Red fox in Denver neighborhood (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
In autumn young animals leave their birthplace to find a home of their own. Sometimes they wander into dangerous places — roads, for instance — and sometimes they surprise us.
Seven years ago this month a red fox wandered into my Pittsburgh city neighborhood and spent a couple of weeks in the block near my house. Our first hint of her presence was the sound of her voice.
On this Anniversary of The Fox, read more about her visit at:
If you live in a Lyme disease area and feed the birds, you might get Lyme disease in your own backyard. Here’s what makes that possible and how you can make your yard safe.
When you provide food for birds, a lot of other animals eat that food as well. Squirrels and chipmunks eat during the day. The mice come at night, especially white-footed mice pictured above at a peanut feeder.
Animals live close to their food sources so they live in your backyard or even your house. Here’s a favorite mouse and chipmunk home — the nooks and crannies of stone walls.
Stone wall (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
The abundance of birds and rodents in your yard attracts predators: hawks, owls, cats and even ticks. You’ll see the big predators but you might not notice the tiny ones. Adult black-footed ticks are very hungry in October and November so watch out.
Birdseed –> mice –> ticks –> Lyme disease. White-footed mice are reservoirs for Lyme disease so the black-footed ticks that feed on your backyard mice may be infected.
What to do?
It’s impossible to get rid of all the mice — even if you stop feeding the birds — but you can get rid of ticks, and that’s what counts in the battle against Lyme disease.
The mice will help you do it. Mice like soft fluffy bedding in their nests and will carry it into their secret hiding places. If you give them anti-tick bedding it kills the ticks on them and in their nests.
This ingenious defense can be bought at TickTubes: The Safe and Effective Solution for Tick Control. In TickEncounter’s photo below, a mouse is gathering anti-tick bedding — permethrin-sprayed cottonballs — from the blue-green tick tube.
White-footed mouse with anti-tick tube and cottonball bedding (photo from tickencounter.org)
Don’t make your own tick tubes. (You’ll not get the dosage right and Permethrin can poison cats!) Instead buy EPA certified tick tubes at ticktubes.com. And then …
No more ticks!
p.s. You’ll see at Tick Encounter that July and August are the optimal time for setting out Tick Tubes. Sorry my timing is off.
p.s. Be careful with Permethrin. READ AND FOLLOW ALL LABEL DIRECTIONS. It is very bad for pets!
(photo credits: Click on the images to see the originals in context White-footed mouse at night by Rob Ireton, Creative Commons license on Flickr, Stone wall photo from Wikimedia Commons, Chart of black-legged tick life stages from Wikimedia Commons, White-footed mouse with anti-tick tube and cottonball bedding from tickencounter.org)
Stinkbug on a leaf in Frick Park (photo by Kate St. John)
18 October 2016
It’s warm today but as soon as it turns cold brown marmorated stink bugs (Halyomorpha halys) will try to squeeze into every crack in our buildings. They’re everywhere. What can we do?
Ever since these Asian bugs first appeared in North America (in Allentown, PA in 1998) we’ve wondered how to control them. They destroy crops, especially fruits and tomatoes, so USDA has been studying them for a while. Do our native species eat them or must we import a stink bug predator from Asia?
To tease out the answer, researchers at USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in West Virginia placed stink bug egg masses near potential predators and documented what happened.
Brown marmorated stink bug eggs (photo by David R. Lance, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org)
Some of the egg masses disappeared. It turns out that katydids eat the eggs completely, shell and all!
Katydid, Microcentrum species (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Other egg predators include crickets, ground beetles, earwigs and jumping spiders.
Jumping spiders pick up the entire egg mass, flip it over and suck out the eggs’ contents from the underside. (This is a “daring jumping spider” … cool name, eh?)
Daring jumping spider, Phidippus audax (photo by Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org)
Moral of the story: If you don’t use pesticides, native insects and spiders will do the work for you. Goodbye, stink bugs!
