In case you missed it, the world’s oldest known banded wild bird has become a mother again at age 74. (She might be even older than 74.)
Wisdom is a female Laysan albatross who was banded (red Z333) as a breeding adult at Midway Atoll in 1956. Since her species cannot breed until age six and usually delays breeding until age seven or eight, Wisdom is at least 74 years old now, maybe even 77.
Wisdom breeds at the world’s largest albatross colony on Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Islands chain. Like all of her species she spends most of her life at sea but returns to her breeding grounds each year to rejoin her mate, lay one egg, and raise the chick.
This year she returned as usual and laid her egg in late November. Then she and her mate took turns incubating for about 65 days and their egg hatched in early February. Here’s the chick with its parents. (Wisdom has a red leg band.)
74-year-old Laysan albatross, Wisdom, with her latest chick (video published 14 Feb 2025 embedded from USATODAY)
If Wisdom was a human she’d be part of the Baby Boomer generation. I cannot even imagine being a mother at her age!
In case you missed it, the bald eagle pair at the US Steel Irvin nest welcomed their first egg of 2025 on Thursday afternoon 13 February. WTAE reports:
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — The bald eagles living at U.S. Steel’s Irvin Plant have welcomed their first egg of 2025.
Mother Stella laid the egg around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Stella joined Irvin in the nest after Claire left late last year. Irvin has lived at the nest for six seasons.
The egg could hatch in as little as 35 days and be the eighth eaglet born at the nest.
This is happy news since nesting at Hays looks doubtful after months of disruption by several immature eagles. Though the breeding season could be salvaged at Hays by a strong driven pair, that type of pair bond has not developed yet this spring.
A similar though very short drama occurred last fall at USS Irvin resulting in a new couple with a strong bond: Stella and Irvin. Learn about their history in this video from KDKA.
Watch them LIVE on the U.S. Steel Bald Eagle Nest Cam. Click here to tune in this morning (16 Feb) and see a very wet Stella on the nest. (Yes, it’s raining but it will change to snow.)
Gull: Since most of the rain will fall south of here the Monongahela River will rise again. It was falling last Tuesday when I photographed one of the many ring-billed gulls at Duck Hollow. This one seemed to be asking, “Do you have food for me?” Someone had left birdseed on the trash can cover.
4 Merlins: Yesterday I went to the Bob O’Connor Golf Course at Schenley Park half an hour before sunset to see if I could find the two merlins who usually hang out there. As soon as I arrived one flew in and landed on the highest pine in the Palmer Loop Practice Area north of Schenley Drive.
Merlin atop an evergreen, Schenley golf course, 14 Feb 2025, 5:22pm (photo by Kate St. John)Zoomed cellphone photo: 1 of 4 merlins at Schenley golf course, 14 Feb 2025, 5:15-6:05pm (photo by Kate St. John)
Soon a second merlin landed on top of the tallest tree, a bare tree between holes 8 and 9. I walked a big circle to check for songbirds and saw the first merlin in an intense chase with a third. On my way back to the car I found a fourth(!) and was able to stand in one spot and see all four merlins at the same time.
Four is unusual but I remember a time, perhaps in the late 1990s, when Bill Hintze first found merlins at the golf course. In those days there were sometimes as many as four.
60 Feet into Ohio: On Monday 10 Feb four of us went birding on the Stavich Bike Trail in Lawrence County PA to do a Winter Survey for the Third PA Breeding Bird Atlas. We were ready to head back to the car when I realized we were only a half mile from Ohio. So we kept going, crossed the state line and walked 60 feet into Ohio.
Ta dah! Here we are just inside Pennsylvania. Best Bird: a white-crowned sparrow.
Birding with friends (Donna, Kate, Debbie, Linda) in PA at the Ohio state line, 10 Feb 2025 (photo by Donna Foyle)
Bonus Picture — great horned owlet: Here’s another owlet baby picture from Tues 11 Feb. The white fluff in front of the mother owl is the owlet’s head facing left with its eyes closed.
Great horned owl nest with mother and owlet, Schenley Park, 11 Feb 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Black-footed albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) spend most of their lives at sea, so when a couple reunites near their nest they like to strengthen their pair bond with a dance.
