Despite the continuing cold and snow, the battle to get in and out of winter coats and boots, and the difficulties of walking and driving in snowy weather, winter took a turn for the better in the past few days.

I was beginning to get bored by it but I perked up when I read some local sightings on PABIRDS and encountered some surprises on my own:

• Last Friday Steve Gosser saw a peregrine falcon attack a juvenile bald eagle who was flying over the Allegheny River.  This was in downtown Pittsburgh at the 7th Street Bridge!
• Yesterday morning Dorothy and E2, the Cathedral of Learning peregrines, met for breakfast on their favorite dining ledge on the northeast corner of the 30th floor.   It looked to me like he’d brought her food.  Courtship!
• On Sunday I drove along the Ohio and Beaver Rivers and saw two bald eagles and two ravens near Dashields Dam, plus another eagle along the Beaver River.  If you’re looking for eagles, just a few moments at Dashields ought to turn one up.
• Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise when I found a white-throated sparrow in Oakland near Craig Street.
• And everyone knows I’m interested in the crow report.  Last evening a co-worker called me as she drove over the 31st Street Bridge to tell me the Allegheny River is frozen over and the crows were flying in and landing on the ice.  So that’s where they’ve gone.  Woo hoo!

The weather report says we’ll have above freezing temperatures starting tomorrow.  If it melts all at once the floods will provide more excitement than we want.  (!)

(photo of tulip tree seed pods by Marcy Cunkelman)