(photo credits: Stink bug on leaf by Kate St. John Stink bug eggs by David R. Lance, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org Katydid, Microcentrum species from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original Daring jumping spider photo by Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org)
The Rainbow Bridge in southern Utah is a bridge of solid rock carved by water during the last ice age. At 290 feet tall it’s one of the highest natural bridges in the world and held sacred by Native Americans in the region. But it doesn’t stand still. Like all structures it moves in response to vibration.
Last year the University of Utah obtained permission to measure resonance at the Rainbow Bridge. Their report, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that the bridge is affected by both natural and human activity. Wind can make it hum. Waves from man-made Lake Powell on the Colorado River, only a mile away, make it sway a little. During two days of measurements the bridge felt three earthquakes, one of which was a man-made earthquake in Oklahoma.
The report includes this animation of the Bridge’s movements. There are moments when it looks positively scary!
Man-made bridges are engineered to move just a little in response to wind and other forces, but they mustn’t move too much or they break. In a spectacular case of poor design the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, built to withstand 120 mph winds, collapsed on 7 Nov 1940 in a 40 mph wind only four months after it opened. The cause was attributed to resonance, though more recently to aeroelastic flutter.
Participants in Schenley Park outing on 16 October 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
This morning it was jacket weather with lots of dew (wet shoes!) as 14 of us gathered at the Bartlett Shelter in Schenley Park.
We found plenty of birds — at least in terms of individuals. Not only were there many blue jays and robins but midway through the walk several hundred common grackles showed up to snatch the bread cubes scattered beneath the oaks near Bartlett Shelter.
A low-swooping red-tailed hawk kept the chipmunks and jays on their toes and a flock of cedar waxwings stopped in to eat porcelain berries.
Best Bird: Blackpoll warbler. Fall blackpoll and bay-breasted warblers have many of the same field marks — warbler size, thin warbler beak, wing bars, yellow wash on throat, faint eyeline, olive back with subtle stripes, faint stripes on chest — but blackpolls have orange feet and sometimes orange legs, too. This one was immature with black legs and and orange feet. Click here and scroll down to see an immature blackpoll up close.
Best mammal: We saw a very plump raccoon climb a tall tree and finally insert itself into a hollow space at the top. “Insert” is a good description. The raccoon was so plump that it took a while for him to ooze into the crack and disappear. Perhaps he exhaled to make himself thin.
Indian cucumber in October (photo by Kate St. John)
It’s a great time to get outdoors before the weather changes. Here are just a few of the many things to do — including indoor and outdoor fun.
Oct 16, Tonight: Full Moon Hike, two locations: Boyce Park and Harrison Hills Park, 8-10p. Free. Hike by the light of the moon, led by Allegheny County Park Rangers. Click here for more information.
Oct 12 – Dec 3: Project Owlnet banding northern saw-whet owls, at Sewickley Heights Park, Wed,Fri,Sat; Oct 12 to Dec 3, sunset to midnight. Free. Be sure to read the details here. Weather is a factor!
Oct 27: The Great Texas Birding Trail, Rio Grande Valley presented by Jeffrey Hall, at Wissahickon Nature Club, 7:30p. Free. The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas teems with unique birds. Program here. Location here. Arrive early to share coffee and snacks.
Oct 30: Annual Outing and Picnic of Three Rivers Birding Club, Moraine State Park, 8:00am. Free. Bring a lunch. Late October is a good time to see ducks and sparrows. Details here.
Nov 4-6: Wings and Wildlife Art Show, at National Aviary. Cost=Aviary Admission; free to members. 34 wildlife artists from five states exhibiting and selling their art. Click here for more information.
Nov 5: Joint Outing of Three Rivers Birding Club and Todd Bird Club, at Yellow Creek State Park, 8:00a. Free. Yellow Creek’s large lake attracts waterbirds and occasional rarities. Details here.
Nov 5-6: Hawk Mountain Outing with PSO (Penna. Society of Ornithology), at Hawk Mountain, Kempton, PA. Free. Watch hawks migrating at one of the best sites in eastern North America. Details here.
