Evidence of a peregrine meal. What is it? (photo by Kate St. John)
Early this month when Bob Mulvihill stepped out on the ledge to clean the Cathedral of Learning falconcams, he found this evidence of a peregrine’s meal. What species is it? Did the peregrines eat a crow?
The remaining head feathers are black and slightly iridescent. The beak is big and a bit down-curved. The feet look rather large for the bird’s body. Obviously the bird has plastic color-bands but there was no USFW band on its right leg so there’s no way to trace it.
Here’s a closer look:
Crow beaks are 2.5 inches long. How long is the beak on this bird? Less than 1 inch.
The iridescent head feathers and slightly down-curved one-inch bill point to a common grackle rather than a crow.
I’m still not sure what this bird was, but I do know the peregrines did not eat crow. 😉
Peregrine falcon at Harmar, 11 Jan 2019 (photo by Gina Gilmore)
During the winter folks watching the Harmar bald eagles’ nest have an added birding bonus. There’s often a peregrine falcon perched at the Allegheny River near the Hulton Bridge.
In November 2017 Amy Henrici began seeing a single banded adult peregrine at the Hulton Bridge, but only during the winter. This winter there’s a banded peregrine there again. Gina Gilmore has been taking pictures and Rob Protz has been forwarding her photos to Art McMorris, Peregrine Coordinator for the PA Game Commission.
There’s no way to know if this is the same individual as last year but she’s certainly a beautiful bird.
Peregrine at Harmar, 4 Jan 2019 (photo by Gina Gilmore)
Last week Gina got good photographs of the color band showing the number 48 on Black.
Peregrine at Harmar, black band identified (photo and annotations by Gina Gilmore)
… and a Blue N.
Peregrine at Harmar, blue band N 12 Jan 2019 (photo by Gina Gilmore)
So now we know who she is. Black/Blue 48/N is a female peregrine who hatched three years ago, May 2016, at the Tower Building (City-County Building) in South Bend, Indiana. She was banded by John Castrale. Gina nicknamed her “Ms. Indiana.” (*)
Because the bird is three years old, this photo of her head and wing coverts is very intriguing. She still has some brown juvenile plumage in her gray wing coverts and juvenile “eyes” on the back of her head. Normally this indicates a two year old bird.
Peregrine at Harmar, 4 Jan 2019 (photo by Gina Gilmore)
Peregrine fan Kathy Majich of Toronto recognized this plumage quirk. “Ms. Indiana” is one of the last chicks raised by Zeus and Maltese in South Bend before he disappeared during fights with a new male in April 2017. Kathy says she may have inherited the persistent head pattern from her mother. Maltese has it, too.
“Ms. Indiana” is old enough to breed so the bridge, or perhaps the eagles’ cliff, could be of interest to her as a nesting site. However, Art McMorris says, “So far, all sightings that I know of have been of a single bird in the winter, starting in November and ending in April, and then starting again in November.”
Will she leave in April? Or will a male join her? Wait and see.
The 100th Meridian West is an imaginary line on the map that happens to mark the climate divide between the humid east and arid west in North America. Or rather, it used to. The rainfall divide is moving east.
Extending from the North to South Poles, the 100th runs longitudinally in the U.S. from North Dakota through Texas.
Its coincidence with the rainfall divide was first documented in 1877 by John Wesley Powell who found during his explorations in the Great Plains that the 100th was a visible boundary. Locations to the east of the 100th received 20+ inches of annual rainfall, the west received less.
20 inches is a key number for agriculture and human population. It determines what you can grow, whether you have to irrigate and, thus, how many people can live there. Powell saw the line and told Congress it had implications for settlement of the western plains. Congress didn’t heed him but …
This 2014 map of U.S. Population by County shows that it played out as Powell expected. You can see the rainfall divide in population density. People choose to live where there’s water.
You can also see the line from outer space. I’ve marked the 100th (approximately) on this satellite photo of Nebraska. The landscape is deep green to the east though not uniform.
