Since then the pair has been remodeling the apartment to their liking. They’ve added plenty of leaves and are now applying plaster (mud!) to the interior. Are they covering the decorations they don’t like? Or just filling in the gaps?
I didn't really feel that my furnished apartment needed re-plastering. The nuthatches feel differently. I wouldn't generally expect to re-plaster shelves… and do they have an issue with my choice of picture???? What's next???#GwylltHollow#Nuthatchespic.twitter.com/8ckfQZFg7L
In case you haven’t noticed, northern flickers (Colaptes auratus) are loud right now.
The Northern Flicker is very vocal in spring during which its long call (kick, kick, kick, kick, kick…) and drumming may be heard from more than a kilometer away [0.62 mile]. Homeowners sometimes express annoyance at individuals who take to hammering on metal chimneys and gates early in the morning, but fortunately this territorial advertisement only lasts for a few weeks in spring.
They hammered on the metal hoods of these old ballpark lights every spring. The lights were replaced at Magee Field in 2018. I never got a photo of the flickers on the floodlights but here’s one of a red-tailed hawk.
Old ballfield lights at Magee Field, Pittsburgh, with red-tailed hawk, July 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)
Flickers can be annoying when heard across the street, and worse than annoying when closer to home.
Welcome to my mornings these days. ? Audio clip is taken from the living room today – Northern Flicker drums on the metal chimney cover. Be careful if listening with headphones, gets loud.
Female Flicker photo to show who was making the noise, audio is from 2 April 2024. pic.twitter.com/yi5TnTsqzr
The winds over Pittsburgh were favorable last night and the birds were anxious to head north. There was high migration over southwestern PA and BirdCast tells the tale on their new Migration Dashboard.
Since 2017 we’ve been checking BirdCast for live migration maps and forecasts. This year they’ve supplemented the maps with a Migration Dashboard that provides a wealth of county-by-county information including expected species each night.
As of 5:00am today, more than a million and a half birds had flown over Pittsburgh but they were slowing down. Live traffic was sparser (50,700 birds in flight), they were moving more slowly (12 mph), and they were losing altitude (1,400 feet). This is normal; they will land before dawn.
The count of birds peaked at midnight (graph on left). It was a really good night for April (graph at right.)
You can see an additional reason why the numbers dropped at 5:00am by comparing these two Live Migration maps. At 1:40am the map in Pittsburgh is bright yellow with migrants but a dark hole (no activity) develops in Ohio and West Virginia at 5:00am. Birds stopped flying there because it was raining ahead of a cold front.
screenshots of BirdCast Live maps on 17 April 2024, 1:40am and 5:00am
Who migrated over Pittsburgh last night? The Dashboard shows 14 expected species. (This is a screenshot. Visit Allegheny County’s Dashboard and scroll down to see the rest of the list).
Coltsfoot gone to seed, Frick Park, 9 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
16 April 2024
Last week was so full of news, from peregrines to floods, that I had to skip my usual “Seen This Week” report. Meanwhile Spring isn’t holding still. Wildflowers are blooming and the early ones have already gone to seed. Here’s a selection of my best photos from last week, April 8-11.
Above and below, three photos from Frick Park. All of these are alien and some are invasive but they are pretty.
Speedwell’s (Veronica persica) tiny flowers bloom in fields and lawns. A dewdrop dangled above this one from a blade of grass.
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) is abundant along creeks and river banks including Duck Hollow and Nine Mile Run. Very invasive, but pretty, which is why it was imported as a garden plant.
Eyebright, Frick Park, 9 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Lesser Celandine, Frick Park, 8 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last Thursday I visited Barking Slopes for just an hour before the rain chased me away. Even though I didn’t have much time I saw more than 15 species in bloom including:
Large-flowered Trillium, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Spring Beauty, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Trout Lily, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Blue Cohosh flowers, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Large-flowered bellwort, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Star Chickweed, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Spring is here! Get outdoors so you don’t miss it.
Yellow-bellied sapsucker, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
15 April 2024
Twelve of us gathered in yesterday’s perfect weather for an outing in Schenley Park.
Schenley Park outing, 14 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
When I announced the outing, I said we had a good chance of seeing yellow-bellied sapsuckers and indeed we did — at least four plus an interesting interaction between a male and female.
Was this pair migrating together? Birds of the World says Not likely. Male yellow-bellied sapsuckers migrate first, the females follow later. When the males reach the breeding grounds they drum and squeal to establish territory and attract a mate. There was no drumming and squealing in Schenley (they don’t breed here) but the two birds followed each other from tree to tree. One of them seemed annoyed. Was the other “stealing” sap from his/her holes?
