Female peregrine at the Westinghouse Bridge, 13 Oct 2019 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Since last week’s announcement of the new peregrine at the Cathedral of Learning, several of you have asked if there’s any news from Downtown or the other sites in southwestern Pennsylvania. No, there isn’t any news except for this:
Yesterday, 13 October 2019, Dana Nesiti stopped by the Westinghouse Bridge and confirmed that both male and female peregrines are present. Two of his photos are shown here.
Peregrine at the Westinghouse Bridge, 13 Oct 2019 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Other than that it is very quiet. I stop by the Cathedral of Learning when I can and see the same things over and over: quiet airspace, no peregrines, or peregrines snoozing on the building.
If you see peregrine activity at Pitt or anywhere in southwestern Pennsylvania, please tell me by leaving a comment on my blog (it sends me an email).
If you can’t be here to look for peregrines, rest assured that I will tell you whatever news I have.
— A Book of Rather Strange Animals (@StrangeAnimaIs) October 11, 2019
This video tweeted by @StrangeAnimaIs shows a hermit crab using an abandoned doll’s head as a shell. Why would a crab do this?
In some parts of the world there’s such an acute shortage of shells that hermit crabs use trash instead. This BBC video shows them on a beach in Thailand. Click here to see a crab in a can in Malaysia.
Though it’s nearly mid October I saw monarch butterflies migrating through Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday October 10 & 11. Their timing seems late, but they were given a boost by August-like weather early this month.
Juvenile raccoons contemplating their next move (photo courtesy PBS NATURE)
This morning I went out the back door at 6am — in the dark — with a bag of garbage. I do this every Friday to outsmart the raccoons.
Raccoons are thriving in my neighborhood though we rarely see them. Last night, for the first time in many months, I saw a hunched shadow cross the street on a nocturnal ramble. They’re still here.
Mostly we see their evidence so we try to outsmart them.
The garbage truck arrives in our back alley as early as 6am but we’ve learned from experience that if we put the garbage out the night before the raccoons rip it open and scatter the contents. Nowadays I take out the garbage as close as possible to the garbage truck’s arrival. One morning I missed the truck. Dang!
Seven years ago PBS NATURE premiered a program called Raccoon Nation that showed how creative urban raccoons can be. One of the scientists remarked:
The more obstacles you throw in their way become more challenges, so it’s quite possible that by providing more and more obstacles we are in fact selecting for smarter raccoons.
New female peregrine at Cathedral of Learning, 4 Oct 2019 (photo by Dr. Alan Juffs)
Late yesterday, 9 October 2019, I watched the Cathedral of Learning for more than two hours to catch sight of the new peregrine and its mate. Though they were present less than half the time it was well worth the visit.
First, I learned that the new peregrine is female. I could recognize her from the ground by her perching preferences, her size, her dark head and her peach-toned chest. She hung out with the male, flying with him and roosting side-by-side in nooks on 32 north (Fifth Ave). I assume the male is Terzo though we won’t know for sure until we read his bands.
The size difference between the new female and Terzo is striking; she is a much larger bird. Hope is such a small female that it was hard to tell them apart unless the two perched side by side, a very rare occurrence. The roosting proximity of the new female to Terzo is a good sign.
It appears the new female “owns” the Cathedral of Learning. She is usually on site and she perches in plain sight. When flying near the building, both she and Terzo use flappy territorial flight, clearly saying, “This cliff is mine!”
Who is this message for? I found out while waiting for my bus on Fifth Ave.
At 5:25pm three peregrines flew toward the Cathedral of Learning. The male went past the building. The female landed on a stone peak at 27NW (a favorite perch of the new peregrine). A second female flew toward the perched one and took a pot shot at her. She didn’t hit her. The new peregrine didn’t move. The second female kept flying fast, away to the southwest.
Alan Juffs says he sometimes sees another bird fly at the one perched near his window. I wonder if the wailing on this video is the second female. The new peregrine isn’t phased by this, but she is certainly vigilant.
So I was wrong. There are three peregrines at the Cathedral of Learning, one male and two females. The females are vying for ownership of the Cathedral of Learning.
New peregrine at Cathedral of Learning, 2 Oct 2019 (photo by Dr. Alan Juffs)
There’s still a pair of peregrine falcons at the Cathedral of Learning but one of them is a new bird. Last week Dr. Alan Juffs sent me photographs of a peregrine perched outside his window. I thought the bird might be new to Pitt but was unable to investigate until now. Here’s what I’ve found so far.
Yesterday afternoon (8 October 2019) I visited Alan Juffs to talk about the new peregrine and reminisce about Dorothy who frequented the same perches this bird has adopted. Juffs’ photographs and videos provide excellent documentation:
Unbanded! We don’t know where it came from but we do know it’s not from the Cathedral of Learning because all Pitt offspring are banded.
Clear breast with faint peach color, no spots.
Peach color extends onto belly, underlying the dark spots/stripes.
Very dark helmet and malar stripes. White throat stands out against dark head and malar stripes when viewed from the ground.
Long yellow legs
Dark back
Perches on the stone peaks on 27th and 28th floors on north (5th Ave) and east (Heinz Chapel) sides of the Cathedral of Learning.
Curious about humans inside the windows.
Calls to the other peregrine; the other peregrine calls, too.
Because it’s not banded, it’s hard to find out if this bird is male or female. Right now we don’t know.
This peregrine is clearly unbanded, 2 Oct 2019 (photo by Alan Juffs)
Juffs’ earliest photo was taken on 4 September 2019, so this new bird arrived on or before that date. Here it is on 4 September.
