Did You Know That I Sing?

Female northern cardinal (photo by Steve Gosser)
Female northern cardinal (photo by Steve Gosser)

Every morning we awake to birdsong now.  All the singers are male … right?  Well, not really.

When I took a class on birdsong years ago I learned that female birds don’t sing. This information came from centuries of bird observations made in Europe and North America. Charles Darwin even used it to describe how song evolved in male birds to attract mates and compete for territory.

But in 2014 that “fact” was turned upside down.  71% of female songbirds do sing.  It’s just that most of them are tropical species.  No one had studied birdsong worldwide until a team lead by Karan Odom of University of Maryland, Baltimore County published their findings in Nature Communications in March 2014.

It’s true that almost all the singing birds in North America are male, but there are some exceptions.

Did you know that female northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) sing and they’re just as good at it as the males?

I was reminded of this last week when a female flew into a tree just over my head and sang a long sustained vibrato even faster than this:

Cardinal couples countersing to synchronize their pair bond.  Yesterday in Schenley Park I saw a female sing a phrase several times, then her mate matched it.

So when you hear a cardinal singing, take the time to find the singer.  It may be a lady!

p.s. Female rose-breasted grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus) and black-headed grosbeaks (Pheucticus melanocephalus) sing, too.  They’re in the Cardinal Family.

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Small Falcons Found Downtown

Male American kestrel (photo by Cris Hamilton)
Male American kestrel (photo by Cris Hamilton)

We’re still searching for the peregrines who nest in Downtown Pittsburgh.  They left the Gulf Tower in March and we know they’re nesting … but where?  Two weeks ago I posted this blog asking folks to… Look for Perching Peregrines.

Last Wednesday Diane P. left a comment saying she’d found a pair of falcons nesting in the facade of a building on Fifth Avenue across from Chatham Center.  Within a few hours I was Downtown checking the area for peregrines.

From Duquesne University’s campus I saw a small bird of prey perched high on Chatham Center but the light was so poor that I couldn’t identify it.  On Fifth Avenue I found this hole in the 1904 building.

The perfect hole for kestrels, 1904 building (photo by Kate St. John)
Kestrel hole, 1904 building (photo by Kate St. John)

The next morning I stopped by Chatham Center plaza and saw the bird in better light on the same perch.  It’s a small falcon, an American kestrel (Falco sparverius).

By luck Diane was out on the plaza, too, so we chatted about her discovery.  Suddenly we heard a kestrel calling and both adults swooped into the nest.  Then we heard the sounds of baby birds being fed.  It’s a family!

Diane was so good at finding these small falcons that I hope she finds the big ones, too.  (And I do hope the peregrines leave the kestrels alone!)

Remember to keep looking for perching peregrines when you’re Downtown.

 

(photo by Cris Hamilton)

Sunday’s Outing in Schenley Park

Outing in Schenley Park, 24 April 2016 (photo by Nancy Hart)
Outing in Schenley Park, 24 April 2016 (photo by Nancy Hart)

The weather was sunny yesterday morning as 19 of us explored Schenley Park.

The City is warmer than the surrounding countryside so most of Schenley’s wildflowers are past their peak.  However spring migration brought a whole new set of birds to the park.  The juncoes are gone. Yellow-rumped warblers are here.

We didn’t count a lot of individual birds but we saw and heard some really good ones.  Best Birds were three First of Year species:  a green heron, the sound of a wood thrush that we couldn’t find, and a rose-breasted grosbeak.

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (photo by Chuck Tague)
Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (photo by Chuck Tague)

The grosbeak is early but Schenley’s oaks are ready for him(*).  They’re already flowering and leafing out ahead of schedule.

Northern rough-winged swallows courted over the lake and a northern flicker called from a superb nest hole with a shelf-mushroom roof.  (I still don’t know what the flicker’s panting-in-hole dance meant.)

A few of us prolonged the tour with a view of the red-tailed hawks’ nest on Flagstaff Hill.  Here‘s a complete list of birds seen/heard via eBird.

My next Schenley Park outing will be Sunday May 22.  Hope to see you then.

 

(outing photo by Nancy Hart; rose-breasted grosbeak by Chuck Tague)

(*) Rose-breasted grosbeaks move north as the oaks bloom.  Yesterday’s bird passed a lot of leafless territory to stop in the City’s heat island.

Female Intruder, Briefly on 23 Apr 2016

Adult female intruder visits Pitt peregrine nest, 23 April 2016, 4:04pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Adult female intruder visits Pitt peregrine nest, 23 April 2016, 4:04pm. Terzo backs away. (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Yesterday afternoon — Saturday April 23 — an adult female intruder visited the Pitt peregrines’ nest while Terzo was incubating the eggs at 4:00pm.

