Mini Rabbit Relative Shouts a Warning

Mammals
Pika calling out “Danger” in Mount Rainier National Park (photo from Wikimedia)

5 April 2024

Rabbits rarely say anything but this small mammal, related to rabbits, stands on a prominent rock and shouts to his friends when he sees danger.

American pikas (Ochotona princeps) weigh 6 ounces and are only 6-8 inches long, covered from head to toe in thick fur. They live in boulder fields above the treeline where they eat flowers, grasses and other plants that they cache in a “haystack” for the winter. Though tiny these small mammals are a tasty meal for hawks, eagles, coyotes, bobcats, foxes and weasels.

Pikas very social and vocal, calling out danger and “singing” during the breeding season. When a pika sees danger he lets all the nearby pika’s know.

Though he has a small voice, he works on projection.

video embedded from Navarre’s Wild Shots on YouTube

p.s. I have never heard one, perhaps because the one time I saw a pika he wasn’t frightened.

Duck Hollow Flooded & It’s Still Raining

Weather & Sky
Monongahela River floods the Duck Hollow parking lot, 4 April 2024, 7:20am (photo by Kate St. John)

4 April 2024

This morning I checked NOAA’s National Water Prediction Service and saw there was a major flood today on the Monongahela River at Braddock Lock & Dam, just upriver from Duck Hollow. It looked like it would crest this morning …

Monongahela River gauge readings & prediction for Braddock Lock and Dam, 4 April 2024 at 5am (graph from NOAA & USGS National Water Prediction Service)

… so I rushed down to Duck Hollow just after sunrise and here’s what I saw.

It was so deep that the parking lot garbage can was floating. Needless to say there were no barges or ducks on the river.

The birds were singing as I filmed the river at the mouth of Nine Mile Run.

Was I there for the crest? I took a two minute video while the water was rising. See the pink line indicating the high water mark in these slides from my video.

As it turns out the river crested today at 4:00am EDT.

Monongahela River gauge readings at Braddock Lock and Dam, 4 April 2024 (graph from NOAA & USGS National Water Prediction Service)

The National Weather Service says we’ve broken the record for the wettest start of any year in Pittsburgh since record-keeping began in 1871.

No wonder there’s a flood.

(photos and videos by Kate St. John; diagrams from @NWSPittsburgh)

Have You Ever Seen a Baby Pigeon?

Doves & Chickens, Nesting & Courtship
Feral pigeon walking (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

3 April 2024

City folks often see pigeons but all the birds are adults. Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?

Rock pigeons nest on cliffs in the wild or in nooks on high buildings or bridges in feral settings. This puts their nests high above our field of view and, since the young won’t leave the nest until they can fly, they don’t look like babies anymore when we finally see them. They look like their parents.

Every once in a while a pair of pigeons will choose a balcony or window ledge where the resident can see the nest. This happened for @LostInTheWildCanada who documented the pigeon family on YouTube.

video embedded from Lost in the Wild Canada on YouTube

Who knew that rock pigeon nestlings are covered in yellow-orange down? Who knew their eyes didn’t open for a week? Who knew they were so … ugly?

Rock pigeon nestlings, Day One and approximately Day Six (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

Now you know.

(credits are in the captions)

Flood Stage!

Weather & Sky
Monongahela River flood at Duck Hollow, 10 Sept 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)

2 April 2024

CORRECTION (3 APRIL at 7am): When I first published this article, I didn’t realize I was using outdated maps so my analysis was wrong. NOAA changed to their mapping tool on 28 March; the new tool is much better. Maps, links and the flood assessment have been corrected.

Today (2 April 2024) it will be warm in Pittsburgh (71°F) but very wet with severe thunderstorms, 2-3 inches of rain, and up to 4 inches in localized downpours. There’s a Flood Watch through this evening for rivers, creeks, streams, and flood-prone locations.

It is unlikely that the Monongahela River will flood as much as it did in 2018, above in September, below in February. But it will reach flood stage.

The river is expected to rapidly rise Wednesday (3 April) and crest at 26.7 feet early Thursday (4 April), just below the moderate flood stage. As of Wednesday morning, it was over 21 feet.

— Post Gazette, 3 April 2024
Monongahela River flood at Duck Hollow, 17 Feb 2018 (photo by John English)

Our streams, creeks and low-lying roads will be in trouble. Water could rise suddenly. Watch out for flash floods on a road near you.

