30 April 2022
Thursday morning’s freezing temperature did not affect the redbud trees in Frick Park. I hope it didn’t harm the wildflowers we saw on Wednesday at Enlow Fork in Greene County.
Check the captions for what’s blooming now.
(photos by Kate St. John)
23 April 2022
Woodland wildflowers are putting on a show right now in southwestern Pennsylvania. Here are just a few of the beauties we saw yesterday at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve.
Trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), above, are at their peak. Look closely and you’ll find a few of the less common white trout lily (Erythronium albidum), below.
See the captions for the rest of the flowers.
This weekend’s sunny hot weather will put these flowers past their prime soon. It’s time to get outdoors!
p.s. If you go to Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, wear boots! It is very, very muddy.
(photos by Kate St. John)
16 April 2022
Yesterday’s warm and sunny weather brought out woodland flowers that were waiting bloom. I found a good selection at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve in Beaver County, PA.
Four flowers were at their peak:
Other plants had one or two representatives while the rest waited to flower soon:
Unfortunately yesterday’s gusty winds presaged today’s rain and colder temperatures for the week ahead. (Snow in the sky on Tuesday?!) The flowers at Raccoon may be delayed again.
Meanwhile weeds will not be phased by the change in weather. Look at the sidewalk’s edge to find bird’s-eye speedwell (Veronica persica), a native of Eurasia. I found this one near the feeders at Frick Park. Bird’s eye indeed!
(photos by Kate St. John)
12 April 2022
We’re used to the idea that flowers smell sweet but did you know that some twigs and buds have scents too? Scratch and sniff to find these three.
Spicebush (Lindera sp.) stands out right now with yellow flowers in balls along the branches. Scratch and sniff the twig, as I am doing above. It smells like spice, almost nutmeg.
Before this tree leafs out, scratch and sniff a bud on a bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis). It smells like lemons.
Juniper berries (Juniperus sp.) are a favorite food of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) on spring migration. Last week I found 40 of them feasting at the junipers near CMU’s Morewood Gardens parking lot.
Scratch or crush a berry. It smells like gin. … Or so they say. I haven’t smelled gin in years because I don’t like it.
Try it and see.
(photos by Kate St. John)
10 April 2022
This week’s showers brought …
This year’s cold weather delayed the trees compared to last year on this date. For comparison see Spring Green from 10 April 2021.
And finally: Why did it Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun over and over again yesterday? The National Weather Service radar shows a flock of discrete self-contained rain clouds moving over the landscape.
(photos by Kate St. John; radar map from NWS)
4 April 2022
Spring was on hold during last week’s long hard frost but it’s coming back this week. Here’s what to expect outdoors in the Pittsburgh area.
The earliest warblers arrive in April before the leaves open. Last weekend a Louisiana waterthrush returned to Tom’s Run Nature Reserve in Sewickley PA. Look for them walking along clean streams, bobbing their tails, and singing their very loud song.
Purple martin scouts are back at Harrison Hills County Park and Murrysville Wetland Community Park and tree swallows have returned to Moraine State Park. Watch for northern rough-winged swallows, barn swallows, and the rest of the purple martins in the weeks ahead.
Yellow-throated warblers will return to Pittsburgh area creeks and streams on or before 20 April. You’ll hear them before you see them, walking the high trunks and larger branches of sycamores.
Watch for gray catbirds, blue-gray gnatcatchers, and ruby-crowned kinglets returning soon.
Meanwhile, don’t miss April’s ephemeral wildflowers.
Snow trillium (Trillium nivale) was out in full force yesterday at the Botanical Society of Western PA walk at Little Sewickley Creek in Westmoreland County.
Soon we’ll see spring beauty, spicebush, hepatica, harbinger-of-spring, bloodroot, spring cress, twinleaf, violets and more.
For more details check out my Pennsylvania Phenology page.
It’s a good month to be outdoors.
(photo credits: bird photos by Steve Gosser, Anthony Bruno and Jessica Botzan. Plant photos by Kate St. John)
3 April 2022
As I mentioned last weekend, the weather was lovely on 24 March with a high of 60oF but things went sharply downhill from there. For three and a half days Pittsburgh was below freezing and the weather deteriorated from windy snow on 27 March to lows of 14-19oF and blizzard conditions on 28 March.
