Sun rays through the mist, Schenley Park, 4 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
12 October 2024
This week’s biggest Seen event was the aurora borealis which I wrote about yesterday (Northern Lights Last Night in Pittsburgh), but there were also subtle changes in the landscape that prompted a few photos.
Cold weather brought foggy mornings and sun rays burning through the mist in Schenley Park, at top.
It’s a big mast year for Schenley’s red oaks. These shallow, tightly scaled cups are the easiest way to identify red oak versus white oak.
Closeup of two red oak acorns with caps, 8 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
It was hard to find two acorns that still had their cups. These two are intact because a worm drilled into the nuts. I searched through lots of cup-less acorns to find them.
Big mast year for red oaks in Schenley Park, 8 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
For decades I’ve walked past these trees without thinking about their odd looking trunks. The trunks have hips because …
Grafted cherry trees, Schenley Park near Westinghouse Memorial, 8 October 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
… these ornamental cherry trees were grafted onto healthy trunks of (probably) native trees. This is usually done because the non-native tree roots are likely to fail in North America.
Grafted cherry trunk, Schenley Park, 8 October 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Aurora borealis at North Park, Allegheny County PA, 10 Oct 2024, 10:15pm (photo by Steve Gosser)
11 October 2024
We usually don’t see the aurora borealis as far south as Pittsburgh but this year has been amazing. Last night was its third visit and perhaps the best.
Having missed the other two events I went to Schenley Park golf course last night from 8:30 to 9:00pm. Knowing it would only be visible in cellphone photos I took a lot of pictures. Obviously there is too much light pollution! You can count the stars on one hand in my photo. But the sky is pink.
Faint pink of the aurora borealis at Schenley Park, 10 Oct 2024, 8:45pm (photo by Kate St. John)
Steve Gosser went to Allegheny County’s North Park and waited a long time for the aurora to become intense. At 10:15pm he captured the red and green photo at top. Wow!
Dave Brooke went further afield to Armstrong County and waited past midnight. He captured this still photo and …
Aurora borealis, Armstrong County, PA, early hours of 11 Oct 2024 (photo by Dave Brooke)
… this timelapse video.
Aurora borealis, Armstrong County, 10-11 Oct 2024, embedded video by Dave Brooke on YouTube
Double wow!!
A good view of the northern lights comes down to location and patience … and a good camera.
October 11th 2024 saw a G4 Geomagnetic storm with a Kp:8. This timelapse was taken in Armstrong Co in Western PA starting around 9:30pm. It consists of 193, 10 second exposures with an interval of 5 seconds between each shot. They were taken with a Canon R5 and a Sigma 14-24mm Art lens at 14mm. The aperture was 2.8 and ISO 800. The sequence was rendered in LRTimelapse and outputted at 1/2 speed.
When Europeans arrived in Pennsylvania the first thing they did was clear the forest for farms. 150 years ago the focus changed from chopping for farmland to clear-cutting to sell the wood. Clear-cutting ended in the complete deforestation of Pennsylvania in 1900-1920. Other than small patches of old growth forest, such as the one at Cook Forest, the Pennsylvania woods you see today is just 100+ years old.
A few old trees remained in unlikely places. Farmers sometimes left one tree in a field as shade for the animals or left a tree standing at the boundary line.
When the farm was abandoned the forest grew back and surrounded the lone tree. At top an ancient white pine is surrounded by a younger Vermont forest. Lone trees in Pennsylvania tend to be oaks.
In 2015 I took a picture of a wolf tree at Cedar Creek Park in Westmoreland County. Nine years ago it had already been dead a long time and pieces of it were falling.
An old “Wolf Tree” at Cedar Creek Park, Sept 2015 (photo by Kate St.John)
In subsequent visits to Cedar Creek I didn’t pay attention to this tree. I wonder how much of it still stands. I’ll have to go and see. (p.s. UPDATE on 15 Oct 2024: Mark Bowers checked and the tree is still there!
Connecticut warbler banded at Hays Woods with engorged tick above eyering, 8 October 2024 (photo by Nick Liadis, Bird Lab)
9 October 2024
Yesterday while Bird Lab was at Hays Woods, Nick Liadis captured and banded a Connecticut warbler! I was not there to see this rare bird (alas) but Nick sent me a photo. Notice that the warbler has an engorged tick at top right of his eye-ring.
Tick season has returned with a vengeance after a low period during August and September’s drought. Because they cannot live without moisture ticks hang out in humid vegetation, but there was very little available during the drought. All that has changed with the recent rains and black-legged ticks are now active for their mating season which they conduct on the bodies of deer. I was reminded of this yesterday when I saw a deer in Schenley Park with three engorged ticks on its face. (Ewwww!)
Birds that forage on the ground are likely to encounter ticks so its no surprise that the Connecticut warbler and this song sparrow acquired them.
