Come to the National Aviary on St. Patrick’s Day weekend for Raptor Days, March 17 and 18. I’ll be there to Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Peregrines.
Saturday March 17: “Masters of the Sky – Raptors” Special activities 11:00am to 3:00pm.
Experience the thrill of the hunt as some of the National Aviary’s most stunning birds-of-prey make a special appearance. See the amazing adaptations that allow these birds to use their keen sense of vision to hunt. Discover the wide array of environments, including Southwestern Pennsylvania, that are home to these stunning birds where you can see them in the wild.
Saturday March 17 and Sunday March 18 at 3:30pm, I’ll present “Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Peregrines.”
Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Peregrines with Kate St. John. Learn about Pittsburgh’s peregrine falcons and the famous pairs who live atop the Gulf Tower and the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Explore their life histories and family connections, how they came to Pittsburgh, what they do during nesting season and where their young live now.
Last year space was limited at WQED’s peregrine celebration so here’s a perfect opportunity to learn about peregrines or introduce your family and friends to Pittsburgh’s peregrine excitement. (I know they wonder why you’re addicted. I’ll explain it!)
Come to the National Aviary on March 17 and 18. “Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Peregrines” at 3:30pm both days.
By then we’re likely to have the first peregrine egg at the Cathedral of Learning or the Gulf Tower nests — or both. I can hardly wait!
When I asked last Sunday if you’d seen any blue jays lately I had no idea it would be such a popular question.
Many of you commented on the blog right away. Then the National Audubon Society shared my question on Facebook on Tuesday morning and over 117 people weighed in. Comments came from Prince Edward Island and New Mexico, from South Dakota and Florida.
Most folks outside Pittsburgh said they’ve seen blue jays regularly this winter while Pittsburghers generally said “No.”
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I made two totally unscientific maps of the blue jay observations using the comments that gave a location.
The first map shows U.S. and Canadian responses. The second shows the many Pittsburgh area responses. Red means “No blue jays or fewer than usual.” Green means “Yes, we have blue jays.” Black means, “We don’t have them, but they don’t occur here.” (The black dot at coastal North Carolina is a place where there are few due to habitat.)
Here are the U.S and Canadian responses.
And here are responses from the Pittsburgh area:
Can you find your response on the map?
Mine is still a red dot despite the fact that a blue jay appeared for a few seconds outside my window at work yesterday.
I think he was taunting me.
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman. Blank maps from Wikimedia Commons with data points added by Kate St. John)
Hi All,
With all the reports of waterfowl migration I thought some of you might be interested in the report below from a York Co friend.
Ann Bodling, Accokeek, MD
“At about Ithaca (Cornell) the major river flyways converge – Delaware River groups have already merged with Susquehanna River groups, who have already merged with the Potomac groups and they merge further with the Mohawk and Hudson groups. They take this enormous sweep to the northwest and so folks in NY state and Ontario have seen the most amazing show. They arc across Canada once clear of the the Great Lakes.
I heard from my cousin Steve in Ottawa that city streets came to a halt Monday and yesterday as these enormous flocks actually dimmed the sun! People got off buses and out of their cars to watch. Ornithologists are remarking that this may be the largest single mass migration in the last 150 years. The storm front has certainly helped – these birds are making incredible time riding the currents north so may have left all at once to catch the front rather than fly in staggered waves over weeks.”
Today’s tree is a noxious weed that goes by many names: Ailanthus, Tree-of-heaven, Chinese Sumac, Stink Tree and The Tree From Hell. Some people call it simply “Sumac” but that’s one thing it is not. Though its leaves are similar, it’s not related to sumac.
Ailanthus altissima is native to China and Taiwan, first brought to North America as seed in 1784. In the 1800’s it was planted as a street tree but quickly became invasive. Nowadays no one will buy this tree. People spend money trying to get rid of it.
It earned its name Stink Tree because the male flowers smell bad, something between cat pee and rotting cashews. When ailanthus was planted as an ornamental, the nurseries sold only female trees.
