Yearly Archives: 2012

News of Dori and Louie

Peregrines

For those of you anxious for news of our Downtown peregrines, I am now able to tell you this …

With a handful of clues and sheer luck I found Dori and Louie’s nest site last month on a Downtown building.  This month Beth Fife of the PA Game Commission confirmed they are nesting in an inaccessible spot, so inaccessible that if the young hatch successfully they cannot be banded.

Beth says all is well.  Of course, there’s no camera and it is way too late to install one.   Dori and Louie’s eggs will hatch around the same time as those at Pitt.

Why am I not telling you where they are?

As I said in an earlier post, peregrines are extremely faithful to successful nest sites but they will leave if they feel the location is no longer safe for raising their young.   Dori and Louie were already disturbed away from their original nest.  To give them peace at this site, Beth has told me not to reveal the location.

Eventually I will be able tell you the whole story with full credit to those who helped.  For now, the nest location is a secret.

Meanwhile, Ann Hohn at Make-A-Wish says that Louie comes back to visit the Gulf Tower occasionally and that his forehead is white this spring.  She thinks he had a scratch or injury that became a bald spot.

And so, this photo I posted in early March is probably Dori.

(photo by Dan Costa)

Toadshade

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

This flower never cares if it rains or snows because it never opens.

Toadshade or Sessile trillium (Trillium sessile) has a stalkless flower of three, small, dark red petals that always remain in the closed position.

Sesslie trillium is usually found in clumps because the plants sprout from rhizomes.  Its true leaves are papery coverings on the rhizomes.  What we call “leaves” are actually three bracts.  Sometimes they are mottled with dark spots as in the photo at this link.

Those in the know say Sessile trillium smells foul to attract its fly and beetle pollinators.

I have never approached close enough to smell it, but I wonder…  Do toads wait in the shade beneath sessile trillium to nab an unsuspecting fly?  Is that why it’s called toadshade?

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Difficult Weather

Weather & Sky

Yesterday morning the weather forecast for the eastern U.S. looked like a train wreck with severe thunderstorms, flash floods, heavy snow and freezing rain.

These events were listed as “possible” because the approaching storms were so complicated.  The depth of snow in Pittsburgh depended on the timing of two frontal systems approaching the east coast from different directions.  Would they collide and merge their forces over western Pennsylvania?  Would the coastal front stay to the east and not affect Pittsburgh?  Would the systems cause a single large storm or a prolonged one-two punch?  And where?

The National Weather Service uses many weather modeling systems to make their predictions, primarily NAM (North American Mesoscale Forecast) and GFS (Global Forecast System).  Both NAM and GFS run four times a day.  Meteorologists then analyze the results and make the forecast.  When the models agree it’s easy.  When they don’t it’s mighty hard.

Yesterday the forecast discussion for Pittsburgh said:  “Even at this close proximity to the onset of this system, subtle differences in model solutions make for a very difficult forecast.”   Then they predicted 2 to 4 inches of snow for the Pittsburgh area. Twenty-four hours later the snowfall prediction hasn’t changed but its timing has.

I feel their pain.  Because I’m in charge of computers and phones at WQED, I’m often asked to predict how a computer or phone system will behave under different conditions in the future.  Sometimes the answer is easy and sometimes… Well, suffice it say I’m glad my predictions aren’t broadcast on TV and radio news.

Meanwhile we await the results.  Rain is falling now.  It will be interesting to see how well the models predicted this one.

(weather forecast map, Sunday 22 April 2012, by the National Weather Service. Click on the image to see the current forecast map.)

Cream Violet

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Here’s a beautiful flower you can find in the wild.  It goes by many names — Pale Violet, Cream Violet or Striped Cream Violet — but it has only one scientific name:  Viola striata.

Dianne Machesney found it blooming at Buck Run last weekend.

 

If you live in Pennsylvania go look for it early today.  The weather will soon become awful.   I heard the word “snow” for tomorrow!   🙁

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

 

p.s. Fill your bird feeders!  The birds will need extra energy to wait out the storm.

Help Monitor Herons

Nesting & Courtship, Water and Shore

If you know of a heron rookery in Pennsylvania, the Game Commission needs your help.

From now through the end of May the Game Commission is conducting a survey of heron nesting colonies in the state to keep tabs on the birds and make sure they are doing well.

Want to help?  Here are the birds to look for.  Click on the links to see their pictures.

  • Great blue herons nest high in trees near water.  You’ll often find their large stick nests in sycamores, as shown above.  They are fairly secure and abundant in Pennsylvania so they are monitored in five year intervals rather than annually.  Their presence is an indication of high quality habitat.
  • Black-crowned night herons are the most widespread heron in the world but they’re on Pennsylvania’s state endangered list because their population has declined here in recent decades.  Like great blue herons they nest in trees near water but are more willing to nest near humans.
  • Yellow-crowned night-herons are rarer in Pennsylvania than their black-crowned cousins because our state is at the northern edge of their range.  They too are on the state endangered species list.  Their nesting colonies are found only along PA’s lower Susquehanna River.

If you know of a heron colony or happen upon one, you can help by monitoring and reporting what you see.  The complete instructions are at this link.  Here’s a summary:

  • Don’t approach the nests!  Stay 100 yards away (that’s the length of a football field).
  • Use your binoculars to monitor the nests.  If you disturb the colony it defeats the purpose of the survey.
  • Take notes:
    • Where is the colony located?
    • What is the habitat like?
    • Are the trees alive or dead?
    • Count the nests.  How many are there?  How many are active?
    • Note activity at the nests:  Adults standing on the nests?  Adults delivering food? Chicks poking their heads up?
    • Are there any threats to the colony?  Predators? Human encroachment?
  • Fill out this form and send your observations to herondata@gmail.com
  • Don’t assume someone else has reported the colony.  You may be the only one to send in the data!