Flooded road (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The National Water Prediction Service provides a dynamic water prediction map for the entire U.S. updated with current conditions (circles) and water level predictions (squares around the circle). The colors on the 4/3/2024 at 9:00pm map below mean:

  • Purple = Major Flood
  • Red = Moderate Flood
  • Orange = Minor Flood
  • Yellow = just below or nearly at Flood Stage
  • Green = no flood
  • tiny blue dots mean No Data
screenshot of map from National Water Prediction Service at water.noaa.gov, 3 April 2024, 9:00pm ET

The map shows that the Youghiogheny River at Sutersville, PA is in Major Flood (purple) and so are several places in Ohio.

Click here to see the current National Water Prediction Map for Pittsburgh.

If you’re curious about flood conditions and forecasts throughout the U.S., visit water.noaa.gov.

water.noaa.gov as of 3 April 2024 at 7am

Who’s On the Pitt Peregrine Nest?

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines

1 April 2024

Carla and Ecco have completed nearly two weeks of incubation at the Pitt peregrine nest and have three more to go. As we watch them on the National Aviary falconcam it can be difficult to tell who’s on camera because their appearance is similar. Here are some tips for figuring out which bird is on the nest right now.

Nighttime incubation? It’s Carla except …

Carla incubating at night, 27 March 2024, 10:58pm

Ecco sometimes brings food before dawn so you may see him on the nest in the early morning while Carla eats.

Ecco on the nest before dawn, 29 March 2024, 7:15am

Whenever you’re in doubt, use these tips.

Size: Carla is larger

Male peregrines are one-third smaller than females so size is the obvious way to tell the difference between the Pitt peregrines (see slideshow at top). However, Carla is not an enormous female and at close quarters on the falconcam with her back turned I have a hard time identifying her by size. The difference is obvious in this slideshow but not when Carla is alone on camera.

Plumage: Carla is Scalloped, Ecco is Striped

This spring in fresh breeding plumage Carla’s feathers have white tips that make her appearance look scalloped. Ecco’s feathers do not have long white tips so he looks vertically striped with fine black lines. Note that this difference works right now but feathers are dynamic and will not look the same in a few months.

Quiz! Test your skills

Practice recognizing size and plumage differences in this short video that compresses 60 hours into 1:41 minutes. At this speed the size differences between Carla and Ecco are obvious but you’ll have to look at one spot on the screen to notice plumage. Stare at one place and think “Scalloped or Striped?”

Pitt peregrine nest 60 hours of incubation compressed to 1:41 minutes, March 28-30 (video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Do you have a favorite method for telling Carla and Ecco apart? Post your tip in the comments.

Meanwhile get more practice at the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh.

(photos and video from the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Easter Flowers

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Tulips on Easter morning in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 31 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

31 March 2024

Easter is early and so is Spring. Tulips are blooming in my city neighborhood.

Tulips on Easter morning in Oakland, 31 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Tulips on Easter morning in Oakland, 31 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Tulips on Easter morning in Oakland, 31 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Want to see more flowers? Phipps Conservatory’s 2024 Spring Flower Show will be quite busy today. If you haven’t seen it yet, get there soon. It runs through 14 April 2024.

2024 Phipps Spring Flower Show theme

Happy Easter!

(credits are in the captions)

Seen This Week: Ducks, a Swan and Leaf Out

Deer, Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Trees, Water and Shore
Blue-winged teal, Moraine State Park, 27 March 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

30 March 2024

A Wednesday trip to Moraine State Park was cold and gray but quite worthwhile. We saw 300(!) red-breasted mergansers, many ring-necked ducks, blue-winged teal and a rare bird — a trumpeter swan. Charity Kheshgi’s photos show off the teal and swan.

Trumpeter swan, Moraine State Park, 27 March 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) are “the heaviest living bird native to North America and the largest extant species of waterfowl.” They were nearly extinct in 1933 — only 70 remained in the wild — but several thousand were then found in Alaska. “Careful re-introductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010.” The trumpeter at Moraine is one of their descendants. (quotes from Wikipedia)

Spring is 20 days early in Pittsburgh this year. To prove it the yellow buckeye trees were in near-full-leaf on Thursday 28 March in Schenley Park.

Yellow buckeye leaves open and green, Schenley Park, 28 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

They are 8 days later than the astoundingly early spring of March 2012. Click here to read about that year.

