Witch hazel, Schenley Park, 15 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
16 November 2024
This week I found witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blooming in Schenley Park and was startled by a whoosh of wings that passed right in front of me below eye level. I was so startled that I screamed even though I knew that …
The whoosh was an immature red-tailed hawk zipping by to catch a mouse near the wall. In stealth mode the hawk did not flap his wings but he flew pretty close to me. If I didn’t like birds I might have been freaked out. He caught the mouse and I took his picture when he settled down.
Immature red-tailed hawk that buzzed past me in Schenley Park, 15 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
By now most oaks have lost their leaves so the predominant color in Schenley and Frick is brown. Brown on the ground and lots of bare trees.
Brown fallen leaves, Schenley Park, 15 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
In Schenley Park you can easily see through the woods at ground level because the deer have eaten all the thickets.
In Frick Park I spotted an unusual patch of green, probably an alien plant, so I went down there to check it out.
A green patch in the distance at Frick Park. What is it? 12 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sure enough, this is an alien — stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), native to Eurasia and Africa. Deer eat stinging nettle in spring and summer but are shunning it at this time of year.
A patch of stinging nettle in Frick Park, 12 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
By now the only place to find brilliant reds is in the sky.
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, 10 Nov 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last spring during the nesting season I was so distracted by peregrines that I neglected to check on a merlins’ nest reported in Highland Park. By the time I got over there the young had fledged, the merlins were gone, and a small group of American crows were inspecting the area and commenting on what they found.
Crows are intensely interested in merlin nests because those nests may have been stolen from crows.
Merlins (Falco columbarius) never build a nest. Instead they search for crow or hawk nests, ideally in conifers, and take them over. If the target nest is unoccupied no problem but merlins are feisty and will try for an active crows’ nest by driving off the incubating female crow. If harassing her doesn’t work, they shout at her all day until another predator shows up and forces her to leave.
This often works because merlins are loud and fearless. They’ll drive away anything that irritates them including this raven (a merlin predator not a competitor).
Merlin attack! Raven flips upside down, Renews, NL, 10 July 2010 (photo by Trina Anderson)
However, in southwestern Pennsylvania there are now two species of crows — American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and fish crows (Corvus ossifragus) — and it makes a difference to the merlins’ success.
Not so with fish crows. Merlins and fish crows are new to each other so they haven’t worked out their differences and continue harassing for a much longer period. Few or none on either side have a successful nest. In the study of 25 fish crow nests in upstate New York, 40% failed due to merlin interference. The study tracked 31 merlin nests and found 66% of those made in fish crow nests did not fledge young.
Autumn and winter are good times for seeing merlins and fish crows in Pittsburgh. It would be interesting to find them interacting in spring and watch what happens.
p.s. Thank you to Don Nixon of PA Merlins for alerting me to this fascinating topic. The paper(*) is by Connor O’H. Loomis and Anne B. Clark (Binghamton University), John Confer (Ithaca College), Kevin J. McGowan (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) but it is behind a pay wall. The fish crow and merlin nesting studies continue beyond 2019 in Ithaca, NY at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Just because an animal has UV receptors in its eyes does not mean it can see ultraviolet light. A recent BBC video, below, reveals some surprising things about the use and perception of ultraviolet light in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and raptors, especially golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). For instance:
Starlings and golden eagles both have UV receptors in their eyes.
Female starlings have feathers that reflect UV. The more UV a female reflects the more successful she is at breeding. Male starlings like the glow we humans cannot see.
UV light scatters more. If you can see UV light, it makes images blurry.
Raptors have UV receptors in their eyes but they cannot see it because their lenses filter it out. The golden eagle’s vision is sharper because he cannot see UV.
Scientists used to think kestrels hunted by seeing the UV reflective paths of rodent urine. Nope. Kestrel eyes filter out UV so that theory has been disproved.
Interesting conclusions:
Because I thought that raptors could see UV, I used to wonder how flashy UV-reflective songbirds managed to evade predators. Answer, the predators cannot see that flashy stuff!