Peregrine falcon, Gusto, in flight in 2022 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)
13 February 2025
Though it’s been cold and snowy, Chad+Chris Saladin are busy monitoring peregrine territories in northeastern Ohio to see who’s present and who is not.
On Sunday 9 February they caught up with Gusto, the male peregrine who’s been resident at the Hilliard Road Bridge site over the Rocky River since 2021. While Chad took photos Chris captured a video of Gusto watching and preening on a branch, then doing a tap dance on the ice before he took off.
p.s. You probably noticed that Gusto pooted before he took off. Birds typically lighten their load before takeoff by getting rid of useless “baggage.” So they poot before they fly.
And so it comes as no surprise that the #1 location for snow goose migration in Pennsylvania — Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area near Kleinfeltersville — has been closed for the spring migration season.
HARRISBURG — Due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that is currently affecting many parts of the state, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is restricting public access at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, effective Tuesday.
With the continued warming trends and the anticipated arrival of snow geese to Middle Creek, this decision was made out of an abundance of caution for human and domestic animal health.
Beginning Tuesday 4 February 2025, the following areas will be CLOSED to all public access:
Willow Point Parking Lot and Trail
Archery Range
Boat Launch
White Oak Picnic Area
All shoreline access of the lake, INCLUDING fishing
The Wildlife Drive remains seasonally closed, and an extended closure is possible.
Hiking trails (with the exception of Willow Point Trail and Deer Path Trail) and the Visitor Center will remain open during regular business hours, and all events will take place as scheduled.
All visitors are reminded:
If you have pet birds, backyard domestic poultry, or connections with commercial poultry facilities, you are STRONGLY discouraged to visit during this time to minimize transmission risk.
You are HIGHLY ADVISED to remain in your vehicles while observing wildlife from roadways.
Please remember the public plays a critical role in wildlife health surveillance. Report sick or dead wild birds to the Game Commission by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453).
Flocks at Middle Creek can contain 100,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans at the peak of migration. This is what it looked like 3 years ago in 2022. It’s easy to see how these birds could spread contagious diseases.
While bird flu (HPAI) spreads during spring migration remember to:
Always observe wildlife from a safe distance.
Avoid contacting surfaces that may be contaminated with feces from wild or domestic birds.
Do not handle wildlife unless you are hunting, trapping, or otherwise authorized to do so.
UPDATE, 28 Feb 2025 via Post-Gazette: The snow goose death toll in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania is now at 5,000 –> and these are just the birds that people could see and count.
Great horned owl on nest in Schenley Park, 1 Feb 2025 (digiscoped photo by Kate St. John)
11 February 2025
Remember this great horned owl nesting in Schenley Park? According to eBirder Andy Georgeson, she’s been incubating since at least 8 January.
[Great horned owl] continuing – I have now observed this owl on the old red tail hawk nest for the last 3 weeks. … This morning the owl was mobbed by 2 Ravens and displayed a defensive posture while in the nest before the Ravens flew off.
Last Sunday, 9 February, Dana Nesiti saw movement under her breast feathers and patiently waited until her owlet appeared. Can you see its little gray beak poking out under her white collar?
Great horned owl with chick, Schenley Park, 9 Feb 2025 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Incubation for great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus) lasts 30-37 days, averaging 33 days. If this owlet hatched on Saturday 8 February, its egg was laid around 6 January. Andy Georgeson’s observation supports this timing, too.
Great horned owlets are in their nestling phase for 42 days. This one will probably walk off the nest (called “branching”) on or around 22 March.
We’re going to have 6 weeks of Superb Owlet(s)!
UPDATE at noon on 11 February: Charity Kheshgi and I visited Schenley Park this morning to see the owls, best viewed in the vicinity of the stone bench here. I was lucky to digiscope a photo of the chick.
Great horned owl with sleeping owlet (center of photo) and stored food (on left side of nest), Schenley Park, 11 Feb 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
The owlet is the white fluff closest to his mother in the center of the photo. The other white stuff is the remains of a rabbit on top of the twigs at the left.