Though ailanthus typically lives only 50 years, it grows anywhere humans have abused air, land or water. It doesn’t flinch in the face of sulfur dioxide, mercury and ozone. (It actually absorbs sulfur dioxide in its leaves.) It can grow with water polluted by acid mine drainage, in soil low in phosphorous and high in salinity. The only thing it doesn’t tolerate is dense shade. This adds up to a very successful roadside weed that thrives in the face of air pollution and road salt.
Ailanthus is prolific and hardy, able to grow from its huge seed production or from root stock. The roots sprout so well that it’s almost impossible to eradicate the tree. And it grows really fast! 3.3 to 6.6 feet per year in its first four years. Not only that, it produces a chemical that kills other species. Experiments with ailanthus extract demonstrated that it’s an effective herbicide against almost every other seedling.
With all these disadvantages, it pays to know what ailanthus looks like. It’s easy to identify in winter by the stout twig, pictured above, that ends abruptly without tapering. Its orange-brown twig is as big around as your finger with large, heart-shaped, alternate leaf scars and a small bud in the notch of each heart.
Ailanthus bark is very smooth with small pits on younger trees (shown at left) and interlacing ridges on older trees (shown at right). Learn the twig first, then you’ll remember the bark.
So, what good can be said about this tree?
It will be the last tree standing when the world comes to an end. Its hardiness gave it a brief literary and stage career as “The Tree” in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
(photos by Kate St. John)
p.s. Here’s what its leaves and seeds look like in autumn.
Ailanthus leaves and seeds (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
We had another dose of winter last weekend but spring is on its way and with it will come the hummingbirds.
Most ruby-throated hummingbirds spend the winter in Central America but in early spring an internal clock makes them restless to move north.
Dedicated observers have recorded hummingbird sightings on the Journey North hummingbird website since 1997. Because of this data we know that a few hummingbirds are present in the U.S. all winter and that migrants begin to arrive in early March.
In Florida and along the Gulf Coast, birders and hummingbird banders are prepared for those first intrepid hummers who make an early journey to the States. Behind the pioneer birds will come a wave of hummingbirds that will wash over Pittsburgh in late April.
The first birds will be here in seven or eight weeks. Check Journey North’s animated Spring 2012 ruby-throated hummingbird map to find out where they are now. Check again each week and you’ll be ready when the ruby-throats get here.
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
p.s. Don’t miss Marcy’s story about how she took this picture. See the first comment below!
Looking for some bird excitement? If you haven’t been to Middle Creek yet, now’s the time to go.
At the peak of migration, late February through early March, more than 100,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans stop at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area near Kleinfeltersville, PA.
Every year the spectacle is different and the numbers fluctuate. The birds wait for good weather and move north when the lakes thaw. This winter many Pennsylvania lakes never fully froze so low numbers of geese and swans have been scattered around the state.
Nonetheless, Dave Kerr found plenty to photograph when he visited Middle Creek a couple of weeks ago. Pictured here are my favorites — the tundra swans!
Swans are subdued. Snow geese are not. When the geese are scared by a bald eagle all of them leap into the air shouting their fear. The noise is like the roar of a filled football stadium. The spectacle is amazing.
Dave recorded a short video of it, posted here on his Flickr site.
Barbara Galatti filmed it in February 2009. Her YouTube video begins before dawn and shows several huge rushes of snow geese. Turn up your speakers to get the full effect — including the wind!
How many white birds are heading north now? See bird-count updates here from Middle Creek’s manager, Jim Binder, or this link for directions and tour information.
Visit Middle Creek soon for lots of bird excitement. Maybe I’ll see you there.
p.s. This huge snow goose population is beautiful to watch, but it is overwhelming the habitat in their arctic breeding grounds. To address this, there is now a springtime snow goose hunt as well as one in the fall. Hunting occurs at Middle Creek Monday through Saturday. There is no hunting on Sunday.