There were plenty of holes to choose from. The sapsuckers redrilled old rings on shagbark hickories and made new rings on tuliptrees.
Yellow-bellied sapsucker sipping sap from a tuliptree, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
We also saw nest building among blue jays (a pair) and red-winged blackbirds (just the female) …
Blue jay carrying nesting material, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
… and a pair of red-tailed hawks incubating eggs in last year’s successful nest under the bridge.
Red-tailed hawk on nest under PH Bridge, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
There aren’t many wildflowers in Schenley Park because of abundant hungry deer but we saw a few foamflowers (Tiarella sp) in an inaccessible spot.
Foamflower in bloom, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Can you see the flying honeybees and honeycombs in this photo? The hive is so high up (20-30 feet) that we wouldn’t have seen it if we hadn’t been looking for birds.
Honeybee hive way up high in a hollow branch, Schenley Park, 14 April 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
In all, we saw 33 species and lots of breeding behavior. Our last sighting was a surprise: two bald eagles, an adult and an immature, circling northward in Junction Hollow. I wondered if one of the Hays eagles was escorting an immature intruder away from the Hays nest.
Peregrine at Sewickley Bridge, 16 May 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
14 April 2024
The Sewickley Bridge has hosted single peregrines since 2017 but a pair was not regular there until early 2021. At some point observers noticed that one of the pair is banded but who could read the bands?
Banded male peregrine at Sewickley Bridge, 6 June 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
And where was this pair nesting on the bridge?
This spring Jeff Cieslak answered both questions. He photographed a nest exchange in which the male took over incubation and the female left the nest.
Peregrine nest exchange at Sewickley Bridge, 25 March 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
And he got a photo of the male’s bands.
[The male] was on the near tower so I only had to walk half-way across the bridge (so the sun was behind me). As soon as I stopped, he started to scratch his face, and his bands rotated enough and were focused enough that I think I can read them. They’re upside-down, so it’s “black 0 5 (or 6) over green S (or 5) 6.”
Banded male peregrine at Sewickley Bridge (Black/green, 05/S) on 4 Feb 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
The bands are Black/Green 05/S and he used to nest at the Neville Island I-79 Bridge (a.k.a. the Glenwood Bridge) until it was boarded up for construction in 2020 for more than three years. At Neville Island I-79 he was nicknamed Beau by site monitor Anne Marie Bosnyak.
Beau didn’t move far to find a new nest site and he didn’t move far from his birthplace. He hatched at the Cathedral of Learning in 2010 to parents Dorothy and E2. I know for sure that he is 05/S because his brother 06/S, nicknamed Green Boy, died in the Webster Hall chimney in June 2010.
Beau is now 14 yrs old but he has longevity in his genes. His mother Dorothy lived to be 16 and his grandad Louie from Downtown lived to be 17 and bred successfully at 3rd Ave in his 17th year. (Beau’s father, E2, was hit by a car in 2016 so we’ll never know how long he would have naturally lived.)
Read about the first time we identified Beau, Black/Green 05/S, in this vintage article.
Tarentum Bridge peregrines have two chicks, 11 April 2024 (photo by Dave Brooke)
13 April 2024
On Thursday 11 April, before torrential rain and flash floods hit the Pittsburgh area, Dave Brooke went down to Tarentum to see the peregrine family at the Tarentum Bridge. His video shows the mother peregrine sheltering two chicks.
Not only are the chicks sitting up with their eyes open but their faces are distinct. My guess, based on the clues in Peregrine Chicks Week-to-Week Development, is that these chicks hatched around April 2.
This weekend would be a good time to see the chicks but keep in mind the Allegheny River is in flood because of Thursday’s record-setting rainfall. Here’s the flood stage upstream this morning at Natrona Lock and Dam.
I will have to charge for this vandalism …. some potential tenants of this furnished apartment have taken a dislike to some of the decorations. Instead of letting me know, they decided to remove it themselves! ??#GwylltHollowpic.twitter.com/i3HoicKLhp
Heads up for North Americans: Though the bird resembles a red-breasted nuthatch the birdhouse is in Southern Wales so this destructive tenant is a Eurasian nuthatch (Sitta europaea). He is simply called a “nuthatch” in Britain because he is the only one.
It’s Spray Your Clothes Day (photo by Kate St. John)
11 April 2024
There’s a danger outdoors in Pennsylvania’s suburbs, parks and woods. The first step to protect yourself is to spray your clothes in early spring.
The Danger:
When a black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) sucks your blood it can transmit a parasite that causes Lyme disease, an illness that can ruin your life for a very long time. Black-legged ticks are especially dangerous in May and June when the tiny nymphs, only as big as a poppy seed, are questing for a blood meal.