If you can’t discern the owlet above, here’s the same photo flipped so that the chick’s sleeping face is in the normal upright position. Ignore everything in this marked up photo except the area inside the yellow circle. Notice that the owlet’s white head, dark eye (closed), and beak are peeking out to the right of the nest twigs.
Marked up photo of owlet in great horned owl’s nest, 11 Feb 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
At the end of every eBird checklist the app asks, “Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify?”
“YES” means “I wrote down every species.”
It also means that during data analysis researchers can infer that “No other species were present.”
If you don’t include pigeons, house sparrows or starlings but you answer YES you have biased your results.
Observer selection bias occurs when the evidence presented has been pre-filtered by observers. … The data collected is not only filtered by the design of experiment, but also by the necessary precondition that there must be someone doing a study.
Don’t worry that they are non-native. eBird colors the map orange outside their native range. Your checklists update the rock pigeon (Columba livia) map worldwide.
Extensive winter damage frost crack in a black cherry tree, Hays Woods, 2 Feb 2024 (photo by Linda Roth)
9 February 2025
On a walk in Hays Woods on 2 February, Linda Roth and fellow hikers found a few severely damaged trees with long vertical cracks in their bark and trunks. What made the trees split like this?
Extensive winter damage frost crack in a black cherry tree, Hays Woods, 2 Feb 2024 (photo by Linda Roth)
One of the most common reasons for cracks and splits on tree trunks is cold temperature. Frost cracks are caused when the inner and outer wood in the tree’s trunk expands and contracts at different rates when temperatures change. This happens when winter temperatures plummet below zero especially after a sunny day when a tree’s trunk has been warmed by the sun. The different expansion rates between the inner and outer wood can cause such a strain on the trunk that a crack develops.
January’s weather was extreme enough to cause the damage. It was 43°F on the 18th, then plummeted below zero a few days later.
Frost cracks occur suddenly, can be several feet long, and are often accompanied by a loud rifle shot sound. They often originate at a point where the trunk has been physically injured in the past. Maples and sycamores are the most prone to frost cracks. Apples, ornamental crabapple, ash, beech, horse chestnut and tulip tree are also susceptible. Isolated trees and trees growing on poorly drained soils are particularly prone to frost cracks.
You know it’s cold when the trees crack and explode. According to Wikipedia, the Sioux and Cree called the first full moon of January “The moon of cold-exploding trees.”
In early February, southwestern Pennsylvania’s resident peregrines are courting and making sure their territories are secure. Meanwhile, adults without a nest site — called “floaters” — are searching for a completely new site, or exploring the existing territories to find a weak resident who cannot keep them out. Sometimes there’s a changeover of who owns what. It’s an exciting time to watch peregrines that lasts through March.
This week the same resident peregrines courted on camera at the Cathedral of Learning while it appears there’s been a changeover at the Tarentum Bridge.
Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh: At Pitt, Ecco is often seen on the falconcam, preening on the green perch while he waits for Carla to show up. Yesterday she was off camera when Ecco began to “echup” and bow. Then she jumped in.
The resident pair at the Tarentum Bridge, a female with a dotted chest and a banded male (black/green 48/BR, hatched in 2014), have been quite successful since they first became a couple in 2018. Over the years they’ve fledged 20 young and have often been the first to nest. Last year she laid eggs in late February.
This year Dave Brooke discovered they aren’t the same couple. In photographs the female looks the same…
Female on the nav light beam where she likes to mate, Tarentum Bridge, 4 Feb 2025 (photo by Dave Brooke)
… but the male is unbanded so he has to be new. This is not surprising since 48/BR would be eleven years old, an age when younger males step in.
Unbanded male at the Tarentum Bridge, 5 Feb 2025 (photo by Dave Brooke)
This new couple is not on the early nesting schedule like the old pair. The female wants to mate now but he’s not in the mood. Yesterday she was calling to him from the nestbox.
Female at the nestbox, Tarentum Bridge, 7 Feb 2025 (photo by Dave Brooke)
But he ignored her.
The Tarentum Bridge female with spotted throat was sitting on the nest box and male was on the opposite end of the pier. She was wailing for some time before flying out and around the closer pier before disappearing on the Westmoreland side of the river.
