Category Archives: Schenley Park

Have You Seen Me Lately?

Migration, Schenley Park, Songbirds
Baltimore oriole by Steve Gosser, Dickcissel by Bobby Greene

30 July 2012

It’s easy to notice when a new bird arrives in town, much harder to notice when a resident leaves.  This month the new arrivals are shorebirds.  Has any nesting bird departed yet?

Here’s a tale of two breeders who may have left — or soon will leave — our area.

Baltimore orioles nested in Schenley Park this year as they always do. (I have photographic evidence.)  They arrived in late April, quickly set up shop, and fledged young by mid-June.  In July they virtually disappeared.  The last time I saw an oriole in the park was in June.  The last time I heard one was July 12.

Orioles can afford to leave their breeding grounds early because they raise only one brood per year and their young are soon independent after fledging.  Mother orioles leave the family in late June.  The fathers leave a few days later.  Sometimes the young gather in juvenile flocks in August but the adults tend to be solitary and quiet.  That’s probably why they seem to be missing.

Dickcissels are another story.  They’re so unusual in Pennsylvania that many birders know exactly when they arrived and many will notice when they leave.  Every few days there’s a new report on the presence or absence of dickcissels.

Quite soon breeding will be over and the dickcissels will form flocks to head to their wintering grounds in Venezuela.  Since they’re not in a rush they often spend August and September in the grain fields of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.  Notice the word “August.”   That’s only two days from now.

I expect the dickcissels will leave our grasslands soon.  Schenley Park’s orioles appear to be gone.

Have you seen either of them lately?

(Baltimore oriole photo by Steve Gosser, Dickcissel photo by Bobby Greene)

These Are Not Moths

Insects, Schenley Park

Last weekend in Schenley Park I noticed white fuzz and a row of decorations on the stems of yellow jewelweed.  When I stepped closer I learned these weren’t decorations at all.  They were insects that resembled tiny moths.

I sent photos to my bug experts Chuck Tague and Monica Miller asking, “What are these insects and is the white fuzz related to them?”

Chuck and Monica agreed — these are flatid planthoppers — but they wouldn’t speculate on the species.  Some flatids are so hard to identify they have to be dissected by an expert.

All the planthoppers have similar lifestyles:

  • They often resemble parts of plants as a means of camouflage.
  • They move very, very slowly so as not to attract attention but they hop like grasshoppers when disturbed.  The group I photographed may have been moving but I never noticed.  I wish I’d known they hopped. I might have tried disturbing them.
  • Though planthoppers suck juice from plants they rarely reach the ‘pest’ level.
  • Adult females secrete a waxy substance that protects the eggs and young from water and predation.  This is part of what makes up the white fuzz.
  • Their nymphs are ghostly white with fuzzy, wispy tails.  They’re so small they look like fuzz without magnification.

The nymphs are kind of cute except their faces are spooky.  Here’s a close-up from bugwood.org to show you what I mean.

Planthopper nymph by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org

So when you see fuzz on a plant, take a second look.  It might be something really interesting.

(photos of adult planthoppers by Kate St. John. Planthopper nymph by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org)

Bottlebrush Blooming

Schenley Park, Trees


I can’t help mentioning these flowers. I’m wowed every time they bloom.

Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) in Schenley Park was almost in full bloom last Wednesday (above).   By today the flowers ought to be spectacular and they’re ahead of schedule — two and a half weeks early.

Visit Schenley Park before the flowers fade. You can find them on the shady hillside above the pond.  If you stand below the Panther Hollow Bridge and face the pond, follow the gravel trail on your left.

Here’s what they look like as you approach.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Cowbirds Are Calling Their Kids

Bird Behavior, Schenley Park, Songbirds

For weeks I thought that all the brown-headed cowbirds had left Schenley Park, that the females had dumped their eggs in other species’ nests and moved on.  But I was wrong.

The cowbirds arrived in mid-April and immediately made themselves noticeable.  Males called from the treetops and as many as three puffed and courted a single female.  I felt bad for the song sparrows, their most likely victims in Schenley, who would be forced to foster those cowbird eggs-in-the-making.

The cowbirds mated, the females dumped their eggs, and then they disappeared.  Or so I thought.

As expected, in late May I saw and heard cowbird fledglings begging from song sparrow parents.

In early June I was surprised to hear male cowbirds singing again.  According to the literature they’d never left but had spent the intervening weeks monitoring the host nests to make sure their kids alone survived.

By now the young cowbirds are self-sufficient but they were raised in a song sparrow world.  It’s time for them to learn how to be cowbirds (and for their mothers to lay another batch of eggs) so their fathers are singing.

“Hey, kid.  You’re a cowbird.  Come with me.”

 

(photo by Brian Herman)

p.s.  See Meredith Lombard’s photo of a chipping sparrow foster parent feeding a cowbird fledgling and a Louisiana waterthrush with its baby cowbird. Notice that the foster parent is smaller than the baby.  🙁

Pea Trees

Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park, Trees

There’s a bumper crop of pea pods on the redbud trees in Schenley Park.

Ten weeks ago the trees had delicate pink flowers and only a hint of leaves.

This month their trunks and branches are dripping with peas.

Normally the pods are hidden by the foliage but this year they’re so prolific you can see them easily. Check the redbud trees on the right as you descend the stairs behind the Visitors’ Center.