Immature yellow-bellied sapsucker near spotted lanternflies, Frick Park, 6 Oct 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
8 October 2024
Bird migration was intense over Pittsburgh on Friday night, 4 October, when more than 20,000 songbirds flew south overhead. We saw the results on Saturday morning in Frick Park where a new cohort of species had arrived with good news: Some of them were eating spotted lanternflies!
The new species included ruby-crowned kinglets, white-throated sparrows, yellow-bellied sapsuckers and yellow-rumped (myrtle) warblers. The mix was quite a change from September’s warblers.
Most of the new arrivals were feeding on tiny insects but the juvenile sapsucker, pictured above, was attracted to sweet lanternfly honeydew on ailanthus trees. He was too young to have ever seen a spotted lanternfly but he was curious. “Are these edible?”
Immature yellow-bellied sapsucker looking at spotted lanternflies, Frick Park, 6 Oct 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Yes.
Perhaps the sapsucker got the idea from a northern cardinal that ate a lanternfly further down the trail. (I don’t have a photo of that incident; this one is from iNaturalist, New York.)
White garden snails encrust a fencepost near Tarifa, Spain, 11 Sep 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
7 October 2024
One of the strangest things we saw on the WINGS Spain in Autumn tour last month were many snail encrusted fenceposts and plants along the road. The snails were everywhere in the dry hot areas of southern Spain. Why?
Snails as far as the eye can see near Tarifa, Spain, 11 Sep 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
White garden snails or Mediterranean snails (Theba pisana) are an edible land snail native to the Mediterranean. We saw them up on posts and plants because we were visiting during the hot dry season when the snails are aestivating to escape the heat.
Discovering Doñana describes their life cycle:
Our land snails are mainly nocturnal, since at night the presence of predators decreases and the environmental conditions are more conducive to them by significantly increasing the humidity of the environment. During the favorable time of the year, with mild temperatures and adequate environmental humidity, land snails feed in the herbaceous layer closest to the ground, being able to remain active for a good part of the day as well.
But when spring gives way to summer, temperature increases and the humidity decreases, producing a truly hostile environment to them. …. To overcome these unfavorable conditions, which usually begin in June, land snails enter a state of dormancy … [called] aestivation.
The snails climb up where the temperature is cooler above ground. Then they close their shells with a sticky secretion that adheres to their chosen plant or post, leaving a tiny hole for breathing. The snails go to sleep.
Theba pisana on a reed at the shore near Tarifa, Spain, 12 Sep 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Their high perch keeps them safe from ground predators but not from birds that stop by for a snack. Discovering Doñana shows photos of a kestrel and a lark eating snails on fenceposts.
Theba pisana on dried weeds near Brazo del Este, Spain, 7 Sep 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Every white dot is a snail! Near Tahivilla, Spain, 11 Sep 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
When the season changes and the weather becomes cooler and more humid, the snails come down. If you visit southern Spain in the winter you won’t see them.
Bumblebee at grape leaf anemone; honey bee arriving, 1 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
6 October 2024
With fewer flowers, nectar and pollen available, bees are quickly eating what they can in early October. Though it looks like the honey bees and bumblebees are doing the same thing they have different strategies for dealing with winter.
Honey bee and bumblebee at grape leaf anemone, 1 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bumblebees, on the other hand, are very busy but their lives are short. Only their queen will survive the winter. After she mates with the available males she will retreat underground to wait for spring.
Bumblebee alone at grape leaf anemone, 1 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The flowers they love are grape leaf anemone in a garden near Carnegie Library and Museum.
Bumblebees coming and going at grape leaf anemone, 1 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Bumblebees at grape leaf anemone, 1 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Freshwater mussels are the unsung heroes of our waterways. They keep the water clean for fish and the aquatic insects they feed on and, because they filter water through their bodies, they are the first to die when the water becomes polluted.
If a freshwater stream doesn’t have mussels it’s hard for native fish to survive. That’s why the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission converted the fish hatchery at Union City into a mussel propagation center and are restocking mussels in our creeks.
On Tuesday I saw a monarch butterfly fly past my 6th floor window on its journey south. Every night that butterfly it will rest in sheltering vegetation and feed on flowers the next day. But what if those amenities aren’t available?
On Wednesday I noticed landscaping staff clearing a garden in front of an Oakland office building. Monthly gardening schedules, sometimes based on pre-climate change temperatures, call for clearing the garden or changing the plants in October. Salvia looks “leggy” now. Perhaps they were going to plant chrysanthemums.
Fortunately Saving Monarchs sends this helpful Facebook reminder for all gardeners. Take a break and let your garden sleep in!
Some have messaged me asking if they can buy the sign, yes, they’re available for purchase. The large aluminum signs measure 18”x 12” are 50 plus shipping. I also make them in pvc size 9” x 11.5” and are 25 plus shipping. No extra shipping if you purchase more than 1. Obviously, due to shipping costs no posts are included, just the signs. Message [Saving Monarchs on Facebook] if you’re interested.
Read more about the benefits of leaving the leaves for insects, pollinators, birds, and even salamanders.
