Category Archives: Schenley Park

Seeing Red

Insects, Schenley Park

Red aphids on sunflower bud (photo by Kate St. John)

As soon as the woodland sunflowers started to bloom in Schenley Park their stems became coated with tiny red bugs. Last weekend I took the camera to the Upper Trail to see what the red was all about.

It didn’t take long to figure out these are red aphids.  Nose down, probiscus inserted, they sucked the sunflower juices.  They only ate from the Helianthus species, never from other plants nearby.

Among the hundreds of aphids I found a few with wings, the dispersal generation that can fly to new hosts.  In the photo above there’s a winged adult hiding behind the flower bud.

Most fascinating was their wide range of sizes.  From incredibly tiny to full grown adults there were many generations on one plant.  I saw no larvae, just fully formed bugs, because of their incredible reproductive strategy.

In the summer all aphids are female!  They reproduce asexually and give birth to live young.  In the photo above, the large aphid is the mother, the tiny ones daughters.  Some species of aphids can telescope generations.  Like Russian nesting dolls, the mother aphid has a daughter inside her who is pregnant with a daughter inside her.  No wonder there are so many of them!

In fall aphids switch to a different reproduction method.  The females give birth to males, mate with them, and lay eggs that overwinter and hatch as females.

Since they’re so small aphids are vulnerable to wind, rain and predators.  I blew on an infested stem and watched them crowd to the leeward side.  You can zap them off your garden plants by spraying them with a hose.  Or you can hire some ladybugs or lacewings to do the job.  (Lacewing larvae are nicknamed “aphid lions.”)

With such a bumper crop of aphids I’m on the lookout now for their predators. In this bug-eat-bug world that’s what will happen next.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Foam on Plants? Spittlebugs

Insects, Schenley Park

Spittle bugs in Schenley Park, 15 Jun 2013 (photo by Kate St. John)

Have you seen these foamy spots on plants?  I found some last week in Schenley Park.

These are the hiding places of nymphal froghoppers, also called spittlebugs, tiny insects who suck the juice out of plants and excrete it as sticky foam to protect themselves from temperature extremes, dessication and predators.

With over 3,000 species of spittlebugs worldwide you’re likely to have some nearby.  They’re very small and hard to photograph but Rod Innes of British Columbia was able to video them and show what they’re doing much better than I could.  See below.

What a strange way for a bug to live.

 

(photo by Kate St. John)

Local Penstemon

Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park

White Beardtongue in Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)

These inch-long flowers are blooming now in Schenley Park.   They stand out because the plant is three feet tall.

Though penstemons are common in the western U.S. Penstemon digitalis is one of the few species native to Pennsylvania.  I found several blooming in a new location in the park, probably because their seeds were in a native plant mix applied to an erosion project.

Their scientific name is easy to remember.  The common name is a mouthful:  Foxglove beardtongue.   Try saying that three times fast.

(photo by Kate St. John)

p.s. The pistil in this flower looks like a tongue and it has hairs, thus “beardtongue.”

Our Birds’ Eye View

Peregrines, Schenley Park

View of Schenley Park from the Cathedral of Learning (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

In good weather this is what Pitt’s peregrines see every day.  From their perspective, the sky is the most interesting part.

We, of course, find the ground more interesting so it takes up most of the picture.

Between our two points of view is the horizon. Notice how the edge is flat, no hills or mountains.

Pittsburgh was the shore of an ancient inland sea (we used to be at the beach!) and our hills are actually erosion cuts into that flat landscape.  The tops of the hills are what’s left of the original shore and they’re all the same height — about 1200 feet above sea level.  Chestnut Ridge, 34 miles away, is the nearest mountain but it’s only 2,119 feet high, easy for birds to cross.

In the valley below the Cathedral of Learning, near the bottom right of this photo, is the Schenley Plaza tent where we sat during Fledge Watch.  To a peregrine we humans are mere dots.