Comparing two springs, yellow buckeyes’ early leaf-out, Schenley, March 2012 and 2024 (photos by Kate St. John)

Early spring is the hungriest time of year for deer in Pennsylvania because they’ve already eaten all the easy-to-reach food. When the deer population is greater than the area’s carrying capacity they seek out food in unusual places. Thus I was amazed but not surprised to see a deer browsing the bushes next to our highrise at 5:30am. There is nothing to eat down there. There is nothing to eat anywhere near here.

A deer browses at a highrise in Pittsburgh, 5:30am 24 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Anhinga Shows How To Catch and Eat

Bird Behavior, Water and Shore
Anhinga swallows a fish (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

29 March 2024

Unlike herons, anhingas spear their prey but this means they can’t open their beaks to swallow. This video shows what they do to solve the problem.

p.s. There’s a bird in Africa that looks like an anhinga (Anhinga anhinga). Closely related, the Anhinga rufa is the “African darter.”

Anhinga and African darter photos from Wikimedia Commons

Pigeons Conspicuously Court in Public

Bird Behavior, Doves & Chickens, Nesting & Courtship
Rock pigeon male (on right) struts and coos for his mate (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

28 March 2024

Peregrines hang out where their food is plentiful so they’re often in places with lots of pigeons. Watching peregrines, as I often do, means waiting (bored) for them to choose the perfect moment to catch a bird. Inevitably I watch pigeons while I wait for peregrines so I’ve seen a lot of pigeon courtship.

Most birds have a breeding season for a few months per year in spring and summer but rock pigeons, like humans, breed over and over all year long if there’s enough food to sustain their families. You can tell when they’re starting a new family because they court conspicuously.

Birds of the World’s rock pigeon account, quoted in the list below, explains the steps of courtship that escalate to the moment of copulation.

  • [Courtship] Begins with bowing and cooing, in which male stands tall, inflates crop, fans tail, struts in circle, bows head and neck while giving display coo. This is repeated many times while circling and moving around the female. 

  • Hetero-preening (“nibbling”) follows, male first, female later.
Rock pigeons “nibbling” as part of courtship (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
  • [Billing:] Female ultimately solicits feeding, male appears to regurgitate seed or liquid. Female may repeat …
Courtship billing (after cooing) in which male appears to be feeding female (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
  • … followed by a crouch with wings half raised. Male then mounts, balances with flapping wings while vents are opposed 1–2 seconds for sperm transfer.
Rock pigeons mating (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

After mating the male may do a post copulatory display. Sometimes they fly together.

  • Post-copulatory display includes a few steps while standing tall, and often a display flight, usually by the male, in which wings are clapped together on an exaggerated upstroke for 3–5 wingbeats. Bird flies out to another perch, 40–80 m distant, clapping wings at least once and gliding with wings in a “V” between bouts of clapping
Two rock pigeons flying (photo from Shutterstock)
Two rock pigeons flying (photo from Shutterstock)

While you’re observing pigeon courtship there’s one more thing to notice. The male and female do not have the same plumage patterns because they choose mates that don’t look like themselves.

Women Protecting Wildlife in Zimbabwe

Mammals, Musings & News, Travel
Akashinga Rangers set off on a patrol to establish an overnight observation post at Phundundu, near Nyamakate, Zimbabwe (photo by Davina Jogi embedded from akashinga.org)

27 March 2024

Before Women’s History Month draws to a close here’s some recent women’s history in Zimbabwe.

Poaching is a persistent problem in southern Africa because the body parts of exotic wild animals find a lucrative market in the outside world. Without effective patrols it can even happen in a national park as for example 11 years ago, in 2013, when poachers poisoned 41 elephants at Hwange National Park by putting cyanide in their watering hole.

To stem the tide of animal deaths Australian born Damien Mander founded Akashinga in 2009 to train squads of men to protect wildlife in their home areas. The men were too easily corrupted and poaching continued.

In 2017 he recruited women, many of them single mothers or formerly abused. They named themselves Akashinga — The Brave Ones in the Shona language — and the program has been a great success, not only in terms of wildlife but within their communities.

This 2018 video from the BBC shows the first team of 16 rangers. Their full story is at BBC News: Meet the ‘Brave Ones’: The women saving Africa’s wildlife.

video embedded from BBC News on YouTube

Today Akashinga has a team of 500+ staff and 9.1 million acres under management in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. They have reduced poaching by 80% and have seen an increase in wildlife of 399%.

Find out more at akashinga.org

p.s. The Akashinga organization was originally called the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF). They officially changed their name in 2023.

(photo at top embedded from akashinga.org; credits are in the captions)