Yearly Archives: 2010

Wise Guys

Crows & Ravens


When I found this photo the other day it brought back memories.  Here are a couple of ravens at the overlook at the Petrified Forest.  What are they doing?  I’ll bet they’re waiting for handouts.

Back in the early part of this century I visited Death Valley and made a point of stopping at the overlook on the eastern side.  In the parking lot I found a pair of ravens obviously waiting for visitors.  As I parked the car they sized me up.  Likely food source?  “No.  Leave her alone.”

Soon a family mini-van arrived and the kids piled out with snack food.  Jackpot!

One raven chose the six-year-old girl as a likely pushover.  He walked to within 10 feet and faced her, watching every move as she brought potato chips to her mouth.  I could hear his thoughts shouting, “Throw one to me!”

Something about her eye contact said “OK, I’ll give you one” and the raven stepped forward as the girl handed him a potato chip.  His beak was as high as her hand.

After several chips Mom broke up this conclave.   No problem.  Mission accomplished.

Eastern ravens aren’t as bold around people but they’re still tricksters.  On Sunday I saw two ravens at Keystone State Park in Westmoreland County.  One by one they flew out of sight beyond the hill, then appeared above the trees carrying a pinkish-white teardrop-shaped blob.  A small plucked chicken?  I couldn’t tell what it was but someone would be puzzled to find it missing.

The ravens made my day.  I always enjoy watching the Wise Guys.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; Click on the photo to see the original.)

Which Purple Aster?

Plants & Fungi


Asters are hard to identify.  There are many species and many look alike.  Knowing this I mentally gave up on trying to figure them out long ago — and now I’m sorry.

During all my recent bird walks I’ve seen beautiful purple asters blooming among the goldenrod but I don’t know their name.  To make matters worse, I haven’t carried my Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide and I haven’t stopped to key out the flowers for later identification.

The asters pictured here are New England Asters (Aster novae-angliae) but the ones I see in the field might not be.  All I know is that the flowers are deep purple — sometimes deep reddish-purple — and the plants stand about two feet tall.

Have you seen purple asters blooming in southwestern Pennsylvania recently?  Do you know what species they might be?  If so, please leave a comment and enlighten me.

p.s. on October 9:  Today I examined the asters closely and keyed them out in my Newcomb’s Guide.  They are indeed New England Asters, planted by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy in the wildflower area.

(photo by Mrs. W. D. Bransford from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  Click on the photo to see the original.)

Watch This Bridge

Peregrines


I’m not telling you to watch this bridge because it’s in bad shape.  Far from it!   This is the 62nd Street Bridge over the Allegheny River at Sharpsburg that was completely refurbished in 2008. 

No, I’m suggesting you watch this bridge for peregrine falcons. 

After Mary Cleo (now called Dori) left the 62nd Street Bridge for the Gulf Tower last spring, there were no peregrine falcons here for five months.  On September 13 Dan Yagusic was under the bridge in his boat when he saw a peregrine above him eating a freshly killed bird.  This was new!  He watched for 45 minutes.

Since then Dan has seen a solo peregrine at the bridge throughout September.  On the 23rd he saw two peregrines fly off it and soar together.  By size they appeared to be male and female. 

There’s another reason to watch carefully.  Dan says the solo peregrine has a white patch of feathers on its left wing.  The only peregrine we know with this feature is Tasha, formerly of the Gulf Tower.  Could Tasha be at this bridge?  Did she trade places with Dori (Mary Cleo)? 

We won’t know until someone identifies the peregrine by its bands — if it has any.   

And that’s why I say, “Watch this bridge.”

p.s. October 12:  Got an email from Dan Yagusic.  He says the peregrines are gone from the 62nd Street Bridge.  Maybe they were just migrating through the area.

(photo of the 62nd Street Bridge in 2007 by Dan Yagusic.  The bridge has since been fully reconstructed in the same design.)

Vociferous

Water and Shore


I know that killdeer are migrating because I’ve heard them calling after dark in unusual places.

Until September 21 I’d never seen or heard a killdeer in my neighborhood but that evening, an hour after sunset, a killdeer called from the ballpark across from my house.  Last night I heard a killdeer overhead at The Waterfront mall in Homestead.

What are they doing?

Killdeer are gregarious shorebirds who aren’t picky about habitat.  They frequent gravel shores but also spend time on golf courses and parking lots.  During migration they travel in flocks but when they land they don’t like to be too close to each other.  Fifteen feet apart is about all they can stand before they aggressively push the other guy away.

When killdeer defend anything — even their personal space from other killdeer — they’re vocal about it.  Birds of North America Online says:  “In Mississippi, migrant flocks of 15–20 killdeer loaf in mall parking lots at night in September, chasing occasional insects on the asphalt under lights, flying in circles around the lights while calling loudly, and interacting on the ground to defend individual distances of about 5 meters.”

Perhaps that’s why their species name is “vociferous” — Charadrius vociferus — the noisy, vehement plover.

(photo courtesy of www.ShutterGlow.com.  Click on the photo to see the original.)

The Oldest Known Whimbrel

Water and Shore


How long do wild birds live?  How old are the oldest birds?

This is largely a mystery unless birds are banded when they’re young and found again when they’re old.

