Yearly Archives: 2019

Graceful Predator

Alaska, Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Travel
Long-tailed jaegar in flight (photo by Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith, Creative Commons license on Flickr)

If I had to pick a Best Bird on my trip to Alaska it would be the long-tailed jaegar (long-tailed skua, Stercorarius longicaudus), the most graceful arctic predator.

Long-tailed jaegars are the smallest of skuas, a genus of predatory seabirds that range from pole to pole. In flight their long tails and flowing movements remind me of swallow-tailed kites as they float over the tundra in pairs and loudly defend their territories. On the hunt they can hover like kestrels, as shown in the video below.

Though long-tailed jaegars are seabirds, their favorite foods in Alaska are collared lemmings.

Illustrations of Nelson’s collared lemming and Ungava collared lemming at burrow (from Wikimedia Commons)

How does a seabird without talons capture rodents? Well, he doesn’t use his feet.

Long-tailed skua calling (photo by Allan Hopkins, Creative Commons license on Flickr)

Birds of North America Online explains his hunting technique …

Long-tailed Jaeger hunts these lemmings by hovering or poising in a headwind at height of 1-10 m [3-30 feet] (usually about 4 m) above tundra, like a kestrel unlike other jaegers, and by watching from perches on small rises or frost mounds … Having detected prey, often pursues it on foot and pecks it until it is dead; never uses feet to capture prey.

Birds of North America Online

Though both sexes can incubate, the male long-tailed jaegar spends two thirds of his time hunting for his mate while she warms the eggs.

Long-tailed jaegar on nest (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

We could see her white chest far away on the tundra, waiting for her graceful mate to come home.

(photos by Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith, Allan Hopkins and from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the captions to see the originals.)

p.s. Click here to hear the long-tailed jaegar’s call.

Today at Duck Hollow

Books & Events
Eight birders at Duck Hollow, 30 June 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)

This morning 11 of us met for a bird walk at Duck Hollow and the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail.

The Monongahela was running high with only a few mallards and lots of plastic trash floating down the river, the result of an inch of rain in only 25 minutes on Thursday evening, June 27. The downpour affected the new bridge construction, too, at Nine Mile Run.

When I walked the area on Thursday morning I saw the workers laying Jersey barriers in a row and draping them with white plastic. The downpours breached the solid dirt bank in three places and knocked over four Jersey barriers. Powerful stuff!

It was hot and sunny, so we stayed in the shade. So did our Best Bird, an indigo bunting, who looked almost black in the shadows. Since his feathers merely reflect the color blue the shadows affect how he looks. Read more about his blueness here.

We saw and heard 27 species plus a small flock of unidentified blackbirds. Our complete checklist is here on eBird.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Best Baby Bird

Alaska, Songbirds, Travel
Baby bird east of Safety Sound, Alaska (photo by Barb Bens)

Last Sunday our Partnership for International Birding tour saw this baby bird near the mouth of the Solomon River east of Nome, Alaska. It took us a while to identify him.

His looks like a sparrow with white outer tail feathers but his back has golden camouflage like a golden plover.

After much debate we decided he was a baby Lapland longspur. Click here to see a male in breeding plumage.

As we pulled out of the parking area his father arrived with food.

Best Baby Bird of our trip. Thanks to Barb Bens for the photo.

(photo by Barbara Bens)

Scarlet Pimpernel

Plants & Fungi
Scarlet pimpernel blooming in Pittsburgh, 9 June 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)

Early this month I found scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) blooming in my city neighborhood. It’s not just a book, it’s a tiny orange-red flower.

Originally from Europe, Western Asia and North Africa the plant is hardy and sometimes invasive. It doesn’t mind growing next to salted roads so it has a lot of habitat in Pittsburgh. This one was growing in a crack in the sidewalk.

When I picked it I didn’t know that the plant is mildly toxic. For some people the leaves cause dermatitis. Fortunately they didn’t affect me.

Scarlet pimpernel is sometimes called poor man’s barometer because the flowers close at night and don’t bother to open on overcast days.

We haven’t had many clouds this summer so you should have no problem finding scarlet pimpernel blooming by a road near you.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Downtown Peregrine News, June 28

Peregrines
Immature Downtown peregrine, nanotagged with MOTUS tracking, at USX Tower window on 19 June 2019 (photo by Jason Walkowski)

A lot has happened in the Downtown peregrine family since I left for vacation on June 12. Here’s a summary of the last 17 days with photos from Jason Walkowski, Maria Ochoa, Lori Maggio, and John English.

There were five nestlings at the Third Avenue nest and at least five rescues.