(photo of tundra swans this month by Dave Kerr. Video from Middle Creek in 2009 by Barbara Galatti)
Blue jay eating from a corn wreath (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
26 February 2012
When volunteers compared notes after the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count on 1 January 2012, someone remarked that they hadn’t seen many blue jays this winter. Everyone at the Pittsburgh CBC Dinner nodded.
This morning I remembered that remark and looked through my bird observations to see how often I’ve recorded blue jays.
Amazingly I’ve seen them only four times this winter: On November 6 and 13, December 4 and 11. Three of those observations were at the same spot at Moraine State Park and were perhaps the same individual bird. Meanwhile, I have not seen a blue jay in Pittsburgh for at least four months.
BLUE JAY ABUNDANCE INFORMATION: February 2012 to January 2023
Click here for an eBird map of blue jay abundance in Pennsylvania 2014-2019. On an annual basis blue jay abundance peaks in Pennsylvania in September and falls to its lowest point in late February. Click on the [Change Location] button to choose your own state or province.
March 2012: I mapped readers’ sightings on The Blue Jay Report here.
June 2013: New comments have come in from folks who are seeing far fewer blue jays than they expect. I asked 1,200 observers in Pennsylvania (via PABIRDS) if they were seeing fewer blue jays. Everyone said they were seeing plenty of blue jays but one person commented that 17-year cicadas seemed to depress blue jay abundance in advance of the cicada emergence. If you have fewer blue jays, are you also in a cicada area?
September 2014: Lots of blue jays moving south through Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine when I was there in early September. Lots of blue jays in the Pittsburgh area.
May 2019: At Magee Marsh Boardwalk on Ohio I counted 200 blue jays migrating north along the southern shore of Lake Erie – my all time high count.
May 2021: At Ottawa NWR in Ohio I counted 160 blue jays, also on migration along the southern shore of Lake Erie. These high counts are very weather-dependent.
Sept & Oct 2021: High counts of migration through Frick & Schenley Parks of 24-26 blue jays.
May 2022: High count of 23 blue jays on migration in Schenley Park.
Fall 2022: High counts of blue jays on migration in Frick and Schenley are in the teens.
2022: In Frick and Schenley in non-migration months the counts were generally 1 to 1 . Migration Months of May, Sept and Oct were in the teens.
31 Dec 2022, New Year’s Eve: Mid weather in Pittsburgh after a severe cold snap in eastern North America on Christmas broght 19 blue jays to Schenley Park during the Christmas Bird Count. I suspect these were northern visitors who left rural areas for warmth and food in the city.
January 2023: Blue jay numbers in the city, when present, are back down to the single digits.
Ostriches have a unique nesting strategy that serves them well as flightless birds in the African savannahs and sub-Sahara. Several females put their eggs in a single nest.
At six to nine feet tall and 140 to 300 pounds ostriches cannot fly, so for safety during the breeding season they live in flocks of five to fifty birds. When danger threatens they run or hide or kick the enemy with their feet.
Running is good but how do they protect their ground-based nests? Eggs can’t run.
Rather than protecting many scattered nests they organize into harems and all the females lay their eggs in the same scrape. The dominant male mates with all the females and the dominant female incubates the eggs. Sometimes there are too many eggs for her to sit on so she rejects the extras — laid by the minor females — and sits on only 20-25 eggs.
During incubation the birds hide the ground-based nest. The female’s brown feathers match the daytime landscape, the male’s black feathers are hard to see at night, so the female incubates during the day and the male at night. To further hide the nest they lay their heads and necks on the ground so they look like a lump. Daytime heat shimmers hide the female in a mirage!
Here you can see their how colors provide camouflage in their open habitat.
The moral of the story for an ostrich is: If you keep your head down you can put all your eggs in one basket.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons. Nest photo by Fischen; African pair at Ngorongoro by Sachi Gahan. Click on each photo to see its original.)
NOTE: The nest photo was taken at a German zoo in a setting much greener than an ostrich usually inhabits.
