The orioles arrive

As I walked out my back door today, I was surprised to look up and see a Baltimore Oriole sipping from one of my hummingbird feeders! The bird flew away and I flew back inside to dig out my old oriole feeder.

I rinsed the feeder off and mixed up some nectar and filled it. I didn't have any grape jelly, which orioles are said to love, but I did have Mandarin oranges, another oriole treat, so I halved one of them and put it on the feeder.

Then I grabbed my camera and took it and the feeder outside. I took down the hummingbird feeder (which I hadn't seen visited by hummers for a while) and hung the oriole feeder in its place. I sat down to wait and watch, wondering if the bird would return.

As it turned out, he would and did and I was able to capture a series of images.

This appears to be a first year male. He is not as brightly colored as the fully matured males, but there's no doubt as to his identity.

Where there is one oriole during migration, there are usually others, but I didn't see any others today. However, I couldn't sit around all afternoon waiting for them to turn up. I had chores to do. If more do turn up, the table is now set for them. Maybe I'll even go get some grape jelly to sweeten the pot.