Category Archives: Schenley Park

Acorn Plot?

Mammals, Schenley Park
Gray squirrel (photo by Chuck Tague)
Gray squirrel (photo by Chuck Tague)

Squirrels made national news this week.  (30 Nov – 6 Dec 2008)

On November 30 the Washington Post reported there are no acorns this year in northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.  The next day NPR picked up the story.

The total absence of acorns is puzzling scientists but not worrying them yet.  Oaks have natural boom and bust cycles.  However, having zero acorns puts the squirrel population in jeopardy.  They have far less to eat this winter and some will starve.  To prevent this people in Virginia have started feeding them store-bought hazelnuts!

But I couldn’t help wondering.  Was this just an “Inside the Beltway” phenomenon?  Are there no acorns anywhere in the U.S. or did squirrels become national news because there are no acorns in D.C.?  Is this a plot by the squirrels to get handouts all over the country even though there’s more than enough to eat everywhere else?  I decided to conduct my own research.

On my way through Schenley Park I stopped beneath a stand of oak trees and sifted through the leaves.  I found acorn caps and some rotten acorn pieces but nothing I’d call a “new” acorn.  Were these leftover acorns from last year?  Did the squirrels eat or cache all the good ones?   Did I accidentally find the dump where all the old leaf litter ended up?

I didn’t feel qualified to answer these questions so I turned to Google and they pointed me to the PA Game Commission website.  The Game Commission tracks the acorn crop because it’s such an important food for wild turkeys, deer and bears.   There I learned that acorns are indeed variable across the state this fall.  In Westmoreland County the Game Commission reported a good crop, in the Pittsburgh area it was rated “fair,” and in northcentral, northwestern and southcentral PA (closest to D.C.) it was considered “poor.”

So it isn’t a plot.  It isn’t a conspiracy.  Some squirrels are going to suffer.  Not mine, though.  They’re fat and sassy, eating from my neighbor’s black walnut tree.

 

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Happy Thanksgiving

Books & Events, Doves & Chickens, Schenley Park
Wild turkey, displaying (from the PA Game Commission photo gallery)
Wild turkey, displaying (from the PA Game Commission photo gallery)

27 November 2008

This wild turkey is glad to be strutting his stuff while you’re eating domestically raised turkey today.  But even if you’re eating a wild bird he’s grateful that people like to hunt turkeys.

Grateful??  It’s a complicated story.

When Europeans came to America, hunting was unregulated and turkeys were very popular food.  By the late 1800s, hunting and deforestation had taken its toll.  Only a few thousand turkeys remained in all of Pennsylvania.

At that point the newly formed PA Game Commission began studying the turkey population and regulating the hunting season.  There were so few turkeys that hunting was banned for a few years.  The Game Commission even stocked wild turkeys from Mexico.  Then in 1929 they acquired land and began to raise turkeys for release into the wild.

Propagation programs, habitat restoration and hunting regulations turned the tide.  Today Pennsylvania’s wild turkey population is thriving.  They are easy to find just about everywhere, even in Pittsburgh’s big city parks: Frick, Schenley, Riverview and Highland.  My favorite flock of turkeys used to hang out at the “French fry sculpture” on Bigelow Boulevard.

So on Thanksgiving Day, Tom Turkey is grateful to the PA Game Commission for making his comeback possible.  He is also thankful that Americans prefer to eat domestic turkeys.

 

(PGC photo of a male Wild Turkey in full display, courtesy of the PA Game Commission’s Photo Gallery)

They’re Back!

Crows & Ravens, Schenley Park
Winter Flock of American Crows (photo by Tom Merriman)

19 November 2008

I knew the crows were back in town for the winter but there was no doubt late yesterday in Oakland.

Around 4:20pm thousands of crows started passing WQED, heading for Schenley Heights.

I wish I’d thought to count them but I missed my chance.  Not a big loss though.  They’ll give me ample opportunity in the days and weeks ahead.

Here’s what they looked like last winter as they passed Carnegie Mellon University.  Click on Tom Merriman’s photo to get a better idea of how they fill the sky.

(photo thanks to Tom Merriman, who knows about my addiction to crows) .      

p.s.  If you read “Hope is the bird…” November 15th but didn’t find out if I saw tundra swans, read the answer at the end of that post.

Not Long Now…

Musings & News, Schenley Park, Weather & Sky

Red Sassafras leaves (photo by Kate St. John)Compared to the Great Plains and the coasts, Pittsburgh is not a windy place.  Our typical wind speed is 5-10 miles per hour and some days there’s no wind at all.

Gentle breezes are the norm, so you’ll understand why one of my favorite sounds is the swish of wind in the leaves.  Their rustling is so soothing that it actually improves my day to hear it.

