Category Archives: Schenley Park

Always Carry Your Camera

Birds of Prey, Schenley Park

You never know when wildlife will do something fun.

Last summer when Luke Gerben Kaspar attended camp at Carnegie-Mellon University he spent time watching two immature red-tailed hawks at Schenley Park.  The hawks probably fledged from the nest on CMU’s Fine Arts Building so they were still close to home.  And they were still too young to be serious!

Fortunately Luke had his camera with him and caught the hawks goofing around.  Watch the slideshow of their silly antics.

Good job, Luke!  We’re glad you carried your camera.

(photos by Luke Gerben Kaspar who was 11 years old when he took these pictures.  Thanks to his mom, Gigi, for sending them.)

Merlin and Peregrine Action at Pitt

Birds of Prey, Peregrines, Schenley Park


If you don’t read PABIRDS (an email list of nearly 1,000 birders in Pennsylvania), you probably missed today’s report by Ryan Ford, a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s Birding and Ornithological Club.

Subject: Pitt Campus Merlin
From: Ryan Ford <RMF42 AT PITT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 16:05:38 -0500

As I was walking to my afternoon class I heard several chickadees giving
alert calls between the Cathedral of Learning and Schenley Plaza on the
University of Pittsburgh campus.

An adult MERLIN then shot past just 10ft above my head with one of the
local Peregrine Falcons chasing after it.  The two birds proceeded to play
cat and mouse over Schenley Plaza (almost hitting Posvar Hall) before the
Merlin managed to shake the Peregrine falcon loose.  The Peregrine
proceeded to soar and watch from overhead as I watched the Merlin chase a
chickadee over the plaza.  It eventually left the area unsuccessful after
the Peregrine began to descend again from its lofty position.

Definitely an exciting day in Oakland!

Our club President, Connor Higgins, arrived a minute too late (he's quite
sour about that)after I alerted him about the chase.

Cheers,

Ryan Ford
University of Pittsburgh
Birding and Ornithology Club

.

Doesn’t the merlin resemble a peregrine!  No wonder E2 had his dander up!

Also, at lunchtime today Karen Lang and I saw an adult red-tailed hawk eating a pigeon on the lawn by Heinz Chapel while one of the peregrines watched from above.

And… Dan Yagusic saw a peregrine falcon at the 62nd Street Bridge around noontime.

AND… a very rare falcon visited Pennsylvania yesterday:  A white-morph gyrfalcon flew by Waggoner’s Gap Hawk Watch, north of Carlisle!

Update on Wed 12/8/10:  Tony Bledsoe saw the merlin fly by Langley Hall at 11:30am.

(photo by Debbie Bozkurt linked from www.thewesternisles.co.uk. Click on the photo to see the original.)

This is a Gray Squirrel

Mammals, Schenley Park


Yes, really.

Black squirrels are not a new species, they’re just a common melanistic color phase of the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

“Melanistic” comes from the Greek word for black, melanos, and is caused by melanin, the brown or black pigment that gives hair, skin and eyes a dark color.  Melanin can be inherited for a permanent dark color as in this squirrel, or it can be produced in greater quantities during tanning or in some diseases.

Melanism can confer a biological advantage when it provides better camouflage.  There’s even an effect called “industrial melanism” in which the majority of a species living in a dirty, industrial zone are darker than those who live in a cleaner environment.  This was famously documented among peppered moths in Britian during the sooty, late-1800s.

Who knows why Pittsburgh has black squirrels (we haven’t been sooty for half a century) but if you want to see them come on over to the area of Schenley Park that borders — you guessed it — Squirrel Hill.

 

(photo by D. Gordon E. Roberston from Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see the original)

Quiz: What tree?

Quiz, Schenley Park, Trees


I believe I know the answer but I’m not absolutely sure so I’m asking you, dear readers.

What tree is this with such bountiful fruit?  It’s a short, ornamental tree, probably non-native.  Notice how the bright red fruit hangs in clusters from the branches.  I’m amazed the birds were not eating it yet.

Want to see it for yourself?  It’s one of several such trees in Schenley Park on the right side of the walk to the ice rink near Schenley Oval.

If you know its name – or even have a wild guess – leave a comment to let us know.

(photo by Kate St. John)

A Little Fall Color

Phenology, Schenley Park


I think the colors are subdued this fall because we’ve had a drought.  Even so I saw some nice red leaves on Thursday evening in Schenley Park.  It’s not a good picture but you get the idea.

And… the crows are back!  Last night I saw more than 300 flying to the roost.  This morning I counted about 1,000 flying southwest over my neighborhood.

Glad to see they made it to Pittsburgh just in time for tomorrow night’s program.

p.s. I took a walk on the Upper Panther Hollow Trail this afternoon and found may colorful maples: red, yellow and orange.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Kingfishers on the move

Migration, Schenley Park, Water and Shore


If you’re near a stream or lake in western Pennsylvania you might conclude there are more belted kingfishers than every before — and you’d be right.

Kingfishers are migrating now across North America.  They breed as far north as Alaska and Hudson Bay but the northernmost birds move south in autumn because they require open water to fish.

The influx of “new” kingfishers upsets their established boundaries.  They’re normally solitary birds except when breeding and will defend their favorite fishing hole against other kingfishers, even in the winter.  Defense consists of relentless chasing while shouting out the “rattle” call.  Perhaps they make new territories while on migration.  Perhaps they’re just ornery.

There are certainly a lot of them here right now.  I’ve seen them at Schenley Park, along the Ohio, at Montour Run, and at Keystone State Park.

Kingfishers are on the move.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

They’re Everywhere

Mammals, Schenley Park


Yesterday afternoon I took a walk in Schenley Park to see what I could find.

There weren’t many birds — just a flock of robins, some grackles and blue jays, one brown creeper, and a single confusing fall warbler — but what was lacking in birds was made up by this very cute mammal.

Chipmunks were everywhere, scrabbling through dead leaves, cramming nuts in their cheeks and shouting as they ran to escape my approach.  My goodness they were busy!

Despite their apparent playfulness chipmunks are actually very territorial.  Except when they’re babies they live alone, one per burrow, and defend that burrow against all chipmunks.  They threaten, they shout, they chase each other everywhere.  And they look so cute while they’re doing it.

By the end of my walk I was sorry I hadn’t counted chipmunks, just for fun.

Was it an illusion or were there more chipmunks than birds?

(photo by Brian Herman)

Oh No!!

Insects, Schenley Park, Trees
Emerald ash borer beetle with its galleries under the bark (photo from Florida Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

1 August 2010

I often walk to work through Schenley Park to get my morning dose of birds.  As always I take notes on what I see — long lists of birds with asterisks for new arrivals.

On May 6 my notebook has nine short words with a circle around them, “Found nearly dead ash tree.  Possible EAB.  Oh no!”

“EAB” is shorthand for emerald ash borer, a deadly bug that has wiped out North American ash trees since it arrived in Michigan in 2002.  Other than treating single trees with systemic pesticide there is nothing that can stop this bug.  It spells doom for parks and forests.

I learned the signs of EAB from April Claus on a January walk through Sewickley Heights Park, so I was pretty sure of my diagnosis.  But someone more skilled than me needed to investigate.

It took me a week to tell an expert because I left town on a five-day birding trip.  When I returned I kept an eye out for people working in the park.  As it turns out the first person I found was one of the two best people to tell:  Phil Gruszka, Director of Park Management and Maintenance for the Pittsburgh Park Conservancy and a certified arborist.

He teamed up with City Forester David Jahn (the other best person to tell) and they looked through the park and took bark samples from several trees.  News of their efforts appeared here under “Eagle Eyes in Schenley Park” on the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy blog.

Months passed.  I didn’t think about emerald ash borers.  Then last weekend I found another tree with even more striking symptoms and emailed Phil with the location of this new tree.  He wrote back, “We are confirming it in many locations now.  Schenley Park is hard hit, Riverview Park is not far behind.”

Oh no!  Schenley Park’s ash trees are doomed.  Oh so sad!

(photo of an Emerald Ash Borer, with size reference and trunk damage, from the Florida Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services.  Click the photo to see its original in context.)

Through The Roof!

Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park


It’s not every day you can see an indoor plant bust through the roof and keep on going.

Here in Pittsburgh, the Century plant (Agave americana) at Phipps Conservatory has done just that.

Century plants grow as a rosette of leaves without flowering for 10 to 60 years (depends on climate).  When the plant is ready to bloom it shoots up a stalk as much as 26 feet tall, then produces flowers and dies.  The stalk on the plant at Phipps is so tall they had to remove part of the glass roof to let it keep growing.

In this photograph it wasn’t flowering yet, but I hear it’s doing so now.  That means you don’t have much time left to see it.  Just like the American Columbo, it will die after it blooms.

To see the entire plant you’ll have to visit two places at Phipps.  The bottom of the plant is in the Desert Room, the top is visible from the Japanese Garden.

Though this particular plant is less spectacular from a distance, you can see it from the street at Schenley Park Visitors Center.  Here’s what it would probably look like if it grew outdoors.

Visit Phipps Conservatory to see it.

(photo by Bonnie Jeanne Tibbetts)

p.s. Do you see the bird? Look at the lower branches on the left side of the Century plant.  Does that bird have a crest?  Is it a cardinal?