Category Archives: Beyond Bounds

Beyond Bounds: Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret (photo by Chuck Tague)
Reddish egret (photo by Chuck Tague)

14 January 2010

What is this bird doing?  If we had a video we would call it dancing.  He’s stamping and jumping, charging through the water, raising his wings and running in zig-zags like crazy.  Sometimes he leans his head to one side and runs in a circle as if to scoop the air.

No, he’s not listening to the beat of a different drummer.  He’s scaring the fish so he can catch them.  Meet the reddish egret.

Reddish egrets live beyond the bounds of Pennsylvania because they eat saltwater fish.  They’re found in shallow saltwater estuaries along the coasts of Florida, southern California and the Gulf coast of the U.S.  They like warm weather so well that they move further south to the coasts of Mexico in the winter.

Though called “reddish” egrets they’re not always red.  Juveniles of this dark morph group are chalky looking and all ages of the white morph birds are white.  This would make them hard to identify among wading birds but their unique hunting technique sets them apart.  All you have to do is watch for a while.  They act like madmen.  They’ll make you laugh.  Check out these videos to see what I mean:  juvenile reddish egret on the hunt and an adult stirring up lunch.

If you want to see a reddish egret you’ll have to visit the southern coast.  Chuck Tague photographed this bird in Florida.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Beyond Bounds: American Oystercatchers

American Oystercatchers (photo by Brian Herman)
Two weeks ago I guaranteed you’d never see a roseate spoonbill in Pittsburgh and though “guarantee” is a dangerous word, I’ll use it again.  I guarantee – this time with more certainty – that you’ll never see an American oystercatcher in the wild in Pittsburgh.

Why am I so confident of this prediction?  Because American oystercatchers, unlike roseate spoonbills, have to live at the ocean.  They specialize in eating saltwater bivalve molluscs (oysters, clams and mussels) using their razor-sharp beaks to cut the abductor chain that holds the two shells together.  They are indeed oyster catchers.

They are also large, conspicuous and noisy.  Their faces are clown-like with red-rimmed eyes and red-orange beaks.  (The color is actually called Chrome Orange and is on their eyelids as well.)  When flying they call “kleep, kleep, kleep, kleep, kleep, kleep” to each other.  They are unmistakable.

American oystercatchers prefer sandy beaches, salt marshes and even saltwater dredge spoil piles.  This keeps them beyond the bounds of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Brian Herman photographed this pair at Cape May, New Jersey.

 

(photo by Brian Herman)

Snowy Egrets, No Regrets

Snowy Egret (photo by Kim Steininger)

Though snowy egrets rarely visit southwestern Pennsylvania, they’re one of my favorite birds.  They’re very photogenic and so self-absorbed that they usually don’t notice people near them.  I see them up close in Florida.  Kim Steininger photographed this one at Bombay Hook, Delaware.

When I see snowy egrets I think of their mispronounced name – “No Regrets” – which I learned from Larry Levis’ poem, Slow Child with a Book of Birds.  The poem is set in winter.  Here’s the excerpt:
.

“Yesterday, the slow child on the bus, talkative
Amidst the fully evolved quiet of those
Around us muffled in their parkas, was showing me
A Snowy Egret in the book he carried,
“No Regrets,” he said, pointing to its eyes,
To a brassy, unassailable candor in them.
“No Regrets,” he said again, for the pleasure
Of it, & smiled, absorbed in it,”

— from Slow Child with a Book of Birds by Larry Levis,
The Widening Spell of the Leaves, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991.
Used by permission of the publisher.

.
Yes, this bird has that look on his face.  No regrets, indeed!

 

(photo by Kim Steininger)

Beyond Bounds: Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill (photo by Steve Gosser)
Can you believe how odd – and beautiful – this bird is?

The roseate spoonbill is a bird so far beyond the bounds of southwestern Pennsylvania that I guarantee you’ll never see one here.