If you don’t think you’ll see a tick in Pittsburgh’s suburbs, city parks and your own garden, think again. Deer don’t carry Lyme disease but they do carry ticks — a lot of ticks — and deer are everywhere.
Deer on Forbes Ave, Squirrel Hill, 7 Nov 2023 (photo courtesy Mardi Isler)
Are there deer in your backyard? There are also ticks.
The Prevention:
By spraying your clothes with permethrin you repel ticks and lower your likelihood of a tick bite. Spray your clothes outdoors in early April on a dry windless day so the spray doesn’t touch your skin. (Read the directions on the bottle.)
Here’s all you need to know about Spray Your Clothes Day activities and how to prevent Lyme disease.
Peregrine news is quiet in early April while all the nests are incubating … or are they? I just did the math and Tarentum Bridge is going to hatch on or before today (see end of article). Here’s the news.
Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh: Yesterday I just happened to be on the roof deck of my apartment building at 6:24pm when I saw a peregrine burst off the Cathedral of Learning and head east over Fifth Avenue using territorial flappy flight. I could hear it kakking while a second peregrine was in the sky over South Craig Street circling up and up and up. The “flappy” peregrine circled up too and dove on the intruder, driving it to the east.
Yesterday’s motion detection photos indicate that the “flappy” peregrine was Carla. Both peregrines were watchful all day, then suddenly at 6:24pm Carla got mad and left the nest quickly, shouting to Ecco to take over incubation. I was very lucky to see the encounter in the air.
p.s. The falconcam is just fine but Ozolio’s stream is funky. You’ll sometimes see an old still shot, then spinning, then another still shot, then eventually the actual live stream. The National Aviary is working with Ozolio tech support to fix it.
Downtown Pittsburgh: On 28 March 2024 I stood near the Monongahela Incline on Mt Washington and used my scope to peer into the Third Avenue peregrine nest where I saw a peregrine incubating eggs.
Third Ave peregrine nest Downtown as seen via scope from Mt Washington, 28 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh: On 29 March Adam Knoerzer reported that the nest is definitely within the blue circle in his photo below. “The female is always there and never on the exterior except when the male pops in for a shift change.” (I think this on the Highland Avenue side of the steeple.)
East Liberty Presby Church steeple. Look in the blue circle for peregrines to/from the nest (photo by Adam Knoerzer)
Eckert Street, Ohio River: As of 5 April Jeff Cieslak reports that a peregrine pair is near the Eckert Street nest site but they don’t appear to be nesting there. He says it’s the same female, probably a new male.
Peregrines in flight near Eckert Street, Pittsburgh, 12 March 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Sewickley Bridge, Ohio River: Jeff Cieslak reports: “On several visits during March, one or two falcons were fussing around under the bridge, near the far pier. On April 3, two were observed in what appeared to be a nest exchange on a beam near that area. This will be the third year that I’ve witnessed a breeding pair on this bridge, and I have never seen a fledgling.”
Peregrine pair at nest hole on Sewickley Bridge, 25 March 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Monaca Railroad Bridge, Ohio River: For a while it looked as if the peregrines would nest but their attempt must have failed. eBird reports from the “Mouth of the Beaver River” hotspot in late March through 2 April indicate that both peregrines are visible simultaneously. Definitely not incubating.
Railroad bridge over the Ohio River from Monaca to Beaver (photo by Kate St.John)
Rt 40 Bridge, West Brownsville: Fred Kachmarik and Jeff Cieslak both visited this bridge in mid to late March and saw a solo peregrine. Here’s Jeff’s photo from 23 March. Since this site was successful in the past, it looks promising for a family this year.
Peregrine at Rt 40 Bridge, West Brownsville, PA, 23 March 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Every potential site is listed below …
and you’re probably wondering …
When will the eggs hatch? … How about TODAY? see below
The usual calculation is “34 days after incubation begins,” though in most cases we don’t know when it started. Of the four nests that seem to be incubating here’s a rough guess.
Cathedral of Learning: Started around 3/19; Hatch approximately 22 April.
Downtown Third Avenue: Your guess is as good as mine. We didn’t know they were incubating until 3/28 because we didn’t look.
Sewickley Bridge: Saw a nest exchange on 4/3; Hatch on or before 7 May … probably before.
Tarentum Bridge: Saw incubation 3/7; Hatch on or before TODAY!UPDATE: Dave Brooke got video today of the two chicks at Tarentum Bridge. They are more than a week old as of 10 April — possibly 9 days old!