Because I love this sound, I began to care whether the leaves were on or off the trees.  About ten years ago I started to keep track.

First I developed a rough standard for measuring “on” and “off.”  Then, using my neighborhood and Schenley Park as yardsticks, I watched the seasons change and tried to pick the date when most of the trees were bare.  Over the years that date has been around November 11th.

Of course the date is very weather dependent.  If a strong cold front comes through early, the wind and rain strip the trees.  If the weather’s mild and our first hard frost is late, the leaves hang on longer.  I’ve seen the date move later in recent years.

In any case, the days of leaves are numbered now.  It won’t be long before the trees are bare.  Then silence, except for the clacking of bare branches during winter storms.

(photo from my cell phone)

November 9, 2008:  Today is the first day this fall that most of the trees are bare.

Color & migration at Schenley Park

Migration, Schenley Park, Weather & Sky

Ash tree at Schenley Park, Oct 11, 2008 (photo by Kate St.John)Not much to report – but it was a sunny day in Pittsburgh so I ignored my Saturday chores and took a walk in Schenley Park.

The fall colors are beautiful, as you can see by my photo.

I had my binoculars with me (always!) and searched the Cathedral of Learning for the peregrines when I got within view.  It didn’t take long to find them.

A light southeast wind was carrying migrating red-tailed hawks over Oakland.  The migrants didn’t know there are peregrines at Pitt and inevitably tried to catch an updraft at the Cathedral of Learning.  When they did, one of the peregrines would pop off the building and attack them.  This was bewildering for the hawks but I must admit I enjoyed watching the action after so many boring months of peregrine inactivity.

Between mock attacks, Dorothy and E2 perched up high to wait for the next red-tail.  It was a perfect day for hawk watching.

Spunky

Bird Behavior, Schenley Park, Songbirds

House sparrow begs at Schenley Plaza, Aug 2008 (photo by Kate St. John)

If you think you’re seeing a lot of house sparrows lately, you’re right.  The breeding season has doubled or tripled their population and that’s no wonder.  They raise up to four broods per year.

This week I saw a flock of 40 house sparrows grazing the seed heads in the lawn at Schenley Plaza.  The grass seed kept them away from the picnic area where they’ve become quite bold.   Witness the little guy pictured here.

I was eating a snack at one of the outdoor tables when this male house sparrow showed up.  He perched in various locations and looked at my cookie, then at me.

“You own that cookie and you can give it to me.  I only want a little.  Cheep!”  I did nothing, but I got ready to take his picture.

He could tell he had my attention but I was a tough customer.  “Cheep!  How about a crumb?”  He perched on the back of the chair, looked me in the eye and slowly yawned his beak.  “Put it in my mouth,” he said and hopped to the table top.

Still no handout, but this activity attracted his friends and relatives.  Young house sparrows approached to learn the finer points of begging, the importance of eye contact, the emphatic “Cheep,” the art of staying just out of reach but within crumb-toss range.

It was a good show but I know too much to be fooled.  House sparrows are an invasive species here.  Feeding them only makes them more successful, a counter-productive result.

I didn’t give them my cookie, but I do enjoy watching them.

They’re spunky.

 

(photo by Kate St. John)

Too much of a good thing

Doves & Chickens, Schenley Park

Rock pigeon flock (photo by Chuck Tague)

July 30, 2008:

Being a peregrine fanatic I’m kind of fond of pigeons – at least from the prey point of view – so when I was in downtown Pittsburgh on Sunday I stopped by Mellon Square to check out the scene.

Even for a peregrine falcon the number of pigeons at Mellon Square is way too much of a good thing.  I counted more than 150 and I couldn’t see all of them.  The pigeons outnumbered people more than 30 to 1.

This explains why peregrines hang out on the Oliver Building window sills.  It’s like visiting an all-you-can-eat restaurant.  The food may not be that great but there’s so much of it!

This kind of pigeon over-population repulses most people and they want a quick fix, the quickest being poison.  But if you poison a pigeon, you’ll poison a peregrine.  After a culling episode pigeons reproduce fast to fill the void – in fact lethal control actually increases the flock – but the peregrines take years to recover.  And peregrines are endangered in Pennsylvania.  It’s bad, bad, bad to poison an endangered species.

So what to do?

Pigeons need two things to reach the numbers found at Mellon Square:  lots of food and places to nest.  They reproduce in direct proportion to their food supply.  If food is scarce some won’t nest at all.  If food is plentiful they lay the next clutch of eggs before the first set has hatched, producing more than 12 chicks per year.

The food problem is obvious.  Sidewalks at Mellon Square are coated with bird seed. Control the food source (the people who feed them) and you’ve got most of the problem licked.   To make a really dramatic difference, control the nest sites as well.

