Last winter we noticed an old oriole nest in one of the oak trees across the
road. I looked for it recently but couldn't spot it, I thought, because the
new foliage was hiding it. It turns out that it had fallen and we
accidently came across it in the weeds under the tree, on Saturday. I
posted a photo to Flickr (link below), which shows that it was constructed
almost entirely of manmade materials; mostly a fiber that looks like it came
from a feed sack of some sort. There is a little synthetic bale twine mixed
in, here and there. The bottom of the bowl is mostly lined with cattle
tail, or horse, hair and there are a few strands of the same hair throughout
the rest, but there is little natural material beside that.
Several years ago, I came across another fallen oriole nest snagged on a
barbed wire fence in the same area. It was constructed of strands of bright
blue baler twine and bits of the green mesh wrap that our local farmers use
to wrap bale rolls. I didn't think to take a photo at that time. Actually,
there is a 3-foot-long frayed strand of that green mesh material hanging
from the limb of a walnut tree across the road. It has been there for at
least a year. At first I puzzled about it, but now I think I know how it
got up thereJ
Stephen Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co., KY
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91780057@N05/18224346493/in/dateposted-public/