Terzo took one look at her and left (above).

The mystery lady stayed for less than a minute but managed to show the color of her bands: pinkish USFW band (right leg) and Black/Red on her left leg.

Adult female intruder, 23 April 2016 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Adult female intruder, 23 April 2016 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Obviously she’s a different bird than the one that visited April 8th.  That one was an unbanded juvenile.  This one is an adult and has bands that may be from Ohio.

But it doesn’t matter who she is as long as she doesn’t stay.  Hope chased her away and was back at the nest at 6:20pm looking just fine.

It all happened so quickly that we wouldn’t have noticed if Janet Luzell hadn’t mentioned it in a comment on my blog.

Thank you, Janet, for your sharp eyes!

 

(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

p.s. I am rarely in Facebook so if you want to reach me the quickest way is to leave a comment on my blog.  Every comment sends me an email.

Report Nesting Ospreys

Two Osprey chicks call for food (photo by Cris Hamilton)
Two Osprey chicks call for food (photo by Cris Hamilton)

Did you know that ospreys suffered through the DDT pesticide crash and recovery just like bald eagles and peregrine falcons?

Ospreys are doing much better now than they did in 1986 when there was only one nest in Pennsylvania — but how much better are they doing?  That’s where you come in.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission monitors this State Threatened species and they need to know where ospreys nest, especially in the western part of the state.

This PGC map shows the known nesting sites in 2015.  Look at the gaps!   For instance, is it possible that no ospreys nest in Armstrong County, home to the Allegheny River and Crooked Creek Lake?  I’ll bet they nest in the county but PGC doesn’t know about them.

 

Help the PA Game Commission fill in the map by reporting nesting ospreys.  Download the  Osprey Nest Survey Form (PDF) along with the Nest Observation Protocol (PDF). Submit your completed survey forms to osprey@pa.gov.

And please don’t assume someone else will report a local nest.  It’s up to you!

For more information, read this eBird blog post by Doug Gross.

 

(photo by Cris Hamilton)

Why I’m Addicted to Nestcams …

The last nestling at Pitt in 2009, just before she fledged, 4 June 2009 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
The last nestling at Pitt on June 4, 2009, just before she fledged (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

In case you missed it yesterday …

This week on The Allegheny Front radio show I talked about my addiction to nestcams and why you like them, too.  Hear the broadcast, see some photos of Dorothy, and read the text at this link:

Why I’m Addicted to Bird Nestcams (And You Should Be Too)

 

 

(photo of a nestling perched near the nestcam, June 2009, from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Names For Nestlings

Nestlings in 2009 (photo from National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
12-day-old peregrine nestlings, May 2009 (photo from National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Perhaps we shouldn’t count our peregrines before they hatch but the chicks at the Hays bald eagle nest and Cornell’s red-tailed hawk nest made me think about nestling names.

When we see birds on camera we want them to have names.

Bald eagle chicks are named with the nest letter + a number that keeps increasing year after year.  At the Hays nest the names are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, etc.

At Cornell’s red-tailed hawk nest, Big Red and Ezra’s chicks are named with a letter that changes every year + a number.  The nest is now up to the letter G so the first two chicks were named G1 and G2 and together they’re called “the G’s.”

In the past we didn’t name peregrine nestlings until Banding Day but that led to misunderstandings and confusion so here’s the plan — similar to the bald eagle protocol.

The Cathedral of Learning nestlings will named with a nest letter that doesn’t change (C for Cathedral of Learning) + a number.  If we’d started this in 2009 the four nestlings above would be C1, C2, C3, C4.

Good luck figuring out who’s who!  Peregrine eggs all hatch within 24+ hours so the nestlings are the same size for a long time.  This only changes when the females become noticeably larger that the males. Males are 1/3 smaller.

15-day-old peregrine nestlings, May 2009 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
15-day-old peregrine nestlings, May 2009 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

 

When will the eggs hatch at Pitt?  I believe that real incubation did not begin until April 3 or 4.  Wild peregrines hatch their eggs in about 33 days.  (Incubator-raised eggs hatch sooner because of constant temperature without interruptions.)   So my prediction for Hatch Day at Pitt is approximately May 6.  …But I might be wrong…

Why isn’t the hatch date sooner?  After E2 died, Hope spent a long time away from the nest searching for a mate.  If she had heated the first three eggs to incubation temperature and then left them, her long absence would cause those embryos to fail.  At this point I believe she merely protected the three eggs until all four began incubation in early April.

