Yesterday the three chicks at the Pitt peregrine nest were five days old, growing fast, and eating often — as many as five times yesterday. At this age their weight has doubled since they hatched.
Morela and Ecco feed them frequently in the late afternoon. At the 3:35pm feeding a blue jay was on the menu (above) but it had to be plucked and the nest got messy. This feeding was hard to see on the streaming falconcam because Morela’s back was in the way.
An hour later Morela stood to the side with an easy view as she fed the chicks in this 12 minute video. Listen for the chicks’ begging sounds and Morela’s “chupping” that encourages them to eat.
As soon as they eat they fall asleep. Morela tucks them in.
There are still two unhatched eggs at Morela and Ecco’s nest. The reddish one is past its due date and probably won’t hatch. The whitish egg is due to hatch tomorrow, 3 May … but maybe not.
UPDATE AT 1:30PM: (Proving me wrong again) egg#4 just hatched!
Fourth chick (pink and wet) emerges from its shell while Morela feeds its siblings, 2 May 2022, 13:20 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera)
May at last! For the next three weeks gorgeous birds will arrive on the south wind, some to nest, others to pause on their northward journey. With colors more vibrant than April’s wildflowers they suddenly appear among new green leaves. Red, yellow, blue, black and white, Christopher T’s photos show them at their best.
Male scarlet tanagers (Piranga olivacea) are not scarlet when they spend the winter in South America — instead they are green — but by the time they’re back home in the eastern U.S. they are the brightest red.
Kentucky warblers (Geothlypis formosa) highlight brilliant yellow with a black cap and mask. We are lucky to have this uncommon bird nesting in Pennsylvania. I-80 approximates the northern edge of their range.
Redbud blooming in Frick Park, 28 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
30 April 2022
Thursday morning’s freezing temperature did not affect the redbud trees in Frick Park. I hope it didn’t harm the wildflowers we saw on Wednesday at Enlow Fork in Greene County.
Check the captions for what’s blooming now.
Wild blue phlox, Enlow Fork, 27 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Squirrel corn, Enlow Fork, 27 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)Dwarf larkspur, Enlow Fork, 27 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Corn salad, Enlow Fork, 27 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Blue-eyed Mary, Enlow Fork, 27 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
This morning Ecco brought food before dawn to the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. While Morela fed the chicks I watched closely, counting heads and looking for eggs. The chicks obscured the remaining eggs but with the family at three chicks I assume eggs #4 and #5 are still waiting to hatch.
Egg #4 is on its way. Yesterday morning I saw a pip, below, during the 10am feeding.
Seed-eating birds use only their beaks to extract their food from shells and husks. Have you noticed how they do it?
At the feeder you may see them pick up a whole nut, crack the shell with their strong beaks and let the shell fall, then work on the seed inside their mouths with tongue and beak. They do the same with grassy seeds though we rarely see it.
Evening grosbeak and American goldfinch at the feeder, Nov 2012 (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
This slow motion video of a field sparrow (Spizella pusilla) shows how he separates the “wheat” from the chaff. It’s a lot of mouth work for tiny seeds.
Yesterday was an exciting day at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. Three eggs hatched between midnight and 2:30pm and the fourth egg had a visible crack by 7:00pm (photo above). This morning I expect to see four chicks and only one egg remaining to hatch.
UPDATE 28 April, 5:30am: The visible crack must be an illusion. It was not evident in subsequent photos and the 4th egg was still in-egg on Wednesday evening. Oy! Will it hatch on Thurs 28 April? Watch the falconcam and see.
Glimpses of the tiny nestlings have been brief because Morela often stands in front of the streaming camera while she feeds them. The best views are from the snapshot camera but those are only still shots so I collected images from yesterday’s 4pm feeding and made them into a video. You’ll notice that Morela eats a little bit before she starts to feed the young.
Scattered eggshells? Are you wondering about the scattered eggshells on the gravel?
When a peregrine egg is hatching the mother bird does not help the chick open the egg but when it has emerged on its own the mother carefully lifts the discarded shell and sets it away from the scrape (the shallow bowl where the chicks and eggs reside). The photo above shows many discarded shell fragments.
The shells are made of calcium carbonate deposited by the mother’s body.
The color of peregrine eggs is embedded in the calcium. The color does not wash away but it is only on the surface. As you can see, the shells are white inside.
Eggshells move around the gravel as the adult birds sweep in and out of the nest.
The mother bird eventually eats the discarded shells to restore her calcium levels. Morela is eating a shell in the snapshot below.
What about the 4th and 5th eggs? I feel lucky to have predicted Hatch Day (26 April) for eggs #1-3. My original guess was 28 April for the 4th egg and 3 May for the 5th. But I could be very wrong.