City pigeons nest on buildings and bridges.  They also nest in buildings.   Find the buildings involved and spend the time and money to block the access holes.  Last summer the University of Pittsburgh cleaned the Cathedral of Learning and blocked off the pigeon nest holes as part of the cleaning job.  One year later there are far fewer pigeons at Schenley Plaza.

And finally, there’s a foolproof solution that makes both the pigeon-feeders and the pigeon-haters happy.  Many European cities have solved their pigeon problem permanently by building dovecotes and pigeon lofts.  Yes, they built nest sites.  They control the population at the dovecotes by substituting dummy eggs and they control the food level by giving pigeon lovers an approved place to feed and interact with the birds.

This keeps the pigeons and the birdseed off the street.  An elegant solution.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Feed Me

Schenley Park, Songbirds

Tufted Titmouse feeding baby (photo by Marcy Cunkelman) (Something other than peregrines!)

Baby birds are everywhere. The number of fledglings has exploded since the middle of June and they beg so loudly that I hear them before I see them.

In a recent walk through Schenley Park I came across three separate families of tufted titmice – parents and fledglings. At first I expected to see chickadees because the youngsters made a sound similar to the chickadee’s call note. This must be because titmice are related to chickadees.

Like all baby birds, the titmouse babies called and fluttered their wings to attract their parents’ attention. This display could also attract the attention of predators but it certainly made their demands known. The adult titmice were run pretty ragged.

With babies on the wing, the adults look for an easy source of food. If you have a bird feeder they’ll use it immediately with children in tow. That’s how Marcy Cunkelman captured this photo of a tufted titmouse feeding its baby.

While at the feeder the parents eat too. Eventually the youngsters get the hint and look down at the seeds at their feet. “Aha! It’s faster if I feed myself!”

“At last!” think the adults. “We thought you’d never get it.”

Late-nesters get into the act

Nesting & Courtship, Schenley Park, Songbirds

Cedar Waxwing (photo by Chuck Tague)
Cedar Waxwing (photo by Chuck Tague)

By the summer solstice (that’s today) most birds in southwestern Pennsylvania have babies – or at least eggs.  Some are even incubating their second brood after fledging their first babies in May.

Not so with cedar waxwings.  Because they eat fruit, their nesting is timed to produce young when the fruit is ripe.  The fruit season is just beginning now so cedar waxwings are courting.

Yesterday in Schenley Park I heard a high-pitched “zeee zeee” as cedar waxwings flew to a nearby tree.  It was a pair and when they stopped to perch I saw they had a single berry that they passed back and forth to each other.

Feeding one’s mate is a courtship ritual among many species.  (We humans have dinner dates.)   For cedar waxwings it’s especially important because the female does all the incubation and her mate must feed her for the duration.  That’s 12-13 days of carrying one berry at a time.    And despite the fact that they begin to nest in June, they usually produce two broods.

Eventually one of the waxwings swallowed the berry and the two took off together.  What a sweet courtship ritual.  Happy family!

Meet me at the tent…

Peregrines, Schenley Park

Schenley Plaza tent (photo by Kate St. John)…for Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch!

Late next week the peregrine falcon chicks at University of Pittsburgh will be ready to fly (called fledging) and I’ll be there to watch them.

Fledging is the most dangerous time for a young peregrine. He flaps at the edge of a 400-foot drop and launches into the blue. He has to learn to steer and land on his very first voyage. If he doesn’t make it, he could land in the street.

Fledging is also the most exciting time for a peregrine watcher. The entire peregrine family is busy: the parents give flight demonstrations, the young walk the edge of the building and flap their wings, one of them takes his first flight and the parents follow to make sure he’s OK. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

The peregrine chicks are likely to fledge between June 7th and 9th so starting Thursday June 5th I plan to be at the Schenley Plaza tent before 8:15am, after 5:15pm, and during my lunch hour 1:30-2:30pm every day including the weekend. Fortunately, peregrines try not to fledge during bad weather so I get a reprieve if it’s raining.

You’re welcome to stop by for Fledge Watch. As with any hawk watch, there are stretches of boredom (opportunities to chat) punctuated by moments of excitement (peregrines flying). Unlike a rural hawk watch this one comes with amenities: a tent, indoor restrooms, free wireless Internet, places to buy food, and on-street parking.

Schenley Plaza is at the intersection of Schenley Drive and Forbes Ave across from the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. The tent (pictured above by my cellphone) is visible from Forbes Avenue. Click here for a Google street map.

How will you find me?  I’m the one near the tent wearing a hat and looking at the Cathedral of Learning with binoculars.