Category Archives: Books & Events

Peregrine Quest! March 10, 2pm, Downtown

Books & Events, Peregrines

Vicinity of Downtown peregrine nest (photo by Kate St. John)

Want to help monitor the former Gulf Tower peregrines this spring?  Meet me downtown at 2:00pm on Sunday March 10 and I’ll show you where they live.

When the peregrines did not return to Pittsburgh’s Gulf Tower last month and when I heard very few reports of them I worried that they’d chosen yet another nest site.

I went downtown yesterday to check and am happy to report that they plan to use the same site as last year.  I found both birds nearby.

Here’s Louie perched across the street from the nest, roosting during a mini snow squall.
There's a peregrine in this picture (photo by Kate St. John)

This smaller image is the same one, digitally zoomed and cropped.
Peregrine perched on windowsill of Lawrence Hall, 24 Feb 2013 (photo by Kate St. John)

 

And here’s Dori at the nest site, digitally zoomed.

Peregrine perched at nest site, 24 Feb 2013 (photo by Kate St. John)

My photos aren’t sharp because I don’t have a zoom lens.  If you do, you’ll get a nice portrait at this distance.  These birds are closer and easier to see than the peregrines at Pitt.

Come on Downtown on I’ll show you where to look for them.

Meet me at the Market Square Starbucks in downtown Pittsburgh (click here for map) on Sunday, March 10 at 2:00pm.  In less than an hour I can show you the ropes.

Bring binoculars or a camera.  We’ll walk 3.5 blocks to the site and do a short walking tour of other perching spots.

This event will happen rain or shine.  Dori will lay her first egg within two weeks of our visit so there’s no time to lose.

Sunday bonus: On-street parking is free in many places on Sundays.  For instance, along the Boulevard of the Allies at Point Park University.

Hope to see you March 10!

(photos by Kate St. John)

Count Birds Next Weekend

Books & Events
White-breasted nuthatch (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

10 February 2013

Fill your feeders and get ready!  The Great Backyard Bird Count kicks off this Friday February 15.

For four days — February 15 through February 18 — you can take part in this easy citizen science project from the comfort of your home.  All you need to do is count birds for at least 15 minutes, keep track of the highest number of each species you see, and record your count here.

If you don’t have feeders, you can count birds anywhere.  If you photograph birds, submit your pictures for the GBBC Photo Contest.

Count for hours or for as little as 15 minutes.  Have fun!

Read more here on how to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

Bird Tales, January 6

Books & Events

LATE BREAKING NEWS (1/4/13 at 4:30pm)!  We had trouble with the show archive so WQED will not run Bird Tales at 5:00pm on January 6.  Instead we will re-run Opposable Chums.

Bird Tales Review:

Why are we so inspired by birds?  How can we inspire others?

The answers will come this Sunday when WQED airs Bird Tales, a program that follows a dozen educators in the U.S. and Nicaragua who describe their fascination with birds and their enthusiasm that inspires others.

  • Sarah Zuccarelli teaches visitors at a bird sanctuary in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire.
  • Don Kroodsma records birdsong and teaches us to listen.
  • Abraham Hunter is a young artist whose paintings of birds have gained national acclaim.
  • Bob Gerson is a prison inmate in New Jersey whose lifelong love of birds has prompted him to write.
  • And through it all we’re inspired by educators from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and teachers in Washington, D.C. and Nicaragua who are “Bridging the Americas” by uniting their students through education and conservation of migratory birds.

Birds link us to each other and to nature.  In Washington and Nicaragua, the children share the same birds who spend summers up north and winters in Central America.  They learn to treat nature with respect; some will inspire the next generation.  Along the way we’re treated to the sights and sounds of the birds we love.

 

(screenshot from Bird Tales by NHPTV. Click on the image to watch a preview)

Free Field Guide to Jewel Beetles

Books & Events, Insects

Have you ever seen a colorful, shiny beetle and wondered what it was?  I have.

There’s a group of beetles called Jewel Beetles that eat trees but are very beautiful.  Among them are the rainbow green Emerald Ash Borer and (perhaps) a solid green iridescent beetle I see in the spring whom I’ve dubbed The Emerald Green Bug because I don’t have a beetle guide.

But that problem is about to be solved.

In early 2013 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the University of Guelph Insect Collection and the Canadian Invasive Species Centre are going to publish a beautiful 411 page, 6×9″ Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America.

The guide covers 164 jewel beetles in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. including all of Pennsylvania.

One of the books authors, Morgan Jackson, describes the guide here on his blog and includes a cool slideshow of the emerald ash borer page.  I can tell the book is for bug lovers and entomologists yet it looks easy to use for generalists like me who are curious about the natural world.

And the book is FREE, absolutely FREE!

Click on the book cover or here to read Morgan Jackson’s blog and see if this is the book for you.  His blog tells you how to get your free copy.

I’ve already ordered mine.  Next spring I’ll know the real name of that “Emerald Green Bug.”

(cover of Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America, linked from Morgan Jackson’s biodiversityinfocus.com blog)

A Great Gift For Pennsylvania Birders

Books & Events

‘Tis the Season for giving!  If you have a Pennsylvania birder or scientist on your list, here’s a great gift idea.

The newly published Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania by Andrew Wilson, Daniel Brauning and Robert Mulvihill is now available from Penn State University Press.  It’s a comprehensive, scientific look at all the birds who breed in Pennsylvania.

