Subject: Interesting Oriole behavior
Date: May 08 08:55:24 1997
From: Peggi & Ben Rodgers - woodduck at cruzio.com


Hi Tweets!

We noticed some interesting behavior in the Hooded Oriole pair last night.
Firstly, they only collect palm fibers in the early evening. The male
accompanies the female and either chatters at her as she strips the fibers
or waits in a tree nearby. Guard duty perhaps? At any rate, he follows her
around but does not appear to assist in the collection of materials. Their
nest is too far away and up a tall tree to see if he helps with the nest
building.

The last couple of days have been beautiful weather (fog this morning,
though) and we've spent time after work sitting on the cliffs above the
beach. This gives us a terrific view of diving Brown Pelicans and their
flotillas of gulls. Last night one pelican dived straight into a floating
gull. These pelicans hunt in groups of 4 (is that a gaggle of pelican?) so
they make a great show!

A nice surprise last evening at the cliffs. A newly fledged mockingbird was
sitting on a chain-link fence ignoring everything but Dad who dashed in and
out. The first time I've seen a mockingbird that young.

Happy birding,

Peggi
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"