nail through a small piece of wood and then some picture hanger things, and used those to tie it to the deck railing, with the nail sticking up. Then I cut an orange, and smacked it onto the nail. And waited.

Yesterday, I saw my first oriole of the season. And today, someone's having quite the brunch out there. I'm thinking where there's one, there's likely a mate, but I haven't seen a bird the right size with female markings yet.

All this brings up one of my basic difficulties with taking pictures. It's really hard to get a picture where you can see the oriole's black eye in his black feathered face. I keep ending up with either washed out looking colors where I can see the eye, or good oranges where I can't see the eye, depending on the camera setting. It WOULD be helpful if I could take a picture at a different angle, perhaps with darker background behind, but I'm guessing the oriole's cooperation would be involved.

As it is, I poke my camera around the screen in the bedroom window, so everything is through a window. That isn't really bothersome when I look through, but when I take pictures that way, I notice the dirtiness of the window, and double reflection stuff and all.