In North America we know the average and longest age for “city” peregrines because they’re banded as nestlings and frequently found when they die but for most species it is rare indeed to find a banded bird, especially an old one.  That’s why the discovery of this whimbrel in the U.K. Shetland Islands was so astonishing.

Whimbrels are costal shorebirds about the size of oystercatchers.  They breed on the northern tundra in Europe, Asia and North America and travel nearly worldwide.  In recent years they’ve been declining at their breeding sites in the Sheltand Islands so ornithologists began a study of the Shetland Island whimbrels this past summer.

When they captured this bird at Fetlar they were in for a surprise.  His bands indicate he is 25 years old, the oldest known whimbrel!

Click here to read his story on the BBC website.

(photo by Dr. Murray Grant, linked from the BBC News article.  Click on the photo to read the article.)

Anatomy: Orbital Feathers

Bird Anatomy


If you look closely at this common yellowthroat’s eye you’ll see something like eyelashes surrounding it.  Those “eyelashes” are actually feathers called orbital feathers.

Not all birds have orbital feathers — some have bare skin — but in a beauty contest for long eyelashes ostriches would win the prize.  (Click here to see.)

How amazing that their eyelashes are made of feathers instead of tiny hairs!

(photo by Chuck Tague. Check out his Birds’ Eye Views photo gallery.)

Local Expert

Bird Behavior, Songbirds


Here’s a bird I’m paying a lot of attention to nowadays.

As songbirds leave for the winter, it’s harder to find them in the woods.  When you do, they’re usually in mixed flocks and who are the chatterboxes of those flocks?  Chickadees.

Chickadees stay here all year and that makes them local experts, well aware of the dangers and food sources.  Visiting songbirds often hang out with chickadees, perhaps because they know of this expertise.  In any case the more birds there are in the flock the more the chickadees chatter.

Starting now and throughout the winter listen for chickadees.  Chances are you’ll find some interesting birds with them.  I’ve been finding warblers.

 

(photo of a black-capped chickadee by Marcy Cunkelman)

Contradiction

Musings & News

28 September 2010

Generally speaking I don’t like off-road-vehicles (ORVs), ATVs, “four-wheelers” and dirt bikes.  That’s because I usually encounter them when they’re breaking the rules:  driving in “No Motorized Vehicles” zones, blazing unauthorized trails, and driving on paved streets in my neighborhood.  They’re not supposed to do any of these things but the vehicles are advertised as “We Break The Rules” so of course they’re often used that way.

I mused about this during my hike last Sunday when three dirt bikes drove by me at top speed.  My first reaction was “Ugh!” but after they were gone I realized I was walking in a very beautiful area, an area that would have been inaccessible to me had the dirt bikes not blazed the trail.  Without them I could not have found my way in and I certainly couldn’t have found my way back.  Sometimes I benefit from their actions.

So there’s a contradiction in my mind.  Do I like what they do … or not? 

On my way back to the car I found a dead scarlet tanager on the ground, his body run over by a dirt bike. 

It made me cry.

(photo of dirt bike trails and mudhole by Kate St. John)

A Fishy Peregrine

Peregrines


As we all know, peregrine falcons eat only birds and they catch them in the air.

Or do they?

Last Wednesday I received an email from Dan Yagusic, an excellent birder who watches the peregrines on the Allegheny River bridges.  (He’s the one who first found Mary Cleo (Dori) at the 62nd Street Bridge.  She now lives at Gulf Tower.) 

Here’s what Dan saw at dusk on Tuesday, September 21:

Last evening at dusk I was passing Washington Landing’s Marina (Allegheny River) at a no wake speed in our boat. In the near darkness I spotted a large bird flying fast downriver.

All of a sudden, directly across from me about five Mallards took flight squawking very loudly as they went. This bird (unidentified as of yet) started making repeated swooping turns down to the water, but appeared to be chasing nothing at all!  I grabbed my binoculars at this point and lo and behold to my utter amazement it was a Peregrine Falcon!!

I continued watching as this Peregrine made at least 20 passes over the water, each time rising 30 feet or so in the air before dropping down and dipping it’s talons into the water as if to make a splash.  Running through my mind were the likes of “What the hell is this bird doing?” and “Just what is making him/her do this?”

After who knows how many trips down to the water the Peregrine came up with a FISH in it’s talons. It proceeded to fly directly to the nearest tower where it immediately started eating its catch. 

Perhaps you or others know of this behavior in Peregrines, but in my limited experience I have never seen a Peregrine even attempt a shot at fishing.  That sure did make my evening, let me tell you!   Variety can be the spice of life, even for Peregrines???     — Dan Yagusic

Amazing! 

I did some research and found two (only two!) references that said peregrines occasionally eat fish though one said they took them from ospreys. 

So what was going on here? 

Dr. Tony Bledsoe of the University of Pittsburgh’s Biological Sciences Department explained that our mid-latitude peregrines focus on birds but that peregrines occur nearly worldwide and are quite cosmopolitan.  Right now peregrines from Canada and the Arctic are migrating south through Pittsburgh.  Those birds travel to South America and have skills and tastes that our local birds never had to cultivate.   

If they know how to fish and the ducks aren’t cooperating, why not?

Even so, it’s very unusual!

(photo of a peregrine capturing a killdeer by Cris Hamilton.  No, I do not have a picture of a peregrine fishing!)