More than 20 people turned out this morning for the Duck Hollow and Lower Frick Park outing.

We were hoping to see the northern shovelers, green-winged teal, and pied-billed grebe reported on the Monongahela River yesterday, but all of them had departed overnight.  Best ducks were two very distant hooded mergansers.  The red-winged blackbirds, northern cardinals and local red-tailed hawks put on a show.

As we started up the Lower Nine Mile Run Trail we heard that someone saw a peregrine on the Homestead Grays Bridge.  Is it there?  Could more than 20 people quickly run downhill and under the trestle to see it before it left?  The report was confusing/conflicting so we didn’t go.  Later I saw Michele Kienholz’s photo of the peregrine. Erf!  Wish we’d seen it.

Best bird was a sharp-shinned hawk.  Best bug was a mourning cloak butterfly that flew by and best flower — the ONLY flower — was this single coltsfoot still with frost on its edges.

The complete eBird checklist is here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S43755756

(photos by Kate St. John)