A Very Happy Father's Day

I'm sure that most who have lost their dads agree that Father's Day is difficult, but my experience with a different sort of dad made this Father's Day one I will never forget.

For years I wanted Orioles to visit my yard with no luck, but finally after much strategy and patience, my yard is home to many.  The male in this story is my original Oriole (now named Daddy-O). Over the years he has become much less skittish, at times perching only a few feet away from me when I'm on the back deck.

I knew he nested nearby, but it wasn't until my next door neighbour called me today to tell me that she had accidentally cut down a Baltimore Oriole's nest that I realized that his nest was in the large maple right next door!  She thought she was cutting down a caterpillar tent and only when the nest hit the ground did she discover 4 Oriole nestlings inside.  She was devastated and so was I.

While I was quickly driving home to help, my neighbours had attempted to relocate the nest but it was too far away.  The nature and size of the tree made it impossible to fasten it anywhere on the tree and keep it within 10 feet of the original nest.

The nest of Oriole babies lands on the ground, having dropped around 25 ft.

 The babies had weakened to the point where it appeared that only one was still alive, one was possibly holding on, and it looked like two had died.  What really broke my heart was that mom and dad kept returning to the limb that used to support the nest with food.  They couldn't understand what had happened to their little family.

We were now heading into hour 3 and were getting ready to drive the babies to a wildlife rehabber - though I couldn't bear the thought of "my" Orioles losing their clutch.  I talked through an idea with Shades of Hope and they encouraged me to give it a try.  Directly below the limb (which was too high to reattach the nest) is a trampoline.  The trampoline has long poles all the way around.  After much contemplation, I found a very small wicker hanging basket for flowers that has been in my garage for a while.  By adding moss to the bottom, I was able to get it to the height of the nest.  A little duct tape to secure the basket to the pole, and the nest was now suspended 10 feet directly under where the nest had originally been.

And now....we waited for what felt like hours.  At one point the parents appeared to have abandoned the nest altogether, over 20 minutes past and neither returned.  When they did show up they would jump from branch to branch, confused.  The problem was the babies were to weak to call out, so the Orioles didn't think to inspect a trampoline to find their babies (why would they!).

That's where my iPhone came in.  I found a Sibleys call of slightly older Oriole nestlings chattering and placed it on the trampoline mat, about 6 feet underneath the basket.  More waiting.  Then Dad finally looked at the trampoline for the first time!

We held our breath as we watched him hop down onto the mat and walk around.  He recognized the chattering call but couldn't locate his babies.  He continued exploring until finally a baby caught his eye!  He perched on the edge of the hanging basket and looked down.  Woo hoo!  We thought we were home free!

But after staring at the babies a while, he jumped down to the iPhone!  He stared into it, and it was obvious it was confusing him so now that it had done its job I removed it.  My mind was blown when I realized that he understood that this device was responsible for the calls.

Another ten minutes or so and finally he reappeared.  He visited the nest a few more times, without food.  Clearly he was confused by this ordeal.  We feared now that we had lost all the babies because they were not moving.

He left one more time, but when he returned he was followed by mama and it was interesting because she took only seconds before she recognized her babies were in the hanging basket.

Mom Oriole, trying to figure out what has happened to her family.

And finally - they started feeding them!  It was a constant back and forth with bugs and worms and jelly.  We are confident that there are at least 3 very strong babies.  Its possible we lost the fourth but I don't want to rule that out yet.  We have one more step to complete, which is to hang cedar branches on either side to shield the babies from the sun, and of course predation might be a problem but all we can do is hope that nature will be kind to this little family after all they've been through.

My hope is that in a short period of time Daddy-O will bring his babies over and teach them how to use the water fountain in my yard for the first time, like he has in years past.

Daddy-O, feedings his beautiful babies in this make-shift replacement nest.

What started off as one of my all-time worst wildlife moments turned out to be one of my best.  I learned so much about the intelligence and dedication of these parents - and was very surprised when I learned that Daddy-O understood that the call was coming from my phone.

The branches at the top are where the original nest was.  The top of the trampoline pole to the left is where the hanging flower basket with the original nest is now.  It still amazes me that the parents found and accepted this new home for their family.

Here's a video clip of both mom and dad feeding them.

An amazing Father's Day for this papa Oriole, and his little family.  What a great dad :)

Thanks once again to Shades of Hope - their coaching over the phone was encouraging and invaluable!

***UPDATE***

June 20 2016 - We added the cedar shading this morning and the parents have created a little entryway.  All 4 babies survived and are thriving!  Here are a few pics taken from my deck this morning.

Mom seems to have spent the night in the nest.

She is very involved in feedings as well.

The parents seem to appreciate the shading of the babies now that we've added cedar branches.  They have created a little doorway and only seem to enter the nest from here.

Extreme crop to show the little open gaping mouth.

The parents eat grape jelly from my feeder for themselves, but I'm happy to see that they only feed the babies insects.

It seems like every trip back to the nest, there is a different insect species.

Dad making a landing.

Dad on his way to gather more food.