But they probably weren’t looking at us.  They’re more interested in the sky.  😉

 

(photo by Chloe Fan on Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the image to see the original.  This photo was taken in 2009 prior to construction of The Porch restaurant.  Can you tell what else has changed? )

 

p.s. See this comment for news of Pitt’s juvenile peregrine and the comments on yesterday’s blog for news from the I-79 Neville Island Bridge.

Success Through Landscaping

Schenley Park, Trees
Catalpa tree blooming in Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)

8 June 2013

When most other trees have already set seed, northern catalpas put on their show in June.  Right now they’re flowering in Pittsburgh.

Northern catalpas (Catalpa speciosa) are not only late to flower but they’re slow to leaf out, retaining that fresh green color of early spring much later than other trees.  Their flowers become long bean pods in the fall.

Though native to North America, catalpas were uncommon until landscapers fell in love with them.  Their original range was in wet soil along streams, lake shores and swamp margins.  Some sources say northern catalpas were limited to a small area near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

But their trumpet flowers turned the tide.  Landscapers planted varieties that could grow almost anywhere and now they do.  Catalpas escaped cultivation and expanded their range across the eastern U.S., from Massachusetts to Kansas, from Wisconsin to South Carolina.

Catalpas are now so successful that they sprout up in waste places and along roadsides, a dramatic success thanks to landscaping.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Revised! Pitt Fledge Watch Schedule

Books & Events, Peregrines, Schenley Park

Baby in the keyhole during his off-the-nest adventure (photo by Peter Bell)

In my Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch announcement I said, “If the chick is off camera, come on down! The best view is from the tent.”

Well, our peregrine chick has been on and off camera for two days!  On May 28 he ledge-walked up to the webcam and yesterday he jumped into the gully below the nest.  His prior-year brothers who explored the gully took more than 24 hours to return to the nest.  Baby made it back in only 7 hours.  A record!

On his way back topside he spent at least half an hour perched in the keyhole — see Peter Bell’s photo above.  Several of us at Schenley Plaza saw his parents put on a fancy airshow but didn’t make the connection that it was for Baby’s benefit.  Peter’s photo proved it.

So, yes, the chick is off camera and, yes, the best viewing is from the tent.  Come on down today through June 5!   Click here and scroll down for the REVISED SCHEDULE.

(photo by Peter Bell)

The Family Of The Pizza Hawk

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Schenley Park

Red-tailed hawk family, Schenley Park, 2013 (photo by Gregg Diskin)

Just because the red-tailed hawks didn’t nest this year on the Panther Hollow Bridge doesn’t mean they didn’t nest at all.  This year they’re over by the golf course, a short flight from the bridge but conceptually far for us land mammals who must walk or drive around the Phipps Run valley.

Gregg Diskin photographed the family at their nest this weekend.  One of the two babies is already stretching his wings.  Click on the image above to see more baby pictures.

A few weeks ago Gregg also photographed one of the adults gathering food … really weird food … pizza.

I remember seeing that pizza at the Westinghouse picnic shelter as I walked to work one morning.  The picnickers had carefully put the pizza in the garbage but the raccoons had pulled it out and scattered it.  Lots of it!  I put it in the garbage again.

The hawk found the pizza long before I did.  I’m amazed he picked up a slice and carried it to a light pole.

Red-tailed hawk with pizza in Schenley Park (photo by Gregg Diskin)

Gregg has more photos of the pizza episode here.

I wonder if the hawk offered pizza to his family…?

(photos by Gregory Diskin)

Orange Juice

Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park

Greater celandine in Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)

Last weekend at the Wissahickon-Botanical Society outing I learned something new about celandine.

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) is a perennial in the poppy family native to Europe and western Asia.  It’s quite common in Schenley Park in May where I misidentified it years ago as the native Celandine-poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) when I was new to wildflower identification.  The leaves are similar and the flowers are the same color, but that’s where the similarity ends … or so I thought.

It turns out that both plants have orange-yellow sap.  Dick Nugent broke off a leaf of greater celandine to show us.  (Chelidonium is non-native and sometimes invasive so it’s OK to do this.)