New peregrine first photograph on 4 Sep 2019 (photo by Alan Juffs)
Each peregrine has its own favorite perches on the “cliff” so when you see a peregrine consistently perched in a new place, it may be a new bird. Juffs remarked that Dorothy was the last peregrine to use these perches. She passed away in 2015. Hope and Terzo never use this spot but Dorothy often ate lunch on the air conditioner (click here for a January 2014 video of Dorothy eating lunch by Alan Juffs).
The new bird, like the late Dorothy, doesn’t mind seeing people inside Juffs’ office. It even seems curious. I wonder if it hatched on a building.
Curious about humans, 2 Oct 2019 (photo by Alan Juffs)
The new bird is a “talker.” In Juffs’ video below the new peregrine calls to another one.
Sometimes another peregrine calls in the distance. Here, the new peregrine listens.
In an effort to determine the bird’s sex I looked for nestbox snapshots from late August to now. As far as I can tell this peregrine has never courted at the nest. Unfortunately there’s a data gap from 18 August to 5 September but I can tell that the gravel has not been disturbed since the nesting season. I’m not finished reviewing September data, but so far no peregrines have moved the gravel since 10 July 2019 when Hope visited alone.
Right now the best way to determine the bird’s sex is to identify it on the building and watch it fly off with its mate to see which one is bigger (females are larger). I’ve seen the pair flying together — clearly male and female by size — but I’ve not been able to tell who is who.
What I do know is this: There are only two peregrines at Pitt right now, one male and one female. The new bird is one of them. It replaced either Hope or Terzo — I just don’t know which one.
New peregrine at Cathedral of Learning, 4 Oct 2019 (photo by Alan Juffs)
I’ll be spending a lot of time on campus, hoping for that crystal clear moment when I see the pair flying together and can tell who is who.
Meanwhile a big thank you goes out to Dr. Alan Juffs for his photographs and observations. Without his help we’d never know there is a new peregrine at Pitt.
While writing about the worldwide spread of Asian ladybeetles (Establishing a Bridgehead) I learned another amazing fact. These insects are cannibals when they need to be, but they’re careful about it. They avoid eating close relatives.
Asian ladybeetles (Harmonia axyridis) are insect carnivores, preferring aphids above all else. Their population surges when aphids are plentiful and goes hungry when aphids crash. Rather than starve, ladybeetle larvae eat eggs and smaller larvae of their own species. The strong ones survive, indirectly regulating their own population.
However, they also make sure that their own family survives …
Interestingly, H. axyridis recognize their kin and are less likely to cannibalize a sibling than a non-related individual (Michaud, 2003). If normal prey becomes scarce, larval mortality can be very high, with in excess of 95% of larvae failing to survive to adulthood, and in such circumstances cannibalism can be essential for survival.
Milkweed pods bursting open (photo by Kate St. John)
At this time of year milkweed pods burst open and the seeds disperse, carried on the wind by sprigs of fluff.
The fluff doesn’t look aerodynamic so how does the the seed stay airborne for so long? Recent studies explaining the flight properties of dandelion fluff may provide a clue for milkweed. Let’s look at dandelions.
Each dandelion seed is attached to parachute-like bit of fluff called a pappus. They look like this before they leave on their journey.
When a seed lets loose it dangles below the pappus and floats on the breeze for seven (7) feet or several miles. The goal is for the seed to land far from the parent plant.
Now that the weather has changed unwelcome insects will invade our homes including Asian ladybeetles (Harmonia axyridis) that resemble native ladybugs but don’t act like them. Also called “harlequin ladybirds,” they overwinter indoors, make a stink, and bite when frightened.
A hundred years ago we thought this bug was a great idea and repeatedly introduced it to the U.S. to control aphids. The introduced ladybeetles never made it in the wild until a population was found thriving near New Orleans in 1988. After that they spread like wildfire across the eastern U.S. and into Canada.
Thirteen years later they became established in South America and Europe(*). By 2004 they were in southern Africa. They hadn’t been introduced. How did they get there?
A 2010 study of their genetic markers revealed that those three continents were invaded by the eastern North America population. In a move called the bridgehead effect, Asian ladybeetles in the U.S. used our continent as a jumping off point to colonize Europe, South America and Africa.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons; map from PLOS One article posted at nih.gov. Click on the caption to see the original)
p.s. (*) The European population of H. axyridis is mixed. Some were directly introduced from their native range but were not considered pests until the North America cohort arrived.
This morning I found a fascinating list of longest-lived organisms. Here’s a sampling, young to old.
The longest living bird on earth is Wisdom, a female Laysan albatross who was banded as an adult at Midway Atoll in 1956. Since her species cannot breed until it’s five years old and usually delays breeding until age seven or eight, Wisdom was at least 68 years old last November (maybe >70) when she returned to Midway to lay her annual egg, shown above. Like all of her species she spends most of her life at sea.
The longest-lived terrestrial animal is the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles. An individual named Adwaita lived to be 225 years old at the Kolkatta (Calcutta) Zoo. Unfortunately this species is vulnerable to extinction. It is sadly ironic that they outlive us but may not outlast us as a species.
The world’s oldest living clonal organism is a stand of quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides), nicknamed Pando, that covers 106 acres near Fish Lake, Utah. The stand is a single “tree” whose trunks are shoots from a single clonal root. Pando is thought to be 80,000 years old but that’s the conservative estimate. It may be as much as 1 million years old.
And finally, for a really long life you can’t beat immortality. Hydras do not undergo aging so they’re considered biologically immortal. They can live forever, theoretically.