UV light damages the eye so there is an advantage to not seeing it for most of one’s life.
Human eyes have UV receptors but we cannot see it because our lens filters out UV. There are exceptions based on age and lack of lenses.
Exception#1: Young people up to age 30 can see near UV, the wavelengths closest to our visible color range, per a 2018 Univ of Georgia study.
Exception#2: Those without lenses in their eyes can see near UV. This includes those born without lenses and those who had cataract surgery in the early days. Claude Monet had cataract surgery in 1923 with no lens replacement and could see near UV.
Are you going through Falconcam withdrawal? Don’t despair. Four falcons in Wisconsin are still on camera and nearly ready to fledge.
Click on the image above or this link at Instagram for a brief video of American kestrel nestlings (Falco sparverius), the smallest falcon in North America.
See them Live on the Wisconsin Kestrel Cam below … WOW! That was fast! All of them fledged within a day of this article and the Live Stream is closed for the year. The kestrels say, “See you next year!”
Saucer magnolia bud about to bloom, Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
23 March 2024
This week non-native flowering trees put on a show in the city of Pittsburgh. Originally from China and Japan their growing season is earlier than our native trees.
Star magnolia in bloom, Pittsburgh, 15 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
This month’s three-day spurts of highs in the 60s and 70s prompted the red maples to flower and start producing seeds.
Red maple already gone to seed, Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last Saturday I visited Wolf Creek Narrows, almost an hour north of Pittsburgh, where the growing season is later than at home. There we found an interesting jelly fungi called witches butter (Tremella mesenterica) …
Witches butter fungi, Wolf Creek Narrows, 16 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
… and a decapitated skunk cabbage that allowed us to see the spadix inside. The hood usually covers this structure but something ate the hood. What animal could put up with the odor to eat that hood? And then the animal would vomit because the plant is toxic.
Skunk cabbage spadix revealed, Wolf Creek Narrows, 16 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
I promised you an owl.
Inspired by Steve Gosser‘s photo of an American woodcock at North Park Upper Fields on 4 March, two of us stood out in the cold on Thursday evening waiting for sunset and for American woodcocks to make their twittering courtship flights. The sky was clear and the moon was so bright that we had moon shadows. It was also 5°F colder than at home in the city and I brought the wrong gloves. Brrrr!
Despite the cold it was worth the trip. Half an hour after sunset three American woodcocks put on a show and two flew right past us on their way to the sky.
American woodcock, North Park Upper Fields, 4 March 2024 (photo by Steve Gosser)
But the big surprise of the evening came before the woodcocks. Karyn saw a great-horned owl fly out of the pines and land on top of a brush pile. The owl was hunting while the voice of a youngster begged for food from pines.
Meanwhile a second adult owl flew to a bare tree at the other end of the field where we could see its silhouette against the glowing sky. Though my cellphone is not good at distance photos, you can faintly see the ear tufts that prove that this second bird of prey is a great-horned owl.
Great horned owl, North Park Upper Fields, 21 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Eurasian eagle-owl chick at the National Aviary hatched on 15 March 2024 (photo courtesy of the National Aviary)
22 March 2024
Eurasian eagle owls Dumbledore and X are parents again at the National Aviary. Their latest chick hatched on 15 March and is growing quickly and thriving in the Aviary’s Avian Care Center. You can see the chick and his caregivers through the Avian Care Center window.
When the chick hatched he weighed 55 grams (0.121 pounds, roughly the size of a small lime) but will grow so rapidly that in only eight weeks he’ll be fully grown, weighing up to 4kg (9 pounds!) with a wingspan of up to 6.5 feet.
I’ve said “he” for this chick but there is no way to visually tell whether he’s male or female. The National Aviary will do a DNA feather test to determine the chick’s sex.
Eventually he’ll look like his parents who lead active lives at the National Aviary. His father, Dumbledore, participates in flight shows and meets visitors when he’s not busy breeding.
