Discussion: was it this?

was it this.? If so, it is a very fine bird, with a really nice song.

Yes! It was lovely!

Lovely indeed! After 15 years in my current house, I spotted the first Baltimore Oriole here just last week. As a child I was fascinated at this bird's style of building a nest: it's like a basket hanging by two straps from a tree limb.

We had more of them when we had more elms around. I think they liked how tall those trees were and their general shape.

Most of the elms have died in the 30+ years we've been here.

The local nature center director remarked that the BOs liked to keep to the tops of tall trees, so you might rarely find them unless you knew their song. So elms may indeed be a key. Becks, I presume you know you're in the "Elm City" of Connecticut. Not sure how many elms are still there after the sad blight of decades ago.

I heard on a radio show this week that it wasn't insect damage but a fungus the insects carried (likely picked up from decking from overseas ships) that caused Dutch elm disease.

It was years before I realized that an oriole was a bird and not just a baseball team.

Reminds me of a story about another baseball bird. My friend Tony grew up in Alaska and moved to upstate New York. In his new environs he saw a new bird and exclaimed with delight to an acquaintance, "look, a blue jay!" Tony is a sensitive fellow, and he was mortified when they guy said, "they're quite common here, actually."

I still get over excited about Blue Jays. They are beautiful birds.