28 October 2024
Six of us went birding yesterday at Duck Hollow and we didn’t just stand around. Here we are on the move to look in the thickets.
Before the rest of us arrived, Claire Staples captured this image of sky, sun and fog on the Monongahela River at 7:55am.
As 8:36am the sky cleared a bit. Two contrails make dogleg turns to the north.
Our Best Bird skulked in a thicket, of course, but kept making noise. He soon became the most photographed bird of the day: a winter wren in shadow and then in the open.
Duck Hollow’s northern mockingbird is still present and noisy.
We found a bumper crop of honeysuckle fruit along the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail.
Unfortunately …
Invasive honeysuckle berries aren’t strictly bad for birds. They’re an easy food source when birds are in a pinch, but they’re kind of like junk food: Compared to native berries, they have less fat and nutrients that birds need to fuel their long-distance flights.
— Audubon news: Mystery Solved: Invasive Berries to Blame for Turning Flickers’ Feathers Pink
Our “rare” bird of the day was a flock of 16 fish crows vocalizing as they flew. eBird didn’t believe we could find that many but eBird’s “rare” filter doesn’t know about, or cannot pointpoint, the fish crow phenomenon in Pittsburgh’s East End.
See our checklist of 27 species here https://ebird.org/checklist/S200489956 and below.
Duck Hollow, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
Oct 27, 2024 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM … 27 species
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 26
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 11
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 3
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 4
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 2
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 3
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 1
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 10
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 6
Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) 16 Flock heading south for the Waterfront shopping center, vocalizing on their way
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) 1
Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) 1
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 2
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 8
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 60
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 30
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 13
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) 4
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) 10
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) 10
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 10