UPDATE at 12:20pm, 26 April 2022: This morning I thought 3 had hatched but as of noon only 2 of 5 eggs had hatched. I was mistaken because the chicks were draped over and hiding one of the remaining three eggs. See 12:20pm photo with 3 eggs at bottom of this article.
As of 7:03am two of the five eggs have hatched. In the photo above, the most recent hatchling is pink and wet. Today is Hatch Day at the Pitt peregrine nest!
The first egg hatched last night, 26 April 2022, at 12:38am. Before dawn I could tell at least one had hatched — even though I couldn’t see the chick(s) — because there was an open eggshell on the gravel. In fact there was more than one eggshell.
These two hatched on the same day because they were incubated for the same amount of time, as was the 3rd egg which is expected to hatch within 24 hours. The 4th and 5th eggs, laid later, will hatch later as well. Expect the 4th hatch around 28 April, and the much later 5th egg (the whitish one) around 3 May.
You will know hatching is a few+ hours away when you see a pip in one of the eggs. Here’s a pip seen last evening at 7:19pm.
Schenley Park outing, 24 April 2022 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
24 April 2022
Thirteen of us came out for a walk in Schenley Park on Sunday morning and were thrilled to hear a wood thrush singing near the Visitors Center. The bird was hard to spot in the treetops but CJ Showers got a photo of him from below.
Wood thrush, Schenley Park, 24 April 2022 (photo by CJ Showers)
Two First of Year species had just returned: yellow warbler and gray catbird. Male red-winged blackbirds claimed territory and chased females at Panther Hollow Lake, while two spotted sandpipers sidestepped bullfrogs among the reeds.
Red-winged blackbird, 24 April 2022 (photo by CJ Showers)
The red-tailed hawk family on the bridge appears to have babies in the nest, though we could not see them.
Red-tailed hawk at nest, Schenley park, 24 April 2022 (photo by CJ Showers)
And a surprise awaited us around the bend.
Sara Showers saw the profile of this fledgling eastern screech owl perched at eye level on a hackberry branch. Though he wasn’t hidden he was doing his best to look like part of the tree until we gawked at him. That made him raise his ear tufts and look at us through slit eyes.
Fledgling eastern screech-owl, Schenley park, 24 April 2022 (photo by CJ Showers)
Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA, Apr 24, 2022 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM. 30 species Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 4 Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 2 Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) 2 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 1 — Flyover Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 2 Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio) 1 — fledgling! Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1 Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 1 Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) 1 Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 4 Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) 1 Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 7 American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 3 Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula) 10 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) 1 Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 2 Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 1 First of year Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) 2 American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 20 House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 4 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 2 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 9 Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 8 Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) 3 Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) 2 Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) 1 First of year Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) 8 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 6
If you attended the outing and would like me to share the list to you, please leave a comment to tell me so.
(photos by Charity Kheshgi and CJ Showers)
UPDATE 25 APRIL 2022: On Monday morning I took the same walk as on Sunday and found that bird activity was more subdued. Many of the birds we saw on Sunday must have left on Sunday night’s strong south wind, including all but one of the ruby-crowned kinglets. However, I found an eastern screech-owl nest near where we saw the fledgling on Sunday. His sibling was looking out of the hole! (It’s a lousy cellphone photo but you get the idea.)
Eastern screech-owl youngster poised at nest hole, Schenley Park, 25 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Broad-winged hawk on migration in Pennsylvania (photo by Meredith Lombard)
Swamp Sparrow (photo by Chuck Tague)
Ovenbird with nesting material (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
Black and white warbler (photo by Lauri Shaffer)
Northern parula (photo by Steve Gosser)
Pine warbler (photo by Anthony Bruno)
Female rose-breasted grosbeak at feeder (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
House wren (photo by Chuck Tague)
Wood Thrush (photo by Steve Gosser, 2008)
24 April 2022
Bird migration picked up last week. I saw 10 new arrivals between April 17 and 23. The photos above, though not my own, give you a flavor of the new birds in town.
Trout lilies at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
23 April 2022
Woodland wildflowers are putting on a show right now in southwestern Pennsylvania. Here are just a few of the beauties we saw yesterday at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve.
Trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), above, are at their peak. Look closely and you’ll find a few of the less common white trout lily (Erythronium albidum), below.
See the captions for the rest of the flowers.
White trout lily, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Early saxifrage, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Mud splattered! Large-flower trillium, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Sessile trillium, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Smooth rock cress, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Wild geranium, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Blue violets, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 22 April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
This weekend’s sunny hot weather will put these flowers past their prime soon. It’s time to get outdoors!
p.s. If you go to Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, wear boots! It is very, very muddy.