 

(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh, May 2009)

Blooming This Week

Early saxifrage, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 17 April 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
Early saxifrage, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 17 April 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)

Wildflowers are blooming throughout the Pittsburgh area.  This week I traveled southeast and west to record their progress.

At Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve on April 17 the earliest flower — skunk cabbage — had disappeared among the plant’s large leaves.  Toad trillium (Trillium sessile), wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) and early saxifrage (Micranthes virginiensis) were open. White large-flowered trillium was not.  I found an interesting sedge but I don’t know its name.

Braddock’s Trail Park in Westmoreland County has a south-facing slope so it’s flowers were much further along than Raccoon, even though I visited a day later.  Small-flower crowfoot (Ranunculus micranthus), Canada violets (Viola canadensis) and rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) were in full bloom while blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) carpeted the forest floor.  Trillium were already at their peak.  Dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) had just begun.

They were so beautiful that I made a slideshow of the flowers.  (Unfortunately the sun was so bright that it washed out the details of white flowers … I tried anyway.)

Look for wildflowers this weekend before the trees leaf out. Go north to see early flowers. Go south to see late blooms.

When the woods are in shade the flower party will be over.

 

(photos by Kate St. John)

Red-Tail Eggs Hatching Soon!

Ezra the red-tailed hawk incubates three eggs at Cornell (screenshot from nestcam at Cornell Lab)
Ezra the red-tailed hawk incubates three eggs in Ithaca, NY (screenshot from nestcam via Cornell Lab)

In Ithaca, NY it’s been 38 days since Big Red, the red-tailed hawk, laid her first egg on March 13.  Today one of her three eggs has a pip.  Watch it hatch online!

Big Red and her mate Ezra nest on a light pole about 80 feet above an athletic field at Cornell University.  They’ve attracted an online crowd ever since Cornell Lab began hosting their nestcam in 2012 at Cornell Lab Birdcams.

Click here or on the screenshot above to watch Big Red, Ezra and their growing family.  Check out the Twitter feed on the right of their webpage for recent close-ups and videos from @CornellHawks.

Red-tailed hawk eggs hatch every other day so if you miss this first one there are two more eggs to watch.

Downy nestlings coming soon!

 

(screenshot from red-tailed hawk nestcam in Ithaca, NY via Cornell Lab)

 

Let’s Get Outdoors: April 23 to May 1

Great chickweed, Braddock's Trail Park, 18 Apr 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
Great chickweed, Braddock’s Trail Park, 18 Apr 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)

Flowers are blooming everywhere and trees will soon leaf out.  Don’t miss your chance to get outdoors while the weather’s fine.

Join me for a bird and nature walk in Schenley Park this Sunday, April 24, 8:30am – 10:30am. Meet at the Schenley Park Visitors Center.  Click here for information and updates.

Or join one of these many outings — April 23 through May 1.

Everyone is welcome to participate. Click on the links for directions, meeting places, what to bring, and phone numbers for the leaders.

2016: Date/Time Focus Location Leader & Link to more info
Sat. Apr 23, 9:30am Birds & Potluck lunch Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County Ryan Tomazin, 3RBC / Brooks Bird Club
Sat. Apr 23, 10:00am Flowers Boyce-Mayview, Upper St. Clair, Allegheny County Judy Stark, BotSocWPA
Sat. Apr 23, 2:00pm Flowers Brady’s Run Park, Beaver County Peggy Gorrell & Loree Speedy, BotSocWPA
Sun. Apr 24, 7:30am Birds Buffalo Creek IBA-80, Washington County Larry Helgerman, 3RBC
Sun. Apr 24, 8:30am Birds & Flowers Schenley Park, Pittsburgh Kate St. John, Outside My Window
Sun. Apr 24, 8:30am Birds Frick Park, Pittsburgh Jack & Sue Solomon, 3RBC
Fri. Apr 29, 7:30am Birds Sewickley Park, Allegheny County Bob Van Newkirk, 3RBC / Fern Hollow Nature Center
Sat. Apr 30, 10:00am Flowers Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County Martha Oliver, BotSocWPA
Sun. May 1, 8:00am All Day! Birds & Flowers Enlow Fork Extravaganza, Washington/Greene Counties Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy / BotSocWPA / Ralph Bell Bird Club

 

Don’t miss April flowers. Let’s get outdoors!

 

p.s. The flower shown above is a member of the Pink family called star chickweed or great chickweed (Stellaria pubera).  It looks unremarkable until you get close.  🙂

(photo by Kate St. John)