It’s a good year for the pea trees.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Pay No Attention

Bird Behavior, Schenley Park

In Schenley Park on Saturday I found this not-quite-fledgling Baltimore oriole perched low near the trail.  I noticed him only because his father made a warning sound and leapt away from the area.

The father bird distracted me (on purpose) but I remembered where he’d made the sound and looked when he left.  His baby was among the leaves, immobile and stoic.  The little bird didn’t move a muscle.  He didn’t make a sound. His survival depended on it.

When I saw him I stepped way back and used binoculars to view him. I knew not to stare.

Only a few days ago a young man had asked me about a nest of baby birds he’d found in a shrub in his yard.  Day after day he had moved the leaves to look at the babies.  Then one day the nest was knocked down and all the babies gone without a trace.  He knew they were too young to fly and wondered where they went. Sadly the young man’s attention probably revealed the nest to a predator.

I didn’t want my attention to end this tiny oriole’s life so I quickly snapped his picture and hurried down the trail.

On my return trip three hours later I didn’t pause but a quick glance assured me his strategy was working. He was still perched, motionless. He looked like a leaf.

Pay no attention.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Pitt Peregrine News, June 8

Peregrines, Schenley Park
Redboy flying (photo by Peter Bell)

Yesterday at Fledge Watch we often saw all five peregrines at the same time:  Dorothy, E2 and the three “kids.”

The youngsters practiced flying (above) and one even tried a prey exchange with Dad … which he missed and dropped to the ground.   I missed it, too.  I was at work.  🙁

In the evening Dorothy demonstrated how to kite from the lightning rod (below). She hung onto the perch and opened her wings in the steady wind, practicing balance and control without having to go anywhere.  In a couple of days the fledglings will copy Mom and try this exercise.

Dorothy kiting (photo by Sharon Leadbitter)

Fledge Watch is no longer a scheduled event but you can find out when the falcon watchers will be at the Schenley Plaza tent by checking Pittsburgh Falconuts on Facebook for dates/times.  Some of us will be there at mid-day today.

(top photo of juvenile flying by Peter Bell, bottom photo of Dorothy kiting on the lightning rod by Sharon Leadbitter)

Meanwhile, Down The Street

Birds of Prey, Schenley Park

This week it’s been “All peregrines, all the time” but falcons aren’t the only birds of prey nesting around Schenley Park.

Down the road on the other side of Phipps Conservatory there’s a red-tailed hawks’ nest with two young birds that soon will fly.  If you’ve walked near the pond under the Panther Hollow Bridge you’ve probably heard their whistle-whine.  “Come feed me!”

In late April they hadn’t hatched yet when I encountered Gregg Diskin with his camera in Schenley Park.  He told me he planned to photograph the nestlings as they matured.

Because their stick-nest is deep it wasn’t possible to see them until they were tall enough to look over the rim.  At first they were fluffy white, just like baby peregrines, but now they’ve grown feathers to match their parents’ coloration. In Gregg’s photo above they’re about halfway there.

At last they are full grown.  When I saw them yesterday they were at the gawky stage —  fully feathered with downy fluff on their heads — and they were whining loudly.  Their voices echo under the bridge.

 

If you’d like to see them, walk the valley under the Panther Hollow Bridge and look up.  But don’t pause on the path where there’s a lot of bird poop.  You don’t want to be in “poot” range.  (Click here to see.)

(photos by Gregory Diskin)

Peregrine versus Bald Eagle … Guess Who Wins

Birds of Prey, Peregrines, Schenley Park

If you live on the coast you probably see bald eagles all the time but here in Pittsburgh it’s astonishing to see one in the city, especially in June, especially at the University of Pittsburgh a mile from the Monongahela River.

So imagine our amazement at the Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch yesterday when an immature bald eagle appeared over Schenley Plaza riding a thermal.

Everybody had just focused their binoculars on the eagle and I was explaining why it didn’t have a white head and tail (they don’t turn white until the eagle matures at age four to five) when … Bang!  A peregrine came out of nowhere and attacked him.

It was the eagle’s turn to be astonished.  Dorothy zoomed up and dove again. Bang!  “Stay away from my babies!”

The eagle tried to lose altitude to get out of her way but he maneuvered like a C-130 cargo plane versus Dorothy, the fighter jet.

She was relentless, fast and dangerous.  The eagle flipped upside down to show his talons, hoping to fend her off, but he made a mistake.  He kept flying toward the Cathedral of Learning where Dorothy’s three youngsters waited and watched.

Again and again she dove on him, driving him past the Cathedral of Learning toward Downtown.  “Move it, buddy!”

Just before they disappeared she came close for good measure.

A minute passed.

Dorothy returned to the Cathedral of Learning, victorious.

It was all in a day’s work for a mother peregrine falcon.  Go, Dorothy!

(photos by Peter Bell)

Fledge Watch News

Peregrines, Schenley Park

None of the chicks fledged yesterday (Sunday, June 3) but their parents put on a show. E2 perched on the south face of the Cathedral of Learning and became invisible.  Can you find the falcon in Sharon Leadbitter’s photo?

Fledge Watch today (Monday, June 4) will be from noon to 1:30pm at the Schenley Plaza tent.  Click here for the schedule or follow @KStJBirdlog on Twitter or Kate StJohn on Facebook for Fledge Watch updates.

(photo by Sharon Leadbitter)