Here’s a broken leaf of greater celandine from Schenley Park yesterday.

Greater Celandine leaf showing orange sap (photo by Kate St. John)

Very orange juice!

(photos by Kate St. John)

Red-Wing Versus Red-Tail

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Schenley Park

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy’s wetland restoration at Schenley pond has gone so well that a red-winged blackbird has decided to nest there.

Though I haven’t seen his mate there must be a nest because he defends the area from all potential threats.  Yesterday morning I was pleased to see a second vote for the wetland when he had to chase off the competition — another male red-winged blackbird.

Shortly thereafter one of the resident red-tailed hawks flew in to perch on a dead snag.  Mr. Red-wing was on him right away!

Though I didn’t record this video, it shows exactly what happened.  The blackbird perched above the hawk, shouting and flashing his red epaulettes.  He repeatedly dive-bombed the hawk and pecked its back.

At first I thought the red-tail would ignore the red-wing but he could not be ignored.   The hawk whined and flew to shelter under the roadbed of the Panther Hollow Bridge.

Persistence pays off.  In the match-up between Red Wing and Red Tail the blackbird wins.

 

(video on YouTube from Illinois’ Lake County Forest Preserve District)

p.s. The red-tailed hawk in this video is a juvenile so he whines a lot more than the adult at Schenley Park yesterday.

Save The Date: Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines, Schenley Park

Schenley Plaza tent (photo by Kate St. John)

UPDATED May 30.

Save the date!  Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch will be Thursday May 30 through Wednesday June 5.

We’ll gather at the Schenley Plaza tent, above, to watch for the young peregrine’s first flight from the Cathedral of Learning.

See him walk the ledges and flap his wings to prepare for his big adventure.  Watch Dorothy and E2 show him how to fly with some really cool flight demonstrations.  See Dorothy keep the area safe for fledglings.  Last year she attacked a bald eagle!

I’ll be there with peregrine fans from Pittsburgh Falconuts and volunteer peregrine monitors from the bridges.  We’ll all swap stories about peregrines.  I can hardly wait!

My challenge, as always, is to predict the best watching days.  With one male chick this year I expect the time span to be brief.  Male chicks normally fly early and improve their skills quickly.

So here’s the schedule but check the blog for updates because this event is very weather dependent.  Peregrines don’t like to fledge in the rain.  (UPDATED May 30.)

  • UPDATE:  Thur. May 30, 1:00pm to 2:00pm.  Baby started ledge walking on May 28.  On May 29 he perched in the keyhole while his parents put on an airshow.  Great peregrine watching! Come to the tent.
  • UPDATE:  Fri. May 31, 12:30pm to 2:00pm.  Slight chance of thunderstorms; hoping the weather cooperates during my extended lunch hour.
  • Sat. June 1, 4:00pm to 6:00pm, weather dependent.  Watch the weather.  Rain and thunderstorms predicted.  I won’t be there if it’s raining/storming.
  • Sun. June 2, Weather Dependent!  noon to 2:00pm, possibly extended hours (stay tuned).  Watch the weather — more rain and thunderstorms predicted.  Though our chick will be anxious to fly I won’t there if it’s raining/storming.
  • Mon. June 3, noon to 2:00pm + after work 5:30pm to 7:00pm.  I bet he’ll be flying by now but he won’t go far.  This may be the best day.
  • Tues. June 4, noon to 2:00pm + after work 5:30pm to 7:00pm.  If Monday wasn’t best, Tuesday will be.  Stay tuned for updates.
  • Wed. June 5, 12:30pm to 2:00pm.  Might be canceled if activity is on the wane.  If “Baby” has left the nest zone, this day will be a bust. Stay tuned.
  • June 6 and remainder of the week: Not scheduled.  Stay tuned.

 

Come on down to Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch!  Meet me at the tent!

(photo of the Schenley Plaza tent by Kate St. John)