I'm kind of in torture right now. I'm on a big deadline for Minnesota Audubon but I can hear warblers outside my window...must resist urge to digiscope...must be responsible...ehn...ehn...ehn. Crap, as I type this, I can hear a black and white warbler giving its squeaky wheel song. I think I'm either going to have to put on headphones and listen to music or go over to a coffee shop and pray that the din from customers keeps me focused. Now, I hear a Tennessee warbler...

To make matters worse, I just got an email from Non Birding Bill about his walk to work this morning:

Walking through the Loring Park today I watched two male orioles beating the s*** out of each other. At two points they were locked together on the ground. Tried to take a picture with my crummy phone, but basically they're two orange dots. At first when I saw them chasing each other, I thought they were going after a crow that a red-winged blackbird was chasing, but once they locked talons, the crow and blackbird didn't want to have anything to do with the orioles.

NBB is watching birds and not me? What is this world coming to? I personally have always had a tough time taking angry orioles seriously. That loud, clear beautiful whistling song they do, just doesn't come across as a violent warning. I can't imagine what it must have been like to see them going at it, at Loring Park.