Gulf Tower peregrine nest with new gravel and ramp, 10 Dec 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
The Downtown peregrines have new digs at the Gulf Tower.
Last month the weeds in the Gulf Tower nest indicated to Art McMorris (PA Game Commission Peregrine Coordinator) that the nest needed a makeover. Fortunately the wooden box and hood were fine so …
Yesterday Art came to town with 10 bags of pea gravel, a new wooden ramp and lots of tools to refurbish the nest. At 80 pounds per bag that’s a lot of lugging.
Here, he makes note of the site conditions before he begins. The edge behind him is a sheer 37-floor drop to the street. No way! I stayed inside.
First order of business: Shovel out the old gravel into many(!) garbage bags. Art shoveled while Bob Mulvihill and Eric Fialkovich of the National Aviary hauled the bags over the transom and into the hall for later disposal.
As soon as the old gravel was gone the problem was obvious. There were no drainage holes in the base so all the water stayed in the box. Peregrines don’t like wet gravel and neither do we. Art drilled 77 7/16″ holes.
Then he dumped in and smoothed the new gravel.
He needed only six bags.
Art added the new ramp and Ta Dah! It’s as good as new (shown at top).
The new gravel is such a different color that I’m hoping the peregrines get curious and come to check it out. When they do they’ll find clean, dry gravel to dig their toes into.
Fingers crossed that they like it well enough to nest here next spring.
Acorn abundance varies every year. Some years there are lots of acorns, other years not so many. This variation is an oak survival mechanism that alternately floods and dries up the market to insure that some of their nuts survive hungry predation by squirrels, turkeys and deer.
Back in December 2008 there were so few acorns in the Washington, D.C. area that the situation made national news and people put out store-bought delicacies for squirrels.
Were the squirrels begging for attention? Click here to read this 2008 article: The Acorn Plot.
p.s. Pennsylvania’s squirrels have nothing to worry about this winter and next. The PA Game Commission says the acorn crop will be abundant this year and in 2016. Click here to read more.
Bald eagle at Hays, PA, 21 Nov 2015 (photo by Dana Nesiti, Eagles of Hays PA)
9 December 2015
Though it’s only December, Pittsburgh area bald eagles are getting ready for nesting season. They’re starting now because the females will lay eggs in February.
Those who don’t have a nest site are scouting new territories and those who do are staying near home to keep the scouts away. Meanwhile the immature set, ages 1-3, are loafing where the fishing is good up and down the rivers.
At the Hays bald eagle nest site, Dana Nesiti has been photographing the eagles whenever he can. He took this beautiful photo on November 21. Click on it to see more of his work at Eagles of Hays PA Facebook page.
Up the Allegheny at Tarentum, observers have seen lots of peregrine-eagle interactions since a pair of bald eagles moved into the area. Even though the female peregrine, Hope, left Tarentum for Pitt, a single peregrine is still present at the bridge. Mary Ann Thomas wrote about it at TribLive here.
So if you haven’t already, now’s the time to start looking for eagles along our rivers. Check out the established nesting territories at Hays, Dashields Dam, and Harmar. Keep your eyes peeled for new pairs at Tarentum and beyond.
Until quite recently I thought earthworms were native. All my life I’ve watched robins yank them out of the soil and seen them on the sidewalk after heavy rain. Gardeners and composters are happy with them, too, but…
What’s good for the garden is lousy for North America’s forests. Earthworms churn the soil column and devour leaf litter, invertebrates and fungi that our northern forests rely on. The result is a lack of ground cover and poor regeneration of the trees.
Like the emerald ash borer, we humans have accidentally introduced a species that’s bad for the forest. The only way to stop it is for us to stop moving worms and soil. Composters and gardeners take note! If you’re on the edge of the earthworm advance — in Minnesota or Maine, for instance — don’t buy worms. (Pittsburgh isn’t on that edge; earthworms have been here a very long time.)
(robin photo by William Majoros via Wikimedia Commons. Earthworm photo by James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster, Belgium via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the images to see the originals)
Even from afar, you can see how common goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) earned their name.
Adult males have bright yellow eyes, females’ are pale yellow to white. But their eyes aren’t always that color.
When they hatch, common goldeneye ducklings have gray-brown eyes that turn purple-blue, then blue, then green-blue as they age. By five months of age their eyes are a clear pale green-yellow.(*)
Francis C. Franklin took this exceptional photo of a female wintering in northwestern England. Click here to see where Franklin found this beautiful duck.
Common goldeneyes breed in the taiga of North America, Scandinavia and Russia. They’re found on both sides of the Atlantic.
(*) Eye color information quoted from All About Birds.
Hemlock wooly adelgid (photo courtesy Sarah Johnson, The Nature Conservancy)
Last week Sarah Johnson at The Nature Conservancy reminded me that early November to late March is the time of year to be on the lookout for hemlock wooly adelgid.
The Nature Conservancy, Pennsylvania DCNR, and the US Forest Service are tracking the advance of hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA) in hemlock conservation areas and the High Allegheny Plateau of northwestern PA and western NY. They need your help.
Hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), originally from Japan, kills eastern hemlocks in 4-20 years by sucking the lifeblood out of them. A hemlock with an adelgid infestation like the one above is doomed.
By knowing where HWA has newly arrived, the survey may be able to treat key trees until a winter-hardy biological agent is ready.
So if you’re out birding in Pennsylvania’s north woods(*) and you see these white wooly balls at the base of needles on the undersides of hemlock branches, it’s the dreaded adelgids. Note your location and contact one of the folks on this list. Do NOT take a sample.