Roseate spoonbills, named for their rosy feathers and funny beaks, are South American birds that also breed along the U.S. Gulf Coast and at Merritt Island, Florida.  Their bills are shaped like a pair of wooden spoons clapped together because they feed on small crustaceans and aquatic bugs, swinging their bills side to side through the water to capture their food.

Steve Gosser photographed this spoonbill at a lagoon where the birds roost in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.  According to Steve the spoonbills didn’t spend the day at the lagoon.  They were only there in the morning and evening… which just happens to be when the light is great for photography.

Wow!

 

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Beyond Bounds: Common Tern

Common Tern (photo by Brian Herman)
Beyond the bounds of southwestern Pennsylvania you’ll see this bird nesting at the Atlantic shore, the Great Lakes, or interior Canada but the common tern is totally uncommon in Pittsburgh.

Common terns are found worldwide.  In this hemisphere they winter on the Pacific coast of Central America, on both coasts of South America and sometimes in the Caribbean.  I know they migrate to points north of Pittsburgh but do we ever see them here?  Rarely.

Brian Herman captured this one in breeding plumage at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

(photo by Brian Herman)

Beyond Bounds: Great Egret

Great Egret (photo by Chuck Tague)
Another beauty from beyond the bounds of southwestern Pennsylvania, this photo by Chuck Tague is one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Great egrets are unusual in the Pittsburgh area.  We see three to six per year during migration and I have never, ever seen one do this but Chuck spends his winters in Florida and has more opportunities than I do.

Chuck tells me this wingspread pose is a fishing strategy.  To me it is angelic.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Beyond Bounds: American Avocets

American Avocets at Bombay Hook (photo by Kim Steininger)
Now that I’ve been writing this blog for more than two years (time flies!) I’ve accumulated a stockpile of photos from friends.  Many of the pictures are stunning but I never get a chance to use them when I write about local birds in season.  So I have a plan.

Today I’m starting a weekly series for this winter that I’m calling Beyond Bounds, a celebration of superior photos of birds that you won’t find in southwestern Pennsylvania.  

American avocets lead the list.  The Pittsburgh area is rarely graced by the visit of a single avocet and we never see flocks like this.  Kim Steininger captured these at Bombay Hook, Delaware. 

Aren’t their patterns cool?  Yes, beyond bounds.

(photo by Kim Steininger)

Life Skills

Adult peregrine teaches young the prey exchange (photo by Kim Steininger)
Adult peregrine teaches youngster the prey exchange (photo by Kim Steininger)

June 26, 2009

Sightings of the four peregrine falcons that hatched this year at the University of Pittsburgh are harder to come by these days.

They’ve been flying for three weeks and have ventured beyond the Cathedral of Learning to explore other buildings and other neighborhoods.  On a good day I see two peregrines.  Often I see none.  They’re learning to hunt.

Only three days after their first flight, juveniles chase their siblings in games that improve their flight skills.  After a week they try mock food exchanges: Two youngsters fly together, one flips upside down with talons extended, the other pretends to hold out food.

Their parents teach them the serious lessons.  Pictured above, an adult peregrine has just dropped prey for his youngster to grab.  The juvenile is learning eye-talon coordination and how to catch food while flying – something he’ll have to do for the rest of his life.

When Erie was the resident male at Pitt, he taught his youngsters these skills in the airspace between Heinz Chapel and the Cathedral of Learning.  Digby, who was a Heinz Chapel docent, told me that June weddings were often greeted by peregrines calling and chasing overhead.  He warned the wedding planners that a white dove release might not be so beautiful with hungry birds of prey nearby.

For the past two years I’ve noticed E2 teaches his offspring near St. Paul’s Cathedral but yesterday he was back in the Heinz Chapel airspace, carrying food with youngsters in pursuit.

I missed the prey exchange but I saw the “kid” who caught it on his way to the steeple, chased by his sister.

Another lesson learned.

(photo by Kim Steininger)