Baltimore Oriole Frenzy At The Lake (Seezurh House, Author Beth Peyton)

A Striking Male Baltimore Oriole

A Female Baltimore Oriole

6:33 This Morning

It's ten after six, damp outside from over night showers, 48º with another clear sky overhead, a vast cloud bank over Long Point, hiding the sun for now. I opened the porch window so I could hear the morning birds singing, mostly purple martins, a few geese, perhaps a few peepers, too.  And I just heard a loon off towards Wells Bay.  I wish I could see it.

We both decided to head to Lakewood yesterday morning, me to yoga and Evie to the YMCA for her workout.  Yoga class was just three of us, but it was fine since we were able to do some new, more rigorous asanas then usual.  After class, I got a coffee, at Ryder's Cup, supporting the locals, and Evie picked me up and we resisted the temptation to do some shopping and came straight home.

Scoping the Area

Patiently Waiting His Turn

Sitting on The Feeder

When we got home, I got our Baltimore Oriole feeder out of the garage and Evie filled it with Wegman's finest grape jam and hung it out side her kitchen window.  And that became our entertainment for the rest of the afternoon.  One, then two, then three Baltimore orioles appeared, struggled to find a way to dip their beak in the feeder, fought each other, and generally amused us the rest of the day.  Evie took mega pictures of the frolicking birds, forcing the finches to sit on the branches of various trees, as the orioles took over the feeder, pigging out on grape jelly.  The males are amazingly colorful, as you can see from the photos.  I have no idea how they find the feeder so quickly. Evie literally hung it and they were there.  And we had not seen an oriole up to the point that they arrived at the feeder.  They must have a grape jelly radar detector in their DNA.

Half Dip of Grape Jelly

Had Enough? 

At 6:00, Ron and Linda came over for a beer and appetizers, as they had just come back to the lake.  It was good to see them again after a three week hiatus.  Around 7:00, we drove over to Bemus Point, to the quaint library, for a book talk by a local women from Maple Springs.  She has written a memoir of her past couple of years, moving full time to Maple Springs after a couple of difficult years in her life. It's called CLEAR SKIES, DEEP WATER and has been out for a couple of weeks.  This is her first book, so she was very humble, approachable, down to earth in her talk.  She read from her book for ten minutes then answered questions for about twenty minutes.  There were about thirty people jammed in the small back room of the library, many neighbors from Maple Springs who appear in the book.  We all liked her quite a bit, in fact, the McClures had met her and her husband at Guppies a couple of months ago. I bought the book in Lakewood a couple of weeks ago, so Evie got her to sign it before we crossed the street for dinner at the Seezurh House.

We all seem to order the same thing, Evie her chicken sandwich, Ron a burger, Linda and me the ribeye steak dinner.  The last time we had the special, when my daughter Beth was here, they were tough and tasteless.  So we asked Shelby our waitress, just back from a vacation in the Keys, what the steaks were like, and she said they looked great.  And, fortunately, they were, so all of us were happy with our meals.  We got home around 9:30, in time to watch some American Idol before going to bed.

Enjoying The Seezurh House