To get involved, read more about the Heron Survey here.

Hot tip:  Start looking now before the trees fully leaf out!

(photo of a great blue heron nesting colony by Tim Vechter)

Reluctant Changing of the Guard

Peregrines

As usual, E2 incubated the eggs yesterday afternoon while Dorothy took a break at the Cathedral of Learning.   After she finished her snack she came back to take over incubation duties, but he was reluctant to leave.

She arrived at 3:18pm and asked him to get up, but E2 just looked at her and stayed put.   Thirty minutes later Dorothy was still asking and it was starting to get funny.  I got emails from Karen Lang and Rob Protz urging me to drop what I was doing and start watching.

By 3:55pm Dorothy’s frustration was quite apparent.

“Get up!  It’s my turn.”

Finally at 4:00pm E2 reluctantly allowed a changing of the guard.

Watch a slideshow of their interaction and the measures Dorothy had to take to get him off the nest.

(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

p.s. The webcam has some spots on its weather-proof cover so E2’s face is sometimes obscured, as in the photo above.

Mass Migration

Insects, Migration
Red admiral butterfly (photo by Daniel Herms, The Ohio State University, Bugwood.org)

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Last Friday I took the day off and visited Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania.  It felt like a mini beach vacation to walk along Lake Erie’s shore and pretend I was at the ocean.

With the waves lapping at my feet I paused to gaze north.  I knew that Long Point, Canada was more than 25 miles away but it was beyond the horizon … invisible.

Suddenly I noticed butterfly after butterfly flying from behind me and heading straight out over the open water.  They were brown, orange and white and they flew very fast, zigzagging on their way.

What was this steady stream of butterflies?  Red admirals!

Red admirals (Vanessa atalanta) live in temperate Europe, Asia and North America.  They cannot survive winter’s cold so they migrate south in the fall.  In the U.S. Red Admirals overwinter in south Texas.  In March they start their journey north.

How long would it take for these delicate creatures to cross Lake Erie?  I estimated I would have to run to keep up with them so I guessed they were traveling 7 miles per hour.  If they flew due north they’d reach Long Point in 3.5 hours, but they were headed northeast, a trip of 50 miles to the mainland of Canada.  This long route would take them more than seven hours.  It was 3:00pm.  They would arrive at night.

What I saw was only the beginning.  By Sunday the south winds and warm temperatures had triggered a mass migration.  From the Presque Isle Hawk Watch, Jerry McWilliams reported to PABIRDS:

“Probably the most remarkable observation was the mass movement of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) flying SW to NE. A conservative estimate of the butterflies moving past the watch was 25 individuals per minute making the total estimate of the count around 5500 butterflies!”

The photo above matches what I saw.  The fall brood of Red Admirals is brown like this.  Those hatched in spring/summer are blacker.

(photo by Daniel Herms, The Ohio State University, Bugwood.org)

Carpet of Flowers

Plants & Fungi


When Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) is at its peak the forest is carpeted in snowy blue.

The tops of the flowers are white, the lower lips blue.  Up close they’re pretty, too.

These photos were taken last year at Braddock’s Trail Park in Irwin, Pennsylvania.   Tomorrow you can go see them with the Wissahickon Nature Club.  Judy Stark is leading an outing there on Thursday April 19 at 10:00am.  See the details below.

I wish I didn’t have to be at work…  🙁

 

April 19 – Thursday – 10:00am – Braddock’s Trail, Irwin , PA.
Judy Stark – Cell: 412-327-9537

Directions from Pittsburgh :  Take 376E to Exit 78A to US 30E/Ardmore Blvd. toward
Forest Hills , go 11.0 miles.  Pass Norwin Town Centre.  At the next stoplight, take a
sharp Rt. on Robbins Station Rd.  Follow it carefully for about 3 miles (it makes several
right and left turns) until it dead ends in the park.

The Blue-eyed Mary’s are spectacular here, as well as other Spring flowers.  Bring a
bag lunch and a chair or blanket.  There are 2 picnic tables and a porta-john.
The road through the park should be wheelchair accessible under a yellow gate.

(photos by Judy Stark, April 2011)

Hatching at Harrisburg

Peregrines

The first on-camera peregrine to lay eggs in Pennsylvania has hatched her first chicks of 2012.

Two eggs hatched overnight at the Rachel Carson State Office Building.  Watch the Harrisburg streaming webcam for more cute scenes like this.

Coming up soon:  The peregrine eggs at Wilmington, Delaware should hatch any day now!  Watch them here.

(photo from the PA Falcon Cam, Harrisburg, PA.  Click on the photo to see the PA Falcon website)

p.s. Thanks to Marianne Atkinson for the picture and alert.

Now Blooming: Wild Blue Phlox

Plants & Fungi

Last weekend Dianne and Bob Machesney visited Buck Run in Washington County and saw 36 species of flowers and 13 butterflies.

One of the prettiest flowers was this Wild Blue Phlox.  I found it blooming at Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve in Beaver County last weekend, too.

I had feared that March’s summer weather would give us an April without flowers, but two weeks of cold weather slowed things down a bit. The flowers are lingering after all.

Good!

 

(photo by Dianne Machesney)