I don’t have recent videos of X or Dumbledore (they’ve been busy off camera!) so to give you an idea of how big a Eurasian eagle owl is and how calm one can be as an avian ambassador, watch the public’s reaction when an owl visited the Hive Library in Worcester, UK with BBC Earth Unplugged.
Guests are encouraged to drop by on weekdays to see the Eurasian eagle owl chick as he grows! He is the 11th chick his parents have hatched at the National Aviary over the years.
One week ago today, on 23 Feb 2024, the most famous owl in New York City hit a window on West 89th Street and died.
Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) escaped his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo more than a year ago after a vandal damaged it on 2 Feb 2023. The zoo tried to recapture him and worried that he would starve or be hit by a car. Instead Flaco thrived on his own and became a symbol of freedom to many New Yorkers.
Sadly a window was Flaco’s undoing. Flaco’s biggest fan, David Lei (@davidlei), reported:
As you may have already seen, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl has passed away. I am sad beyond words. Flaco defied the odds and made quite a life for himself in the city over the past year. Along the way he came to mean so much to so many, including me. ??? pic.twitter.com/gJnby3TtvB
His story should not be over, though. Flaco was not the only bird to die of a window strike in North America. He was merely the most famous. Nearly one billion birds per year hit windows in the U.S.
Birds of prey are fierce while they gather food but gentle with their nestlings. Watch as this mother Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) protects her babies from the rain.
If she looks familiar it’s because Eurasian sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) are the same genus and slightly larger than our sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus). But female sparrowhawks are brown compared to males, whereas adult male and female sharp-shinned hawks wear the same colorful plumage.
Here are photos of all three: female Eurasian sparrowhawk, adult (male / female) sharp-shinned hawk, and male sparrowhawk.
Hays bald eagle pair + first egg in nest, 21 Feb 2024, 6:57am (screenshot from the Hays Bald Eagle Nest Camera)
21 February 2024
If you haven’t been watching the Hays Bald Eaglecam, now is a good time to start. Sharp observers saw the first egg of the 2024 nesting season last night, 20 February 2024, at 8:16pm.
The female incubated all night long, then just before dawn she turned the egg for all to see.
Hays bald eagle female turns her first egg of 2024, 21 Feb, 6:50am (screenshot from the Hays Bald Eagle Nest Camera)
As the sun rose she settled down and her mate called to her.
Hays bald eagles flying together, new male + female on 22 Oct 2023 (photo by Dana Nesiti, Eagles of Hays PA)
5 February 2024
Bald eagles in the Pittsburgh area have been courting since last fall and are ramping up to lay eggs this month. Now eagle fans can watch the action at two local nest sites: a much improved Hays Bald Eaglecam and three cameras at the USS Irvin eagles.
Back in December 2013 the Hays eaglecam was the first live broadcast of an eagles’ nest in Pennsylvania. Without local electricity and Internet, installer Bill Powers of PixCams had to hook up the camera to solar panels and the cell network. This meant the camera had to shut off overnight and go dark after snowfall. But not anymore thanks to help this winter from a neighboring eaglecam site 5.2 miles upriver.
The USS Irvin bald eagles started nesting in 2019 in a remote corner of USS Irvin Works near the Monongahela River. With help from US Steel their first eaglecam came online in 2021. This year that have three cameras viewing their nest and the surrounding area.
Hays Bald Eagle Nest Camera: The female eagle who nested at Hays in 2013 is still on site today, this year with a new mate nicknamed “V.” Watch them raise their first family together at these links.
Stop by the Hays Bald Eagle Viewing Area on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. Click here for directions.
As soon as an egg is laid, visit eaglestreamer.org for hatch and fledge countdown clocks.
USS Irvin Eaglecams: Irvin Plant’s resident bald eagles, “Irvin and Claire,” have three cameras on their nest. All three can be reached via this United States Steel Media Page or individually on YouTube:
