The Hays bald eagle cam has been boring since the juveniles fledged but visitors to the nearby bike trail can sometimes catch a glimpse of the family.
Last weekend Mat Williams captured this video of the juveniles testing out their flying skills. Enjoy!
(YouTube video by Mat Williams @boelsa)
On Throw Back Thursday:
Crown vetch (Securigera varia) is blooming along roadsides now and everywhere else it can gain a foothold.
If you’ve ever had it in your garden, you know how easily it takes over and how hard it is to eradicate.
Read more here about the nasty qualities of this pretty
13 July 2016
Welcome to the 2016 Summer Slugfest.
The slugs are eating my hostas so this week I decided to kill them with kindness. I served them beer.
Slugs love beer so much that when they get drunk they drown in it. It’s the organic way to kill them.
On Sunday afternoon I collected my tools: small cat food cans, a trowel, garden gloves, and beer. I don’t believe in wasting good beer on slugs so I used a stash of old bottles. The expiration on this one is December 2008 — 8 years ago! Beer at room temperature lasts 6-9 months after the expiry so this one is fit only for slugs.
For each can I dug a hole to place the rim at dirt level. I set one can under the most-eaten hosta and the other in a central location. Then I poured beer to the rims.
The next morning there were 13 dead slugs in my two beer traps. Great attendance!
I’ve added two more cans and am now offering vintage brew in four locations.
The 2016 Summer Slugfest is very successful. I’m gonna run out of beer. 
(photos by Kate St. John)
UPDATE ON JULY 15: The slugfest ended almost as quickly as it began. On the third day there were no slugs in the traps, none to catch.
Dori watches the city wake up, Downtown Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 13.
Dori refused to use this nest in March but she likes it in July. Her nest site on Third Avenue faces south-southwest. This nest at the Gulf Tower faces north-northeast.
(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
12 July 2016
After weeks of roaring in late May and June, the 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicadas, Brood V) are gone but not forgotten.
During the mating frenzy the females used their ovipositors to slit the bark near the ends of twigs and deposit up to 600 eggs per slit. Weeks later the adults are dead but they’ve left their mark on the trees. The slits killed the leafy branch tips.
Everywhere you go in cicada country the trees are green inside and brown at the tips. (This is called “flagging.”)
The trees look as if someone has sprayed defoliant on this year’s new growth. Fortunately that’s not the case!
The trees will be fine. They have plenty of time to recover before Brood V reappears in 2033.
If you lived through the cicada invasion this summer, you won’t soon forget their roar.
If you missed them, your next big chance near Pittsburgh will be Brood VIII in 2019.
(photos by Kate St. John)
This 3-note song mystified me in my own backyard. I can usually identify birds by ear but this one stumped me for at least six weeks.
Finally, I recorded it outside my window and sent it to my friend Dr. Tony Bledsoe. Tony suggested a tufted titmouse. (Turn up your speakers to hear the song in the video above. Ignore the picture, the bird’s not in it.)
A few days later I saw the bird. No wonder we didn’t recognize the song! He’s a gray catbird that sounds nothing like his cohorts. (Turn your speakers back down for the audio below.)
“Grey Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)” from xeno-canto 318616 by Ted Floyd
Most birds are silent in early July but the odd-sounding gray catbird is still singing in my neighborhood and I can guess why.
None of the lady catbirds like his song so he’s still calling for a mate.
He’s a bird with a bad pick-up line.
(video by Kate St. John)
Did you know that song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) are the most abundant breeding bird in Pennsylvania? All they need are tall grasses, shrubs or trees to thrive in marshes, suburbs, farmland, or along roadsides.
At the National Aviary’s Neighborhood Nestwatch events, song sparrows are a target species and the one most often banded. This may have been true yesterday at Nestwatch at Donna Foyle’s, but the birds avoided the mist nets! Bander Becca Ralston had to change the net locations several times before this song sparrow came in.
Song sparrows are boring “Little Brown Jobs” (LBJs) from afar but they’re fascinating up close. Notice the intricate pattern and subtle shades of brown on this bird’s head. You can see the feather-eyelashes that circle his eye. His eyes are black from a distance, but up close you can see that they’re really brown.
Cool!
(photos by Kate St. John)
In my final Montana installment, here are some plants seen at Glacier National Park, June 27-30, 2016.
Beargrass grows up to five feet tall with grass-like leaves and a knob of white flowers on top. As you can see in this poorly lit photo, the beargrass was hard to ignore on the Josephine Lake trail.
At Logan Pass we saw Glacier Lilies that resemble our own Trout Lily.
And at woodland edges, Pink Wintergreen (Thank you, Dianne Machesney, for identifying this for me) …
… plus Sticky Geraniums …
… and Sego Lilies, the state flower of Utah.
The meadows were full of wildflowers.
Paintbrush …
Larkspur …
Blanket flower (I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
and the remnants of Camas flowers that had bloomed in mid-June.
And finally, I marveled at the huge Western Redcedars on the wet, western side of Glacier National Park. They are so much bigger than our cedars back home.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Peregrine activity begins to wane in July but there’s still news from western Pennsylvania’s nine nest sites. Some have active families, others do not.
1. Downtown Pittsburgh:
In early June Dori and Louie fledged four youngsters from the Third Avenue nest but observers have seen only two Downtown since mid-June. At the end of June (while I was in Montana) I heard from Art McMorris that a seriously injured fledgling with infected wounds was found on Grant Street and had to be euthanized.
Happily, Lori Maggio saw two healthy youngsters yesterday, July 7, perched on Point Park University’s Lawrence Hall. Their parents seem to be avoiding them.
Dori and Louie have been visiting the Gulf Tower nest on the other side of town since June 24. In the top photo, they bowed during a gorgeous red sunset. On July 6, Ann Hohn at Make-A-Wish confirmed their identities. Yes, they are Dori (in Ann’s photo above) and Louie.
2. Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh:
On June 21 the female resident Hope briefly lost the Cathedral of Learning to rival Magnum but regained it within a couple of days (read more here). Since then Hope visits the nest frequently to bow with Terzo. Their fledgling C1 is doing well. Peter Bell saw the whole family yesterday (July 7) when he heard C1 shouting as she chased one of her parents. I’m sure C1 is learning to hunt but would prefer to mooch from Terzo.
3. Westinghouse Bridge:
John English and I visited the Westinghouse Bridge on June 23 and found the resident female, an unbanded one-year-old. She “owns” the place but has not nested this year.
4. McKees Rocks Bridge:
The McKees Rocks Bridge is hard to monitor but Joe Fedor got lucky. Joe works at the nearby ALCOSAN plant where on June 7 he saw a peregrine fly and land unsteadily on a pier of the McKees Rocks Bridge. On June 9 he saw two peregrines, one of which appeared to be “flying unsteadily as it landed on the ladder on our tall smoke stack. I have never seen a fledgling fly, so I am wondering if it was a fledgling.” Art McMorris says, “Yes, it sounds like a fledgling.” That’s good news for McKees Rocks.
5. Neville Island I-79 Bridge:
This year the nest at the Neville Island I-79 Bridge was so hard to see that site monitors could not confirm if the pair was still Magnum and Beau. Two young fledged in early June but one died and the other disappeared within two days. All was quiet until Magnum appeared at the Cathedral of Learning on June 21 and ousted Hope for a couple of days … and then she disappeared. One of her fans, Chad Steele of Canton, Ohio, came to Pittsburgh to check on her. He found her at the bridge on July 2.
Those who know Magnum recognize her purposeful hunched walk along the beams.
Chad’s photos of her bands confirmed her identity. Magnum is back home for now.
6. Monaca-E.Rochester Bridge, Beaver County:
Several people looked for peregrines in the Beaver-Monaca area this year including long time peregrine watcher Scott Gregg. Scott says the peregrines chose the Monaca East Rochester Bridge this spring but their nest — if they had one — was unsuccessful.
7. Tarentum Bridge:
Rob Protz continues to monitor the Tarentum Bridge where he’s seen a pair of peregrines but no evidence of nesting. He photographed one having a meal on the bridge on June 28, above. Rob also saw one of the peregrines dragging its talons in the river as if to catch a fish. Unusual behavior, but not unheard of.
8. The Graff Bridge, Route 422 Kittanning, Armstrong County:
Great news! In their second year at this new nest site, the peregrines have successfully fledged two youngsters. Tony Bruno visited the Graff Bridge several times last weekend to capture these beautiful photos. The best place to watch is from the bike trail on the Manorville side.
9. Erie, PA Waterfront: Mary Birdsong reports that the peregrine pair is still hanging out at the DonJon building but they have not nested. Alas. Better luck next year.
(See the captions for photo credits. Webcam photos from the National Aviary falconcams at Gulf Tower and Univ of Pittsburgh. McKees Rocks Bridge photo from Wikimedia Commons. Remaining photos by Ann Hohn, John English, Rob Protz, Chad Steele and Anthony Bruno.)
When my friend Chuck Tague led an outing he’d ask us at the end, “What was your Best Bird?” Now that I’m back from Montana I’ve made a list. (The photos are from Wikimedia Commons.)
Best of the Best: Mountain bluebird. While standing next to a short spruce at Logan Pass, I saw a Life Bird(*) fly in and perch just above me. This bluest Bird of Happiness completes the trio of bluebird species in North America: eastern, western and mountain.
Two of my Best Birds were named for explorers, Lewis and Clark.
I’d seen a Lewis’s woodpecker fly by the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch on October 20, 2002 (very unusual!) but in Missoula I was hungry to see more. My friend Keith Kuhn asked a resident if we could walk across her property to the shore of the Bitterroot River where they’d been reported the day before. She was very accommodating when he said “Lewis’s woodpecker.” The birds come to her suet feeder. It was a thrill to see three pink-bellied woodpeckers fly-catching over the river.
Clark’s nutcracker resembles a woodpecker but he’s actually a Corvid who stores and eats pine nuts. We saw a pair of them fly over Logan Pass, calling and chasing each other.
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I was afraid I wouldn’t see an American dipper but I shouldn’t have worried. Because they were nesting we saw adult dippers gathering food and a fledgling waiting for its next meal at St. Mary’s Falls. Very good looks! (Click here to see one swim.)
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In only eight days I saw 105 species and 11 Life Birds in western Montana. It was hard to pick just four of the Best!
(photos from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the images to see the originals)
(*) A “Life Bird” is a species you see for the first time in your life.