  1. June 8: Rescue from Third Ave.
  2. June 9: Rescue after found standing on a car roof on the Boulevard of the Allies.
  3. June 10: Rescue at 304 Wood Street. The PA Game Commission banded and nanotagged this bird for MOTUS tracking.
  4. June 12: Rescue from a Point Park shuttle bus shelter.
  5. June 12: Second in one day! Rescue from Dollar Bank front steps on Fourth Ave during evening rush hour.

All of this activity kept the rescue porch very busy. Below, Louie reflects from the rescue porch railing outside Maria Ochoa’s apartment on June 11 …

Louie reflects at the Rescue Porch, 11 June 2019 (photo by Maria Ochoa)

… while Dori bypasses loud whining from one of the fledglings.

Dori flies away from a whining fledgling at the Rescue Porch, 11 June 2019 (photo by Lori Maggio)

On June 12 this bird was a candidate for the fifth rescue, having chosen a lousy place to perch on the Dollar Bank roof.

Candidate for later rescue at Dollar Bank, 12 June 2019 (photo by John English)

Within a week the young peregrines were flying well. On June 14 Lori Maggio watched a low-perched youngster fly up to a much better location. On June 19 Jason Walkowski photographed the nanotagged bird outside his window on the 31st floor at USX Tower (photo at top).

Youngster lands on the Engineering Building, much higher than his previous perch, 14 June 2019 (photo by Lori Maggio)

Lori Maggio found the nanotagged bird on June 20, perched with a sibling high above Third Avenue.

Two youngsters perch high above the old nest, 20 June 2019 (photo by Lori Maggio)

Dori is now teaching the youngsters how to hunt. Her mate Louie, age 17, was found dead on June 27. He was very, very old for a wild peregrine and outlived his mother Dorothy by 1.5 years. I’ll post a tribute blog for Louie in the coming days.

Louie at Lawrence Hall, 20 May 2019 (photo by Lori Maggio)

For now the Fledge Watchers are breathing a sigh of relief. The Downtown peregrine “kids” are airborne on their way. Whew!

(photos by Jason Walkowski, Maria Ochoa, Lori Maggio and John English)

Duck Hollow Outing, Sunday June 30

Books & Events
Chicory with a busy emerald green bug on it (photo by Kate St. John)

Yikes! Short notice… I should have told you about this on Monday but I was flying back from Alaska that day.

Join me this Sunday for a bird and nature walk at Duck Hollow and the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail on June 30, 2019 from 8:30am to 10:30am.

Meet at Duck Hollow parking lot at the end of Old Browns Hill Road.

We’ll see fledgling birds and their busy parents, midsummer flowers and fascinating insects like this chicory flower and metallic-green bug.

Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars, field guides and a scope for river watching if you have them. It’s going to be HOT so bring water, sunscreen and a hat.

Reminder: Check the Events page before you come in case this outing is canceled for thunder or heavy downpours.

Hope to see you there.

Blue Jays Nesting

Nesting & Courtship, Songbirds
Blue jay gathering rootlets to line its nest (photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

This spring a pair of blue jays nested in my backyard and fledged a single youngster before Memorial Day.

The fledgling was short-tailed, perky and adventuresome, often standing wide-eyed in exposed open places. His parents followed him everywhere and seemed to say, “Be careful! Don’t stand out in the open like that!”

But the fledgling was too naive. By the third day he went missing, undoubtedly dead. His parents started to build a new nest.

They scouted together in my backyard, gathering moss and rootlets. According to the nest description in the Petersen Field Guide to Birds’ Nests blue jay nests are …

Bulky, well hidden in crotch or outer branch of coniferous or deciduous tree, 5-50 ft above ground, commonly 10-25 ft. Built by both sexes of thorny twigs, bark, mosses, string, leaves; lined with rootlets.

The second nest is so well hidden that I didn’t find it, but here’s what it would look like (photo by Henry T. McLin).

Blue jay on nest (photo by Henry T. McLin on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The pair has time to raise a second brood, especially if the female laid eggs in the first week of June. From first egg to fledging takes 38 to 45 days:

  • Blue jay egg laying takes 4-6 days (one egg per day, clutch of 4-6)
  • Incubation lasts 17-18 days
  • Nestlings fledge in 17-21 days.
Blue jay family in the nest (photo by Carol Vinzant on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

I hope to see baby blue jays around July 15. I’m wishing them better luck this time! See more news below(*).

p.s. There’s a story behind the blue jay family in the nest above. Click here to read.

(photo credits, Creative Commons non-commercial licenses on Flickr: Gathering nesting material by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. On nest by Henry T. McLin. Nest with babies by Carol Vinzant)

(*) Unfortunately the second brood failed, too. I saw a nestling on the ground, too young to fly, on July 7. I repeatedly placed it up high in the vicinity of the nest but the nestling kept hopping back down to the ground. Eventually it hid under the lip of our bird bath.

