I have heard that mangroves protect coastlines during hurricanes and tsunamis but I could not imagine how they did it until I saw this video from Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK), Special Envoy for the President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and 13 year old climate activist.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is the eastern half of Timor island, located north of Australia. The other half of the island is part of Indonesia.
Timor island is located in the region with the highest diversity of mangroves in the world — 26-47 species in one place. Compare this to just one or two species in Louisiana.
When a hurricane hits Louisiana we often hear that the damage would not have been so great if they had more mangroves. Louisiana is now trying to restore their mangrove forest but it is slow going.
Learn more about mangroves in this award-winning video from The Marine Diaries.
Crows bursting off a tree along Forbes Avenue (photo by Kate St. John)
17 October 2024
The crows are back in town!
On 1 October I counted 1,800 crows staging in Shadyside before they flew west to a roost. Last night I counted twice as many heading toward the Cathedral of Learning. 3,600 is only a fraction of the flock that will be in Pittsburgh by the end of December. As their numbers grow they quickly wear out their welcome. That’s when they move the roost.
In transit a flock this large is kind of mesmerizing (video from Dec 2023).
Crows flying toward the roost, December 2023 (video by Kate St. John)
But if they sleep in your trees they are really messy.
Evidence that crows roosted in the trees above this sidewalk, 7 Nov 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Monday I saw Pitt’s maintenance staff spray-washing the sidewalk on Bigelow Blvd and I found “poot” evidence across the street as well. I’m sure Pitt is on the verge of moving them along, if they haven’t already done so.
Last year Pitt used flashing lights to convince the crows to leave the Bigelow Blvd trees. Crows really hate strobe lights.
Pitt works to move the crows, 13 Nov 2023 (video by Phillip Rogers)
I suspect there were strobe lights last night because … When the crows sleep near the Cathedral of Learning I live in their flyway. Last night thousands flew past my window but this morning none of them made the return journey. So did the crows sleep at Pitt? I wonder.
This tug of war with winter crows happens every year. They might end up roosting where the whole flock can sleep without bothering anyone, or they might split the roost to reduce their impact. One thing I know for sure. The crows will be hard to find for the Christmas Bird Count. 😉
UPDATE 17 Oct, 1:30pm: The crows *did* sleep in the trees at Pitt. I saw the evidence this morning.
Ravens are well known to cache food but who owns the stash operates on the principle: “Unless another raven is actively guarding it, whatever food I see is mine.” The finder eats or re-hides the cache. We would call this thievery.
To prevent thieves, a raven with lots of food waits until all the other ravens leave before caching his treasure. He’ll even go to a place where no one can see him hiding it.
Scientists thought that a raven had to see another raven before he went to all this trouble. Then a study in 2016 tested whether ravens can imagine potential thieves they cannot see.
The study, published in Nature Communications, found that if a nearby peephole was open, ravens guarded pockets of food against discovery in response to the sound of other birds — even if they didn’t see another bird. This was not replicated when the peephole was closed, despite hearing the same auditory clues.
Ravens are so smart that they can imagine thieves, just like we can. Is it a blessing or a curse to be this intelligent?
Watch how ravens imagine what another raven is thinking in this video from BBC Earth.
What happens when you irrigate? Irrigation inevitably leads to the salinization of soils and waters. In the United States yield reductions due to salinity occur on an estimated 30% of all irrigated land. World wide, crop production is limited by the effects of salinity on about 50% of the irrigated land area. … Concern is mounting about the sustainability of irrigated agriculture.
Where does all the salt come from? Application of irrigation water results in the addition of soluble salts such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfate, and chloride dissolved from geologic materials with which the waters have been in contact. Evaporation and transpiration (plant uptake) of irrigation water eventually cause excessive amounts of salts to accumulate in soils unless adequate leaching and drainage are provided.
This worldwide problem will get only worse as climate change increases drought, so a team of researchers looked for salt tolerant crops.
Focusing on the tomato’s closest wild relative, the tiny currant tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium), they selected “over 2,700 cultivars, raising the seedlings in two environments: a greenhouse, and an open field.”
The best results came from five cultivars from Peru.
Two evening grosbeaks in flight, western Washington State (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
14 October 2024
When North Americans go south for the winter they do it to escape the cold. When boreal finches leave Canada in autumn it’s not about cold, it’s about food.
Winter finches are cold hardy and could stay up north all year but when seed cones and fruit are in short supply they fly south to find food. Every year the Finch Network examines finch food crops across Canada and predicts southward movement by species. Their 2024-25 Winter Finch Forecast came out in late September, summarized below.
This winter we will NOT see these species.
Pine grosbeaks (Never come to southwestern PA anyway.)
Redpolls
White-winged crossbills
Red crossbills
Redpolls (It feels like a very long time since redpolls came to PA.)
Bohemian waxwings (Never come to southwestern PA anyway.)
This year, the majority should leave Canada with a likely moderate flight to the Great Plains and southern United States. … At feeders, they prefer black oil sunflower seeds.
Areas from Manitoba eastward affected by Spruce Budworm infestations have a poor cone crop. Siskins that bred in these areas will be on the move. While band recoveries show siskins will move straight across North America from coast to coast, there should be some small movement south in the eastern half of the United States this fall in search of food.
Evening grosbeak, January 2013 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Spruce budworms caused problems with the cone crop this summer but there were lots of berries. However, the berries gone now so…
Evening Grosbeaks should visit areas from the Maritime provinces south towards Pennsylvania. Areas even further south to the mid-Atlantic states may see grosbeaks this winter.
— 2024-25 Winter Finch Forecast
These species are not finches, but are part of the prediction.
In eastern North America westward to Manitoba the deciduous tree crop (they love acorns on oaks) appears below average with scattered areas of average crops, so expect a moderate to strong flight this fall.
When I saw this NASA video of a spinning T-handle flipping in zero gravity it blew my mind. Does this weird flipping behavior happen only in outer space?
Naturally it is quite impressive in outer space as the object stays suspended while it flips!
Learn about the science, physics and math in this 14+ minute video: The Bizarre Behavior of Rotating Bodies, including why the Russians kept Dzhanibekov’s outer space discovery secret for 10 years.
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.
