Yearly Archives: 2012

The New Normal: Too Early Spring

Climate Change, Phenology, Schenley Park, Weather & Sky
Cutleaf toothwort (photo by Dianne Machesney)

21 March 2012:

One day does not a summer make but a week of June-like weather is mighty convincing.

Though I’m thrilled to be wearing summer clothes in mid-March it makes me very worried.  Our temperatures have been 20 to 30 degrees above normal.  In Minnesota the morning low in International Falls tied the previous record high on Monday!

The heat is unprecedented and the landscape is responding.  Last Sunday I found cutleaf toothwort (pictured above) blooming four weeks ahead of schedule and yellow buckeye trees leafing out in Schenley Park (below).   The weather is three months early.  The plants are one month ahead.

Yellow buckeye full leaf, 20 March 2012 (photo by Kate St. John)

Insects are responding as well.  Stink bugs are everywhere and I swear I heard a cricket last night.

Most birds can’t keep up.  Those already here are moving north a bit early but the bulk of the migrants are in Central and South America and have no idea our weather is so far ahead of schedule. When they get here they may find their peak insect food resources have passed.

Meanwhile peregrines lay their eggs so that hatching will coincide with the push of northward migrants.  Dorothy’s first egg is right on time though the heat is not.  It was sad to see her panting at the nest yesterday, trying to keep her egg cool so it won’t develop out of synch.

Dorothy gular fluttering to dissipate heat, 30 March 2012 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera)

With a warm winter here and a very cold winter in Europe, we’re on the roller coaster of climate change.  Arguing about it is pointless now.  Ready or not, we’re already experiencing the new normal.

(Cutleaf toothwort photo by Dianne Machesney.  Yellow buckeye leaves by Kate St. John.  Dorothy panting at her nest on 20 March 2012 from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

First Peregrine Egg at Pitt

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines

Dorothy laid her first egg last night at approximately 12:55am.  I was asleep but learned the time thanks to @BurghFan_OS who reported it on Twitter.

This morning I saw the egg briefly at 5:00am but was unable to capture a nice picture of it because Dorothy stepped off the perch to stand over it … and fall asleep.

It took a long time to capture a picture.  I watched her for two hours to get this one!

Happy egg!  Happy First Day of Spring!

Later, 7:44am:

E2 brought Dorothy some breakfast and is guarding the egg while she eats.

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

Where Are They??

Peregrines

Every March since 1991 this nest site has been abuzz with peregrine activity … but not this year.

In a normal year the peregrines would appear on camera several times a day to court and dig the scrape.  Dori would spend more and more time at the nest as she got closer to laying eggs.  We’d hear Louie call off camera as he came in for a visit.

None of this has occurred since March 1.  Even before that date the peregrines visited very little this season and by now we’re worried that they won’t nest here at all.

What’s going on?  Are Louie and Dori being challenged by other peregrines?  Have they chosen a different nest site?

The answers can’t be found on camera.  We need some sharp-eyed observers Downtown to tell us what they see.  Here’s what to watch for:

  • Where are the pigeons?  This might sound dumb but birds go where the food is and pigeons are peregrine food.  The hundreds of pigeons that lived at nearby Mellon Square have left because of reconstruction.  Louie and Dori’s nearby food source has moved on so maybe they moved too.  Find out where the pigeons are now and you might find Louie and Dori.
  • Have you seen peregrines anywhere?  If so, where?  Keep track of location, date and time so you can see a pattern.
  • Have you heard any peregrines’ screeching or loud wailing?  What location, date and time?  (The last “screeching” report was March 15, 7:20am near the Gulf Tower.)
  • A peregrine was seen twice in the same day (March 10) in the area bounded by Smithfield St, Boulevard of the Allies, Wood St and the Monongahela River.  This is a good area to check in case it’s the new hang-out.
  • And finally, if you’ve seen a peregrine flying was it flapping the tips of its wings a lot?  This is a territorial signal that’s usually done near the nest site.  If they’re doing this in another part of town, maybe they’ve chosen that area.

So if you’re in downtown Pittsburgh, please look for the peregrines — and pigeon flocks — and tell us what you see.

Where are they??

(photo from the National Aviary webcam at Gulf Tower, Pittsburgh)

Spring Last Week

Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park

Spring came fast last week, as shown by the pictures I took at Schenley Park on Wednesday and Friday, March 14 and 16.

Spring morning with dew, Wednesday March 14.

 


Coltsfoot starting to bloom (Wednesday).