If you’d like to participate in the official survey, call or send email to Sarah Johnson at sejohnson@tnc.org, 717-232-6001 Ext 231.
(photo of hemlock wooly adelgid courtesy Sarah Johnson, The Nature Conservancy)
(*) The survey location runs from Cook Forest to New York’s Allegany State Park.
Juvenile male hooded merganser in April (photo by Dick Daniels via Wikimedia Commons)
This bird looks like a hooded merganser but he’s not quite right. His crest says “female plumage,” his neck and chest say “male.”
This is a yearling male changing into breeding plumage in April. At one year old male hooded mergansers are part way to breeding plumage and look confusing, though the mergansers themselves know who’s who.
In late fall these young ducks are only six months old and look even more like females from a distance.
Don’t get mixed up by this duck. Look closely at “female” hooded mergansers for clues to their identity.
(photo by Dick Daniels via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
American Eagle is rarely broadcast now and the full episode is no longer available online, but this segment is. It shows bald eagles hunting waterfowl on the Upper Mississippi in the fall.
Coots have a bad time in the video but the eagles are stupendous. 🙂
Today I’m honoring Dorothy, the matriarch and first female peregrine to nest at the Cathedral of Learning, with this video retrospective of her best photographic moments.
If you’ve only known her since last spring, you missed knowing the real Dorothy. She was dynamic, energetic, fierce and powerful. From the time I first saw her in 2001 until her egg bound spring of 2014, she had fire in her eyes. After that, age-related health issues subdued her. I hope this video gives you a taste of what you missed.
Every year Dorothy raised three to five young peregrines — every year — and many of them went on to raise young peregrines of their own. With 43 fledglings and a host of descendants she increased the peregrine populations of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan and the Pittsburgh area … and those are the places we know about!
Dorothy was awesome. She was the first wild bird I ever knew as an individual and the bird that changed my life. I will miss her greatness but not her decline.
Note: If you cannot play the video above, click here to watch it on YouTube.
Information on Dorothy’s lineage: Mother was Sibella (20V20) of the Peregrine Recovery Program who was captive-bred and released at Feldtman Ridge on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan on 20 July 1988. Father was Bill (74T) of the Peregrine Recovery Program captive-bred and released from Van Hise Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. Data from Greg Septon:
This female peregrine is not Dorothy (photo from the Cathedral of Learning snapshot camera), Dec 1, 2015
2 December 2015
This proclamation is made in monarchies when the old queen dies and a new one succeeds her. It’s a fitting announcement at the Cathedral of Learning today, for the old peregrine Queen Dorothy is gone and a new Queen is in her place, at least for now.
Late yesterday morning Peter Bell told me the Pitt snapshot camera was dead. Instead I found it very much alive with nearly a hundred motion detection images in less than two days. They were triggered by very frequent peregrine courtship at the nest: three times on November 30 and eight times on December 1.
Such intense “getting to know you” is highly unusual at this time of year and unheard of with an old mated pair. Based on behavior I knew at least one of them was new to the site. Many photos and archives later, I confirmed that E2 is still here, he is courting a new female, and Dorothy is gone.
“The Queen is dead.”
Well actually, Dorothy simply disappeared but we know she won’t come back. Art McMorris, PGC’s Peregrine Coordinator, affirmed that the presence of a new female at the nest means Dorothy is gone.
We never saw a fight, nor even a challenger. Dorothy and E2 were both active in October and flew together on November 2 but the rest of November was quiet with only one peregrine on campus — or none — and no certainty that the one bird was Dorothy.
In any case, Dorothy’s disappearance is no surprise. Adult peregrines live about 12 years in the wild but Dorothy was 16.5 going on 17 — quite elderly. Like an 85-90 year old grandmother, we loved her and will miss her but we’re not shocked that she’s gone.
“Long live the Queen!”
The new Queen is a younger bird with a Black/Green coded band and a green USFWS band. After I read her bands I enlisted Peter to examine them too(*). Here are his two archive snapshots from Nov 30 with a blow-up of the bands.
Bands on new female at Pitt, Nov 30, 2015 (photo from the WildEarth archives)Another shot of bands on new female at Pitt, Nov 30, 2015 (photo from the WildEarth archives)
Yes, these bands are 69/Z. This bird is “Hope,” the resident female at the Tarentum Bridge since 2010 who hatched at the Benjamin Harrison Bridge in Hopewell, Virginia in 2008.
Why did Hope leave Tarentum? We don’t know but here are a few ideas:
When male peregrines are alone on territory they fly an advertisement that says “I’m looking for a mate.” The Cathedral of Learning is so tall that Hope could have seen E2’s message from the skies of Tarentum.
Hope has not had great success in her six years at the Tarentum Bridge. She raised 4 young — two in 2012 and two in 2014 — but half the time she’s been alone with no mate. Last year a young male showed up, but they didn’t nest.
The Cathedral of Learning is one of the best peregrine nesting sites in Pittsburgh. We’ve seen another Pittsburgh “bridge bird” move to the other best site: Dori left a bridge for the Gulf Tower.
And yet, though Hope and E2 seem to be hitting it off she might not stay. Art McMorris says it’s too early to know if she’ll stick around for the nesting season. Right now she’s getting to know E2 and the Cathedral of Learning but she has plenty of time to change her mind between now and next April.
So, Tarentum peregrine watchers, keep your eyes peeled. Hope might come back.
(photos from the National Aviary falconcams at University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning)
Footnotes and History:
Here are some stories of 69/Z’s life. She’s named Hope for her birthplace, Hopewell, Virginia.