Nov 10: Gardens Around the Globe presented by Judy Stark, at Wissahickon Nature Club, 7:30p. Free. Special features of five gardens: Longwood (PA), Stan Hywet (OH), VanDusen (Vancouver,BC), National Botanic Garden (HI) and Powerscourt (Ireland). Program here. Location here. Arrive early to share coffee and snacks.
Nov 18-19, Sign Up Now: Pennsylvania Botany Symposium, at Penn Stater Conference Center, State College, PA. Registration required + cost starts at $100. Brings together amateurs, academics, and those interested in the natural world to share our work and celebrate our botanical heritage. All invited speakers are experts with reputations for being engaging and entertaining. Click here for pricing and registration.
15 October 2016: Autumn is here though the temperature may fool you. After near-frost last Thursday we’ll reach 81oF next week.
Despite the fluctuating temperatures, plants and animals are getting ready for winter. What will we see outdoors in the weeks ahead? Here’s a list from Chuck Tague’s phenology for the month of October.
Fall foliage will peak from north to south and from the mountains to the lowlands. Color hasn’t reached its peak in Pittsburgh yet.
Blue skies and pretty sunsets, but shorter days as we lose 3 minutes of daylight each day. Daylight Savings Time ends at 2:00am on Sunday 6 November 2016.
Sounds: Listen for blue jays, chipmunks and the last of the crickets.
Flowers: Asters and smartweeds, chicory, spotted knapweed, and white snakeroot.
Fruits, nuts, berries, acorns and “hitchhiker” seeds are everywhere.
Migrating songbirds: The first dark-eyed juncoes, purple finches and golden-crowned kinglets arrived in my neighborhood last week. We’ll also see yellow-rumped warblers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, blackbirds, grackles, brown creepers and lots of sparrows including song, chipping and white-throated.
Watch for these uncommon migrants: Lincoln’s sparrows and rufous hummingbirds.
Hawks: October is the month for sharp-shinned hawks, American kestrels and red-tailed hawks. Golden eagles begin their peak at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch in late October. The Front’s highest-ever golden eagle count was last year: 74 on October 24, 2015.
Ducks and cormorants are moving south. Last Sunday at Pymatuning the Three Rivers Birding Club outing found mallards, American wigeons, wood ducks, blue and green-winged teals, northern shovelers, gadwalls, ruddy ducks and ring-necked ducks. The lakes aren’t freezing so the ducks are taking their time getting here.
Owls: Short-eared owls and northern saw-whets are on the move to their wintering sites. Eastern screech-owls and great horned owls stay home to claim their territories.
Rodents are stocking up on food: Squirrels are burying it, mice and chipmunks are stashing it, and groundhogs are eating it.
The white-tailed deer rut has begun and so have various hunting seasons. Wear blaze orange and stay safe.
Hope (69/Z) at the Tarentum Bridge, July 2012 (photo by Steve Gosser)
14 October 2016
When peregrine falcons look for a nest site they choose high places, often near water, with wide-open views of the surrounding landscape and lots of prey (birds).
Out in the wilderness, peregrines nest on sheer cliffs. Pittsburgh doesn’t have cliffs but we do have nesting peregrines at on two buildings and many bridges.
It’s easy to see that a tall building resembles a cliff …
Cathedral of Learning, 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
… but bridges are open structures without sheer walls.
Tarentum Bridge, winter 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Why do peregrines like bridges?
I found the answer in a blog post from The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB). CCB monitors nesting peregrines in Virginia where many prefer bridges at the coast.
As you read the article linked below, watch for a photo of the Benjamin Harrison Lift Bridge where Hope (black/green, 69/Z) pictured above, was banded. She has nested at both kinds of sites in Pittsburgh: six years at the Tarentum Bridge and now at a building, the Cathedral of Learning.
Chipmunk with food in his cheeks (photo by Chuck Tague)
13 October 2016
If you haven’t seen a chipmunk all summer, I guarantee you’ll see one now.
The “chippies” are very busy getting ready for winter, running to and fro with their cheeks stuffed with food. This vintage article from 2009 explains why they’re …