Finally the temperature rose rise above freezing at midday 29 March but it was too late for the early-returning tree swallows who had no insects to eat right when they needed lots of food to stay alive. Julie found three dead in the bluebird boxes she tends at Moraine State Park. Fortunately purple martin landlords kept their early birds alive with supplemental feedings.
Flowers took a beating, too. The squill pictured at top bloomed after the frost passed but its tips were damaged. You can see the same effects on northern magnolia bud and flower below.
Forsythia wilted.
Meanwhile some alien plants came through without a scratch. Coltsfoot sent up cheerful flowers in the sunshine on 30 March.
And lesser celandine bloomed at Frick Park on 31 March.
Though tonight’s low will be 31oF the rest of the week will be above freezing, though wet. I hold out hope that April won’t see a long hard frost.
(photos by Kate St. John)
26 March 2022
This week the elms, maples, ornamental cherries and northern magnolias began to bloom in Pittsburgh. Their flowers have not yet reached their peak and that’s a good thing. Tomorrow night the low will be 19 degrees F and will devastate the tender petals.
Above, an ornamental cherry shows off its delicate pink-white blossoms in the sun on Thursday 24 March. Below, a northern magnolia flower peeks out of its winter coat in Schenley Park on Tuesday 22 March.
Red maple flowers are either male or female. These female pistils are waiting for pollen from the male flowers. Pollen season is coming soon!
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), one of the earliest shrubs to bloom in western Pennsylvania, is a Eurasian member of the dogwood family. It can also look like an understory tree.
Also blooming in yellow this week, forsythia is putting out tentative flowers.
And at Frick Park the hellebore planted near the Environmental Education Center is in full bloom (probably Hellebore odorus). I wonder if these nodding flowers will survive the cold.
Meanwhile I’m not worried about the new leaves on these hardy invasive plants. I doubt they’ll be damaged by the cold.
Take a look at flowers today. They’ll be gone tomorrow night.
(photos by Kate St. John)
13 March 2022
After yesterday’s 2.5 to 5 inches of drifting snow, this morning’s temperature is 14oF. Our progress toward Spring has been halted in only a day.
Last week I saw hopeful signs of Spring.
But yesterday morning brought heavy snow and gusty winds, drifts and bare patches.
(building provides a dark backdrop so you can see the snow.)
The tender plants have died. Those crocuses are gone. Spring has been dealt a setback.
Keep up with the status of Spring at the National Phenology Network. Watch it move north on this animated map.
(photos by Kate St. John and from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh, map from the National Phenology Network)
5 March 2022
This week in Pittsburgh the weeping willows turned yellow for spring and male red-winged blackbirds came back to the marshes. At Homewood Cemetery the two combined when a red-winged blackbird called from a large willow. He’s the black dot at 9 or 10 o’clock (on the dial) in my photo.
The red-wings didn’t look so spiffy three weeks ago at Frick Park’s feeders, below. Now they are sharply black and red.
Over at Schenley Park the moss is greening up on the tufa bridges and purple “weed” leaves are looking hairy.
A closer look reveals the hairs may be tiny rootlets. Last summer I knew the name of this “weed” but I don’t remember it now. (Best guess via Stephen Tirone is hawkweed)
At Carnegie Mellon’s campus cultivated witch-hazel is blooming in yellow and red. Our native witch-hazel is all yellow and blooms in November. These plants have yellow petals and red centers.
They are probably Chinese or Japanese witch-hazel, both of which bloom in February and March.
I haven’t see an American woodcock (Scolopax minor) yet but Adrian Fenton reported three at North Park on 3 March. The woodcocks are back in New York City, too. This one danced at Bryant Park. Woo hoo!
The early bird gets the worm! So is the case with the now famous Bryant Park Woodcock. I admit that I gasped as I turned the corner and saw it doing its rhythmic walk. #birds #birdwatching #birdcpp #nyc #urbanlegend #mymorningwalk pic.twitter.com/DkxUTUGDEd
— Lori Moloney (@lorifaithnyc) March 3, 2022
Today the temperature will reach 68 degrees F. It’s time to get outdoors!
(photos by Kate St. John & Charity Kheshgi)