In a hundred years the aridity mark may be firmly inside Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. Aridity decreases the amount of agriculture and will probably change the population. People choose to live where there’s water.
John Wesley Powell’s “100th meridian” is moving east.
Common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are famous for their ability to fly in tight formation. When under attack by a peregrine falcon, they evade him in amazing ways.
Starlings under pressure fly closer together and shape-shift the flock like a giant blob in the sky. This makes it hard for the peregrine to choose a single bird as prey and gives their flocks a special name, a murmuration.
This winter Chad+Chris Saladin have been filming murmurations in Lorain, Ohio. Above on 30 December 2018, below on Christmas Day.
Whenever there’s a peregrine, the starlings murmur.
Bonus! Here’s a Facebook album by Chad+Chris with closeups of a peregrine hunting starlings. (click on the “See More” link embedded in the Facebook post)
A week ago, 7 Jan 2019, the National Weather Service said the sky was clear at Pittsburgh International Airport but I have proof that at that moment it was overcast in the East End.
Not only was it overcast but the clouds were doing something special near the Cathedral of Learning. See that wrinkle? Is that undulation? Or is it the beginning of an asperitas formation?
Yes, we have overcast skies (tell me about it!) but there are cool things above us if we just take the time to look. Watch the video to get in the mood (exciting background music!).
C’mon, Pittsburgh, it’s time to appreciate clouds!
I was reminded of this human tendency when I read in The New Yorker about the burgeoning Flat Earth movement. Members became believers when they saw YouTube videos claiming there’s been a coverup and that the Earth is actually flat.
This 2017 video sparked controversy as viewers tried to process his intent. Satire or Science?
Seeing is believing.
(video from YouTube; click the YouTube logo to see the original upload)
Evidence of beavers: downed trees and orange stump, Moraine State Park (photo by Kate St. John)
Last Saturday I tried to enjoy the Sunken Garden Trail at Moraine State Park but there were challenges along the way. The trail was very soggy, trees were down on the Short Loop, and part of the trail was under a few inches of water.
The flood is the work of beavers who backed up water in the wetlands (above) about 600 feet from the trail entrance (below).
Flooded Sunken Garden Trail, 5 Jan 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
The Sunken Garden Trail is truly sunken here. Fortunately ankle-high muck boots were more than enough to keep me dry.
Be prepared for mud in this winter’s warm weather. And watch out for black-legged ticks. I got one on my pants after I bushwhacked around downed trees. They’re moving around out there, though in slow motion.
The nesting season began for this Bermuda cahow when she returned to her nest burrow on Wednesday 9 January 2019 at 11:55pm (almost midnight). By 1am she had laid her single egg. Click here for a video.
Cahows or Bermuda petrels (Pterodroma cahow) live on the open ocean and only come to land on dark nights during the nesting season, placing their nests in underground burrows on small inaccessible islands to protect them from predators. Humans used to be one of those predators. We ate them. By 1620 cahows were presumed extinct.
When cahows were rediscovered in 1951 there were only 18 nesting pairs on Earth, but thanks to the conservation efforts of David B. Wingate and the Cahow Recovery Project there are now more than 135. Most of them are on Nonsuch Island where many burrows are man-made to provide additional nesting sites. This burrow has a camera.
The pair that “owns” this burrow came back in November to refurbish the site, court and mate. In December they returned to the sea. Then on Wednesday the female returned to lay her egg and begin incubation. Her mate will arrive and take over incubation so she can go back to the ocean to eat.
Cahows are nocturnal so you’ll see them most active when it’s night in Bermuda. Watch their family life on the Bermuda Cahow Nestcam. Stay up to date on Twitter at @BermudaCahowCam.
(photo from the Bermuda Cahow Cam; click on the caption to see it “Live”)
A normal house finch with an orange one (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
House finches normally have rosy red foreheads, chests, and rumps but occasionally you’ll see an orange one. He’s not a new species, he’s just a color variant.
The orange color might be temporary. Depending on what the house finch eats and how his body processes it he may be red next year.
Find out how this happens in this vintage article entitled “Orange?“
