The first morning at our vacation rental in Mexico I found spilled sugar across the kitchen counter that was not there when we checked in. I carefully wiped the white crystals into the trash can, only to return a couple hours later to the same scenario plus finding a sugar packet with a hole in the middle. I was baffled that my beloved mate, Thom, would be so careless with sugar, but I didn’t say anything.

Two days later a continuous tapping woke me from a nap. It sounded like someone chopping repeatedly on a cutting board, but after investigating, I verified I was alone in the apartment. Puzzled, but assuming it came from the upstairs apartment, I sat down to write. Splat! A sugar packet fell from the kitchen ceiling! Upon closer inspection, I spied a brilliant orange and black Hooded Oriole perched up in the chandelier. The cupola-raised ceiling lined in brick with a ledge had provided the perfect hideout for our bird stowaway!

Staying calm and moving slowly, not to frighten the bird into erratic flight, I opened wide the sliding glass doors and held up a large bread roll and placed it on the balcony and stepped away. To my huge relief, he flew first to the dining room light-fixture and then out the doors to safety and freedom.

When sharing my experience with Thom, he laughed and said he’d also found the spilled sugar a couple times and cleaned it up absolutely befuddled I would leave such a mess, especially since I did not use sugar. We both laughed that neither of us said anything, attributing our laxness to the beginning of a laid-back vacation!

And that clever Hooded Oriole had subsisted for three days on pilfered sugar packets!