My gosh it’s cold! 

Friday morning it was 6^o F.  Yesterday morning it was 12^o.  This morning it’s back down to 7^o. 

Not only is it cold but we’re missing the deep snow cover that provides insulation for plant roots and ground-dwellers.  The mid-January thaw and subsequent freeze will be very hard on the plants and animals living at the northern edge of their hardiness zone.  The good news is that it’s also hard on bugs, so maybe we’ll have fewer pests next spring.

When will it get warmer?  The weather forecast says it’ll be 37^o on Thursday. 

In and out of the deep freeze again.

(photo by Dianne Machesney, taken before the mid-January thaw)

Despite the continuing cold and snow, the battle to get in and out of winter coats and boots, and the difficulties of walking and driving in snowy weather, winter took a turn for the better in the past few days.

I was beginning to get bored by it but I perked up when I read some local sightings on PABIRDS and encountered some surprises on my own:

• Last Friday Steve Gosser saw a peregrine falcon attack a juvenile bald eagle who was flying over the Allegheny River.  This was in downtown Pittsburgh at the 7th Street Bridge!
• Yesterday morning Dorothy and E2, the Cathedral of Learning peregrines, met for breakfast on their favorite dining ledge on the northeast corner of the 30th floor.   It looked to me like he’d brought her food.  Courtship!
• On Sunday I drove along the Ohio and Beaver Rivers and saw two bald eagles and two ravens near Dashields Dam, plus another eagle along the Beaver River.  If you’re looking for eagles, just a few moments at Dashields ought to turn one up.
• Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise when I found a white-throated sparrow in Oakland near Craig Street.
• And everyone knows I’m interested in the crow report.  Last evening a co-worker called me as she drove over the 31st Street Bridge to tell me the Allegheny River is frozen over and the crows were flying in and landing on the ice.  So that’s where they’ve gone.  Woo hoo!

The weather report says we’ll have above freezing temperatures starting tomorrow.  If it melts all at once the floods will provide more excitement than we want.  (!)

(photo of tulip tree seed pods by Marcy Cunkelman)

It feels like it’s been snowing forever.

Marcy Cunkelman sent me this picture taken in her yard on Wednesday at a moment when – miraculously – it was not snowing.  Last night as she sent me email it was snowing heavily in the dark. 

The ruler is buried by now.  Good thing it’s bright orange.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

Day after day we’ve had unusually cold weather with highs in the teens and windchill as low as minus 10.  This may be springlike in the Arctic but it’s too cold for Pittsburgh. 

Most people stayed indoors yesterday but I was itching for a walk so I bundled up and trudged from my home in Greenfield across the Hot Metal Bridge to South Side’s riverfront park. 

I was hoping to see some really good birds but that was not to be.  Instead I was treated to whitecaps and ice. 

Yow! it was cold!  I tried to show the whitecaps in this picture but I couldn’t zoom my cell phone camera with my gloves on and my eyes watered as I faced the wind.  I’m lucky the camera could focus.

See that white skim on the river?  That’s ice.  Beyond it is a raft of ring-billed gulls riding the waves.  Periodically they lift off and ride the wind instead. 

Behind me a flock of mallards wait for their patrons to arrive with a handout of bread.  Canada geese fly to the river or fly back to the grass at the Technology Center.  A mockingbird “chakks” to claim his patch of oriental bittersweet.

If I’m brave I’ll go back to the park later this week to see what new birds show up.  The colder it gets the more likely a really good bird will arrive to take advantage of the open water.   

Brrrrr!

(photo by Kate St. John)

Our first big snow of the season accumulated yesterday and threw a wrench into several Christmas Bird Count events, affecting both the number of participants and the number of birds.  Snow is lingering this morning so it’ll affect today’s counts as well.

The first snow always changes the mix of birds.  Species who don’t like it leave the area and those who do move in. 

We’ve had large flocks of American robins in Pittsburgh for weeks but the snow cover will prompt them to leave for the south.  Meanwhile snow buntings, rough-legged hawks and short-eared owls will be easier to find near Volant in Lawrence County now that the ground is covered. 

It’ll be interesting to see who’s here and who’s not by mid-week. 

Bundle up and enjoy it!

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Winter in Pittsburgh is mild compared to Pennsylvania’s northern and mountainous regions. 

Yesterday it snowed but didn’t stick – at least in my neighborhood.  We usually don’t have snow cover in the city until late December, and then it’s likely to melt.  Even so, a snowless winter can be beautiful when the sun shines, as it will today. 

Here’s a photo Dianne Machesney took a week ago at Latodami’s upper field in North Park.  The muted browns of winter have a special kind of beauty.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)