Oriole nest by the driveway

I found an oriole nest on the ground a couple of weeks ago. It was last year’s nest and it looked like a jumble of twine on the side of our driveway by the office.  Anyone walking by might think it trash to be discarded, and at first I thought it was, but this is turning out to be an annual occurrence. I guess I have four or five oriole nests from the same number of years. I don’t ever see them hanging in the big elm that stretches out over our driveway while the orioles are nesting in them, but I usually notice them after the leaves have fallen and the trees are bare. It is only then that the interesting pouch of the nylon fibers appears as it sways in the winter wind. The nest hangs on for the entire winter and most of the spring and summer and then as it occurred this week – detaches from its home base and plummets to the ground, to be added to our collection.   I saw the orioles this spring when they returned from their over winter grounds somewhere in either Mexico, Central America or northern South America and  I watched them to try to detect where their 2009 home might be located, but to no avail. I scour the ends of the pendulous elm branches, looking for the latest of the orioles amazing creations, but I suppose I’ll just have to wait until the leaves drop again and the cold winter’s wind reveals the location of this year’s brood. 

Oriole searching for a place to build its nest in our elm tree