Category Archives: Phenology

Almost November, what will we see?

Phenology


Yesterday morning was cloudy, cold and blustery.  As I waited at the busstop hundreds of grackles flew south over Greenfield.  Perhaps they were leaving the roost.  Perhaps they were leaving town.

In only two days it will be November.  The variety of birds is dropping though the number of crows, robins and starlings is growing.

Soon the north will freeze and migrating ducks and swans will stopover on Pennsylvania’s lakes.

Yesterday Karen DeSantis reported a flock of tundra swans over Westmoreland County, the first this fall.  I can hardly wait to see a V of swans myself.

What else will we see in November?

There’s a list on my phenology blog “What to Look For in Early November” and at Chuck Tague’s “Welcome to the Dark Side.”

(photo of migrating tundra swans by Chuck Tague)

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)

Summer Beauty: Dense Blazing Star

Phenology, Plants & Fungi


If you weren’t able to join the Wissahickon Nature Club on their walk at Jennings Prairie last Tuesday, here’s one flower you missed.

Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata) is a tall spike of fuzzy-looking purple blossoms so pretty that it’s become a popular garden flower.  Unlike most plants this one starts blooming at the top first, then works its way down, attracting butterflies as it goes.

Right now the flowers are carpeting the fields at Jennings Prairie.  It’s worth a visit if you haven’t been there yet this year.  Click here for information on how to get there.

(photo by Dianne Machesney, taken during the Wissahickon Nature Walk on July 27)

Summer Beauty: Culver’s Root

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Culver's Root (photo by Dianne Machesney)
Here’s a stunning flower that blooms in western Pennsylvania from June to September.  I notice it on my travels in late summer.

Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) is tall and showy – two to five feet tall with five or six densely packed spikes of small white flowers.  The flowers turn brown quickly so it won’t always look as perfect as this. 

The most curious thing to me about Culver’s Root is that it’s native to both eastern North America and to Asia.  I wonder how that happened…  Did birds carry its seeds?

If you’d like to see it in western Pennsylvania, visit Jennings Prairie in July.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Flowers in the Trees

Phenology, Trees


Here’s something you don’t see every day:  a tuliptree flower.

Right now the tulip trees are blooming but you can’t see the flowers because the trees are very tall, the flowers are at the top, and the leaves hide the flowers from below.

Tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipifera) are sometimes called “tulip poplars” but they’re actually in the magnolia family.  Like magnolias their flowers are showy and attractive to bees — so attractive that tulip trees are considered one of our major honey plants.

Have you ever smelled these flowers?  I haven’t.  I’m lucky when I see them.

And I remind myself when I complain about Pittsburgh’s hills that they have this advantage:  I can stand on a hill and look down on the flowers in the trees.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Smells So Sweet

Phenology, Trees

Black Locust tree in bloom (photo by Kate St. John)
The air in my neighborhood smells so sweet!  The black locust trees are in bloom.

Black locusts dominate my neighborhood because they’re one of the first trees to grow in poor, disturbed soil.  They are ugly in winter with gnarly bark and twisted branches.  Not for us the beauty of oaks and maples.

But when the locusts bloom they’re gorgeous.  Their flowers hang like bunches of grapes, showing off their membership in the pea family.  The flowers even smell like grapes in order to attract bees.

Black locust blossoms normally reach their peak on May 12 but this year they’re early in our unusual, early spring.

Time to smell the flowers!  They last only 10 days.

p.s. Did you know that rose-breasted grosbeaks eat these flowers?  They use their large beaks to grab the base of a flower and twirl.  The white petals fall off.  They swallow the nectar end.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Signs of Spring: Fire Pink

Phenology, Plants & Fungi


It’s a little early for Fire Pink to be blooming but this is an unusual spring. 

The Wissahickon Nature Club found it along the Butler-Freeport Trail last Wednesday. 

Fire Pink (Silene virginica) is in the Pink or Carnation family of plants.  These flowers are called “pinks” not because of their color but because the tips of their petals are notched as if you trimmed them with pinking shears.  Look closely and you can almost see the pinking on these petal tips.

Did you know chickweed is also in the Pink family?  Check it out with a magnifying glass and you’ll see that what appear to be 10 petals are actually five, cleft nearly to their base.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Crowfoot or Buttercup?

Crows & Ravens, Phenology, Plants & Fungi


Crowfoot or buttercup?  This flower is both. 

In my Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide it’s called Small-flowered Crowfoot.  An alternate name is Kidney-leaved Buttercup.  Its Latin name is Ranunculus abortivus.

This small flower is not spectacular but I’m always happy to see it because it has a crow in its name.

And.. speaking of crows, here’s a new report showing how smart they are:  Clever crows can use three tools!

(photo by Dianne Machesney, who calls it Kidney-leaved Buttercup)