The data was compiled between 2004 and 2009 by over 2,000 volunteers.  I was one of them.  We traveled the state recording the location, habitat and behavior of birds during the breeding season.  Were they courting?  Building a nest?  Carrying food?  Were the adults scolding us for coming too close?  Did we see babies in the nest?  We took notes and uploaded our observations online.  Our data became this book.

It’s a beautiful book and fascinating for its discussion of breeding trends.  The second atlas (2004-2009) was done two decades after the first one (1983-1989) and a lot changed in Pennsylvania in those 20 years. Forests were cut down for highways and strip mines, old farms became suburbs and shopping malls, intact forests matured, former strip mines became grasslands, wetlands were lost or restored, and the climate continued to change.  The birds responded in their distribution and density.

The Second Atlas absorbs me every time I open it:  the trends, the species accounts, the maps.  I’m especially fond of the great success of Pennsylvania’s peregrine falcons (pages 160-161) who went from 3 breeding pairs in 1989 to 26 in 2009.

Click here or on the book cover to read more about the Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania and buy it from Penn State University Press.  You can get a 20% discount online by using discount code SOC-12 during checkout.

(book cover photo from Pennsylvania State University Press)

Follow Peregrines With The Bird Guys

Books & Events, Peregrines

The Bird Guys With Vern and Bob (image from zap2it.com)

Birders and peregrine fans!  If you’re an early-to-bed person, get your beauty rest this Thursday November 15 and plan to stay up for the 10:30pm broadcast of The Bird Guys With Vern and Bob on WQED.

It’s a fun half-hour program that follows Vern Laux and Bob Shriber as they visit Monhegan Island, Nantucket Island and the Florida Keys during fall migration.  They’re on the trail of peregrine falcons but as dedicated birders they show us lots of other birds along the way.

Vern Laux is a fun guy and excellent birder who writes a birding column for the Cape Cod Times and hosts a radio program on the Cape and Islands’ public radio stations. When a rare bird is found on Nantucket, Vern’s the one who finds it.  (Remember the first North American record of a red-footed falcon in August 2004?  That was Vern.)

Bob Shriber is a birder and television producer from New York who’s worked with Vern on several videos. When you don’t see Bob on camera it’s because he’s filming the show.

The Bird Guys have a great time as they follow birds down the East Coast.  Always hoping to see peregrines they hit “pay dirt” at Marathon Key where they see at least five peregrines in view at all times.  And that’s not all they see.  Don’t miss Vern’s encounter with a skunk!

Vern and Bob make birding fun.  Watch The Bird Guys on Thursday, November 15 at 10:30pm on WQED.

(image linked from Zap2it.com. Click on the image to see the original)

 

p.s.  Speaking of peregrine migration, the arctic peregrines have already made it to South America.  See Island Girl’s trajectory at the Southern Cross Peregrine Project.

This Friday: Audubon Day at Pitt

Books & Events
Pinnated grouse by John James Audubon (courtesy Univ of Pittsburgh, Univ Library System)

This Friday November 16, from 9:00am to 4:45pm, visit Pitt’s Hillman Library for their second annual Audubon Day.  This free event includes a display of 20 to 24 prints from John James Audubon’s Birds of America, and a presentation and book signing by Roberta Olson, curator of drawings at the New York Historical Society at 2:00pm.

Click on the image above for event locations and times.

(photo from the Pitt Chronicle news release.  Click on the caption to see the complete news release)

They Say It’s Your Bird-thday!

Books & Events, Crows & Ravens

Look who showed up this morning!  It’s a British Invasion and they’re singing their own version of the Beatles Birthday song,

“They say it’s your Bird-thday
We’re gonna have a good time…
Yes we’re going to a party party.
Yes we’re going to a party party.”

Hello, Rooks! Thanks for coming all the way from Britain to celebrate Outside My Window’s 5th birthday.  Do you have any requests?

“Yes, we’ve been reading your blog and learning a lot of useful stuff about birds, weather, plants, flowers, and interstellar space.  Now we have 5 questions.”

1.  What numbers describe Outside My Window?
That’s easy.  The blog averages 577 visitors a day and creates 22% of all traffic to WQED.org.   (A big THANK YOU to my readers!)

2.  Which posts had the most readers in the past year?
Dorothy wins the prize. Top readership goes to Peter Bell’s amazing pictures of Dorothy attacking a bald eagle over Schenley Plaza.  Last year’s Falcon or Hawk? continues to win the top prize from Google search.

3. What spawned the most comments?
When National Audubon posted Have You Seen Any Blue Jays Lately? on their Facebook page it generated 63 comments, but the stand-alone prize goes to Mouse In The House with 26.  The mouse struck a cord, eh?

4.  What were your favorite photos in the past year?
Wow, that’s hard!  Here are three: Peter Bell’s Peregrine versus Bald Eagle (of course Dorothy’s always a favorite), Steve Gosser’s Chick at Tarentum and Chuck Tague’s Walking On Air.

5.  Which posts were your personal favorites?
Morning Glory clouds and Move-In Day taught me the most, but I have to say that my favorite was the coming home story of Beauty, the peregrine queen of Rochester, New York in Whose Egg Is This???.

“Oooooooo, peregrines!,” say the rooks,  “We’re afraid of peregrines!”

Sorry, guys.  In compensation I’m letting you eat the entire cake.   (Now that they’re standing on it, it’s theirs!)

(party rooks by Joan Guerin)

p.s.  Do you have a favorite post?  A suggestion for new topics?  Leave a comment and let me know.