Just before 4pm Morela jumped into the nest and called to another peregrine. The male stayed off-screen for a minute, then jumped down to bow with her.
The male she’s been courting is Terzo!
Terzo has been the resident male peregrine at Pitt since his arrival in March 2016. I recognized him on camera by the unique heart-shaped white patch on the left side of his face and his black/red color band. No, I couldn’t read his band numbers in the video (Terzo is Black/Red N/29) but I believe he’s the only male peregrine in the world with that face pattern + Black/Red bands.
So now we know that the peregrine couple at the Cathedral of Learning is Morela & Terzo. For the first time in years I’m excited about the upcoming nesting season. Courtship will intensify in January. Egg laying is due in mid to late March.
A murder of crows flies past the Cathedral of Learning, heading for the trees (photo by Kate St. John)
30 October 2019
If you’re wondering whether the crows would return to the University of Pittsburgh campus this winter, I have news. The murder is back, but only after dark. (*)
Late Monday afternoon, 28 October, I waited until sunset near the Cathedral of Learning for the peregrines to return for the night. The falcons slipped by unnoticed but as I walked to my car a huge flock of crows arrived. They were shouting!
The vanguard aimed for the trees on Forbes Avenue …
Crows burst off the trees at Forbes Avenue near the Cathedral of Learning, 28 Oct 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
… then burst into the sky, wheeled around, and flew to Fifth Avenue.
The sunset sky is filled with crows near the Cathedral of Learning, 28 Oct 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
By the time I drove past Heinz Chapel hundreds of crows were crossing the dark sky above Fifth Avenue near Clapp Hall. My windshield acquired poot spots as I passed beneath them.
This week most people won’t notice the crows because they arrive after everyone’s left Oakland for home.
Not so next Monday. After we turn the clocks back, sunset will be at 5:13pm and the crows will arrive during rush hour.
Outing at Duck Hollow, 29 Oct 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
This morning was chilly as seven of us met for a bird walk at Duck Hollow and Lower Nine Mile Run. At first the birds were few and far between but the sun warmed the hillsides and the birds came out.
We saw and heard 17 species plus an unidentified accipiter (sharp-shinned or Coopers hawk). “Best Bird” was a ruby-crowned kinglet who happened to be singing. See our checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61022547
Our walk included some surprising plants and insects as well.
The Pittsburgh region is not strong on lichens (our air is too bad) but we found a clump of branches with a very thick covering of moss and/or lichen. We were impressed.
Lichens and moss coat dead branches along the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail (photo by Claire Staples)
A grasshopper made an appearance, probably too cold to move.
At Lower Nine Mile Run (photo by Claire Staples)
And we opened the dried bladder from a bladdernut tree.
Bladdernuts opened (photo by Claire Staples)
Some furry pea-pods gave me pause. I remembered the yellow flowers that grew there in August, pictured below, but not the plant’s name.
Wild senna in August along the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail (photo by Kate St. John)
Here are five photos of peregrine falcons, taken in Ohio by Chad+Chris Saladin, that display the birds’ malar stripes.
Would you say these peregrines are wearing masks?
Female peregrine falcon, Lady Millar at the Terminal Tower, Cleveland, 2018 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)Peregrine falcon, McKinley, December 2011 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)Male peregrine falcon, Tellus in 2018 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)Looking up from a meal (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology updated their live feeder cameras at Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, New York for an even crisper view of the birds.
Watch their feeders from the comfort of your home (click here). Stay tuned overnight and you may see an unexpected visitor. This flying squirrel was a nice surprise on 15 October 2019.
Sanderling at Corporation Beach, MA, 19 Oct 2019 (photo by Bob Kroeger)
27 October 2019
This month’s trip to Cape Cod provided me with a brief change of scene and a brief change of birds. On October 18 and 19, local photographer Bob Kroeger showed me many of his favorite birding spots. Here are some of the birds we saw, with thanks to Bob for the photos.
Sanderlings (Calidris alba) never come to Pittsburgh but they spend the winter at Cape Cod. It was fun to see them poking the sand with their beaks and bathing at the water’s edge at Corporation Beach.
Sanderlings bathing at Corporation Beach, MA, 19 Oct 2019 (photo by Bob Kroeger)
Ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) are an extremely rare bird in Pittsburgh that also winters at Cape Cod. They aren’t ruddy in the fall, but their legs are still orange.
