Success for the birds

I finally managed to get some pictures of a female oriole at the backyard deck feeder. The male hasn't yet been as cooperative. Hummingbirds, both male and female, are using it too. So far, no one is feasting on the dehydrated meal worms I have out front. It may be time to move them out back again and take our chances with the squirrels. It's more important, I've read, that the mealworms be available after any eggs have hatched.

female oriole at feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

hummingbird at oriole feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

Fifty-Fifty

By Patricia Clark 

You can have the grackle whistling blackly 

        from the feeder as it tosses seed,

if I can have the red-tailed hawk perched

        imperious as an eagle on the high branch.

You can have the brown shed, the field mice

        hiding under the mower, the wasp’s nest on the door,

if I can have the house of the dead oak,

        its hollowed center and feather-lined cave.

You can have the deck at midnight, the possum

        vacuuming the yard in its white prowl,

if I can have the yard of wild dreaming, pesky

        raccoons, and the roaming, occasional bear.

You can have the whole house, window to window,

        roof to soffits to hardwood floors,

if I can have the screened porch at dawn, 

        the Milky Way, any comets in our yard.

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