 


Magnolia bud opening (Wednesday).

 


Female flowers on red maple (Wednesday).

And by Friday….


Spicebush flowers are open.

 

 

…and Wednesday’s magnolia bud is now a flower.

 

(photos by Kate St. John)

Snowy Owl in Warm Weather

Birds of Prey

We’ve had unseasonably warm weather but it hasn’t prevented a snowy owl from visiting just south of Worthington along SR 3011 in Armstrong County.

First reported by Mark McConaughy on March 14, birders flocked to see the owl who quickly became one of the most photographed birds in western Pennsylvania.

Of the many beautiful photos I couldn’t resist posting Shawn Collin’s picture of the owl yawning from a porch roof yesterday.

Is the heat making the owl sleepy?  Or is he just bored with all this attention?

(photo by Shawn Collins)

March Madness

Beyond Bounds, Mammals

I thought March Madness was all about basketball until I stumbled on a recent RSPB headline, The Gloves Are Off at RSPB Reserves:

“With spring approaching, the brown hares of the UK are starting to ‘box’, and we’re encouraging people to head to our nature reserves to see the opening bouts of these amazing seasonal matches.

Unlike the male parties of the well-publicised recent heavyweight fracas, the dramatic sight of hares ‘boxing’ is actually the females fighting off the unwanted attention of overly amorous males.

The males gather together vying for the female’s attention and if not impressed, she uses fisticuffs to fend them off.”

The article was accompanied by a photograph but that was tame compared to this video from Scotland.

He chases, she boxes, they tumble, the fur flies.  She’s really letting him have it!

Clearly he doesn’t get it that when she says no she means no!

Mad as a March hare, no doubt.

(video by LuckyGavia from YouTube)

 

Singing In The Dark

Migration, Songbirds

The robins are here!

Migrating flocks of American robins swept north overnight and arrived in Pittsburgh in the dark.  They’re pausing to tank up before continuing their journey north.

In the morning I see them everywhere but I know they arrived, even before dawn, because  I hear them singing in the dark.

The big flocks began arriving Monday night.  Lots of them and more every day.

Because I live in the city I miss hearing another great nighttime sound — spring peepers — so the robins are my only spring night cue.

I do wonder, though, what happens where both robins and spring peepers occur.

Do spring peepers drown out the sound of robins when they’re singing in the dark?

 

(photo by Cephas on Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see the original)

Winter Trees: Speckled Alder

Trees, Winter Weeds & Trees


Spring is coming fast but there are still a couple of weeks before the tree buds open.  This tree, however, will bloom very soon so we’ll need to identify it now.

Speckled Alder (Alnus incana) is a shrub-like tree in the birch family that grows in wet places at streams, lakes and wetlands.  In winter its branches are distinctive because they carry two kinds of buds with last year’s fruit.

The inch-long male catkins are reddish in winter.  They begin to turn yellow in March just before they bloom into long, yellow pollen flowers.

The female flower buds are small and drooping just ahead of the catkins on the branch.  They look like tiny unopened versions of the seed-bearing cones they’ll become.

The cones are present, too.  Half an inch long they’re last year’s fruit.  All three are visible in the photo above.  The male and female flowers are shown below.

 

Speckled Alder gets its name from the whitish lenticels that speckle its dark bark.  With all these points of interest we hardly notice the small reddish leaf buds.

As you explore stream banks and lake sides for signs of spring, keep an eye out for Speckled Alder.

Someone* told me it carries the past (cones), present (male catkins) and future (female buds) on each branch.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

 

(*) Was it Esther Allen who said this tree is Past, Present and Future?

 

Half The Seabirds Are In Decline

Water and Shore

Though seabirds make up only 3.5% of the world’s bird species, a new study by BirdLife International has found they’re the most threatened group of birds on the planet.

Of the 346 seabird species, including albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters and storm-petrels, half are in decline.  More than half of those (28% total) are at the highest risk level.

Albatrosses could well be the first to disappear.  17 of the 22 species of albatross are threatened with extinction.

The threats come from starvation in over-fished areas, death at the hands of huge commercial fishing operations, and nest failure at their breeding colonies from rats and feral cats.

These threats are induced by humans.  With some effort we could fix them.   For example, some of the breeding colonies have been saved through island rat eradication efforts.

I’ve never seen an albatross but I know the world would be a poorer place without them.

(photo of the critically endangered Amsterdam Albatross by Vincent Legendre on Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see its original)