Ruddy turnstone (photo by Bob Kroeger)
Great blue herons (Ardea herodias) were plentiful in the marshes. They’re huge in flight!
Great blue heron in flight (photo by Bob Kroeger)
We found one or two blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata) at nearly every place we stopped. This one at Long Pasture still has hints of black on his face and the telltale yellow feet. They are on their way to Brazil.
Blackpoll warbler (photo by Bob Kroeger)
We found a flock of 25 palm warblers (Setophaga palmarum) at Cape Cod Organic Farm, all of them the duller western birds. In mild winters palm warblers stay on the Cape.
Palm warbler (photo by Bob Kroeger)
Most plentiful by far were the “myrtle” yellow-rumped warblers (Setophaga coronata) who’ve come to stay for the season. The winter birds look dull but in Bob’s closeup below you can see his feather details.
A close look at a yellow-rumped warbler (photo by Bob Kroeger)
Best only-at-the-sea birds: At Wellfleet Bay on the 21st I saw distant flocks of 200 brant (Branta bernicla) and 60 common eider (Somateria mollissima).
Most amazing sound: The wing whistle of a flock of scoters passing overhead. Sounds like this.
Best mammal : A coyote crossing the road near Monomoy.
Craziest bird: A wild turkey running non-stop around a parked car in Harwich, like this. I’m waiting for the day I see this in Pittsburgh. 😉
The view from Fort Hill at Cape Cod, 18 Oct 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
Travel is a tonic for seeing the world in new ways. This month my husband and I spent a week with his sister at Cape Cod where we had new weather, new scenery and new looks at plants I might have seen at home.
Our timing was pretty good. We missed the October 12 nor’easter but were on hand for the October 17 “bomb cyclone.” We didn’t lose power, but it was still very windy on the 18th when I visited Fort Hill, pictured above.
Birds were hard to find that day so I noticed plants such as this European spindle-tree (Euonymus europaeus) with puffy, pink, four-sided fruits.
European spindle-tree fruits, 18 Oct 2019, Dennis, MA (photo by Kate St. John)
The puffballs are actually a casing that holds orange fruit within. This ornamental has probably been planted in Pittsburgh, though I’ve never noticed it.
Someone ate this, Cape Cod, 20 Oct 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
Who ate it? Perhaps this caterpillar did. I found him elsewhere on the plant.
And finally, the sun touched translucent red berries and made them glow at Bell’s Neck.
The small plants have a single leaf midway up the stem (lefthand photo) and were growing among pine needles. Please leave a comment to tell me what they are.
p.s. Thank you to Kerry Givens who identified the red berries as a Canada mayflower and the caterpillar as a Turbulent Phosphila moth.
(photos by Kate St. John except where noted in the captions; click the captions to see the originals)
So many woolly bear caterpillars have crossed my path this fall that, fearing they’d be trampled, I have carefully moved each one across the trail.
“Woolly bears” are the larva form of a common North American moth, the Isabella tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella). Since she is not dependent on only one host plant, Isabella is found in many habitats.
She even lives in the Arctic, surviving the winter because she has natural anti-freeze in her cells. Wikipedia describes how she does it:
The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form when it literally freezes solid. First its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, followed by the rest of the body. It survives being frozen by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring it thaws.
Morela calls to a male peregrine, 23 Oct 2019, 6:21pm (snapshot from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Yesterday afternoon Morela, the female peregrine at the Cathedral of Learning, spent more than two hours at the nest. Just before she left at 6:30pm the snapshots showed her with her beak open. She must have been saying something so I pulled the archived video to find out.
The video clip below is seven minutes long but is only a fraction of Morela’s time at the nest. It begins when she notices something in the air above her. She turns and ee-chups for several minutes, making the sound a female uses to call to a male.
The male did not come to the nest so Morela leapt to the perch above the nestbox to make her exit.
The male’s coy behavior makes me wonder if Terzo has left the Cathedral of Learning. Terzo is quite familiar with the nest and would have called Morela to come into it. Instead, Morela calls to a reluctant male.
Since the male has not been photographed this fall we haven’t confirmed his identity. He’ll have appear on camera before we know who he is.