Blue jay baby on ground, 7 July 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)

The Closest Family Ties

Alaska, Travel, Water and Shore
Transient killer whales near Unimak Island, eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Flying home from Alaska, 24 June 2019

Before my trip to Alaska I rarely thought about killer whales because I’d never had a chance to see them. Now I have and they are quite impressive.

Killer whales or orcas (Orcinus orca) are the largest oceanic dolphin, occurring around the world. Some are resident, some transient, others live offshore. Offshore orcas travel the wide swaths of ocean shown on the map below.

Orca range map from Wikimedia Commons

Killer whales are apex predators but what they eat depends on their lifestyle. Resident whales eat fish and are very vocal because fish don’t run away when they hear an orca. Transient whales eat marine mammals, especially seals, and are silent because seals flee at the sound of a killer whale.

Like other dolphins, killer whales are very intelligent and highly social. They swim with their families their entire lives. The family groups are matrilineal, lead by the eldest mother and made up of her sons, daughters, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. Her knowledge and traditions guide her family long after her reproductive years and actually insure that her children live longer than those whose mothers died.(*)

Resident killer whales of the Pacific Northwest are so well studied that scientists recognize them as individuals from their unique saddle patches behind their dorsal fins. Censuses indicate the population is in decline. The killer whales’ food source, chinook salmon, is also in decline. Are these whales starving? A NOAA Fisheries study in British Columbia used a drone to find out.

From the drone’s photos and videos, scientists could tell if an orca was thin and weak or plumb and strong. During the study they filmed two brothers swimming together, just as they had their entire lives. One was very thin and the two were vocalizing a lot as they swam south. Eventually the weak brother dove and was never seen again. His brother swam back alone, vocalizing on the way. It appears that he accompanied his dying brother during his last moments.

Watch this 11 minute NOAA video to learn more about the resident killer whale population in the eastern North Pacific. Read more about them at NOAA Fisheries.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Offers a New View of Killer Whales from NOAA Fisheries on Vimeo.

Killer whales have the closest family ties.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

(*) Killer whales live into their 90s and are one of only three animals that go through menopause. Humans and pilot whales are the other two.

Not Always White

Alaska, Birds of Prey, Travel
Gyrfalcon in upstate New York, January 2018 (photo by Tim Lenz via Flickr, Creative Commons license)

23 June 2019, Alaska Birding with PIB: Nome to Anchorage

Most people never see a wild gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), the world’s largest falcon and most northern diurnal raptor. Though gyrfalcons have a circumpolar distribution through North America, Greenland, Iceland and Eurasia, they rarely come south, even in winter. Their remoteness protected them from the past persecution of raptors and made them prized as falconers’ birds.

Compared to peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons have larger heads, thicker necks, bulkier deep chests, shorter and broader wings, and a longer tail. Gyrfalcons look like powerful prize fighters, peregrines are sleek and fast.

Gyrfalcons need this bulk because their prey items are much larger birds than peregrines eat. Gyrfalcons can kill cranes and Canada geese but their primary prey are ptarmigans, especially rock ptarmigans. In some regions the gyrfalcon population is cyclic in response to the ptarmigan population. Climate change is affecting the ptarmigan population — bad news for gyrfalcons.

We think of gyrs as white falcons because that’s what we see in the media but there’s a lot of color variation. Many are brown-speckled, like the bird in Iceland on the right.

Gyrfalcon color phases: a white falconer’s bird, a brown-speckled bird in Iceland (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
Gyrfalcon at Black Falcon Terminal, Boston, MA, February 2002 (photo by Glen Tepke)

Most gyrfalcons in North America are a uniform dark brown, like this one that spent the winter of 2001-2002 at the Black Falcon Terminal (dock) in Boston, Massachusetts. This bird was so famous and so reliably found that 17 years later there are still photos of it online. Glen Tepke took this picture on 16 February 2002.

I mention this individual bird because I traveled to see it — the only gyrfalcon I’d ever seen until my trip to Alaska. It shows how rare they are in the eastern U.S.

Gyrfalcons live in Alaska year round and breed here in early summer. Yesterday we saw a gyrfalcon family with 3 or 4 young in the nest. The young were nearly ready to fledge — at the ‘pantaloons’ stage — very dark brown. They were definitely Best Birds!

Last year a pair nested in Nome, photographed in June 2018 by Mick Thompson.

Gyrfalcon with chick in Nome, Alaska, June 2018 (photo by Mick Thompson via Flickr Creative Commons license)

To learn more about gyrfalcons and see one fly, watch this video of falconer Brian Bradley and his bird at White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, Connecticut.

As you can see, gyrfalcons are not always white.

(photos credits: Tim Lenz via Flicker Creative Commons license, Wikimedia Commons, Black Falcon photo courtesy Glen Tepke, Mick Thompson via Flickr Creative Commons license. Click on the captions to see the originals)