On our second evening we had a visitor that looked like a cat though not a cat at all.
The rusty-spotted or large-spotted genet (Genetta maculata) is a member of the Viverridae family that includes civet cats, none of which are felines.
Genets are excellent climbers so this one must have clambered up the deck poles in the dark to wait at the edge of the dining area for a handout. He has an omnivorous diet that includes rodents, doves, skinks, spiders, eggs, fruits, berries and seeds so our buffet certainly had something to tempt him.
Fortunately for everyone our genet was shy and ran to hide if anyone approached. He always crouched low.
If he’d stood up to his full height we would have realized he was not a cat. (Photo from Wikimedia)
Hays bald eagles flying together, new male + female on 22 Oct 2023 (photo by Dana Nesiti, Eagles of Hays PA)
5 February 2024
Bald eagles in the Pittsburgh area have been courting since last fall and are ramping up to lay eggs this month. Now eagle fans can watch the action at two local nest sites: a much improved Hays Bald Eaglecam and three cameras at the USS Irvin eagles.
Back in December 2013 the Hays eaglecam was the first live broadcast of an eagles’ nest in Pennsylvania. Without local electricity and Internet, installer Bill Powers of PixCams had to hook up the camera to solar panels and the cell network. This meant the camera had to shut off overnight and go dark after snowfall. But not anymore thanks to help this winter from a neighboring eaglecam site 5.2 miles upriver.
The USS Irvin bald eagles started nesting in 2019 in a remote corner of USS Irvin Works near the Monongahela River. With help from US Steel their first eaglecam came online in 2021. This year that have three cameras viewing their nest and the surrounding area.
Hays Bald Eagle Nest Camera: The female eagle who nested at Hays in 2013 is still on site today, this year with a new mate nicknamed “V.” Watch them raise their first family together at these links.
Stop by the Hays Bald Eagle Viewing Area on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. Click here for directions.
As soon as an egg is laid, visit eaglestreamer.org for hatch and fledge countdown clocks.
USS Irvin Eaglecams: Irvin Plant’s resident bald eagles, “Irvin and Claire,” have three cameras on their nest. All three can be reached via this United States Steel Media Page or individually on YouTube:
Crows are a favorite theme of mine so I was pleased that we encountered Africa’s most common crow at nearly every birding site on our trip in southern Africa. We saw only one Corvus species, the pied crow (Corvus albus). He wears a white vest.
Pied crows are intermediate in size between crows and ravens and are closely enough related to Africa’s dwarf raven, the Somali crow, that they can hybridize. However their behavior is closer to that of American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos).
The main difference between pied and American crows appears to be that pied crows don’t migrate and are less gregarious. As far as I know they never aggregate into huge flocks.
Yesterday I was in an airplane flying home from Southern Africa when a North American marmot (Marmota monax) predicted how long winter will last. The groundhog said we’ll have an early spring.
Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring Friday in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, the scene of the country’s largest and best known Groundhog Day celebration in the United States.
The annual event is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s handlers, members of a club with roots in the late 19th century, reveal whether the groundhog has seen his shadow.
Just after sunrise Friday, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced Phil did not see his shadow, which will usher in early springlike weather. The groundhog seeing his shadow presages six more weeks of winter, according to the group.
Sunshine is so rare during western Pennsylvania winters that we celebrate whenever we see shadows. However there is one day per year — 2 February — when we’re happy to have clouds.
Yesterday at sunrise in Punxsutawney the clouds were thickly overcast at 900 feet so there was no way Phil could see his shadow. An early spring! The crowd went wild.
Now that we’re over that hurdle, I’m looking forward to sunshine for the next five days.
Today I’m still in transit, flying home from southern Africa on a trip begun yesterday morning that will take more than 33.5 hours from airplane wheels up in Zambia to wheels down in Pittsburgh.
Even before my trip, I knew I would not see this bird’s extraordinary courtship display as he breeds from September through December, while I did not visit Africa until late January.
The pennant-winged nightjar (Caprimulgus vexillarius) resembles my Spark Bird, the common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), but he is far more spectacular. For courtship purposes the male grows two very long feathers, one from each wing, which flow out like streamers when he flies.
This species takes its name from the extraordinarily long, and largely white, second to outermost primaries in breeding males, which are shown to great advantage in courtship display, being vibrated over a responsive female.
Last September the 10 year old camera died after limping for years with a broken microphone and infrared light. It took us a while to notice (no one was watching) so the timing was fortunate. We had three months to get advice on cameras, choose a model, install it and learn how to use it before streaming began.
Long time peregrine fan Kim Getz coordinated the project for Pitt I.T. and it all came together on installation day. Lighthouse Electric removed the old equipment, ran wires, and installed the new microphone and camera. Kim volunteered to clean the nestbox and re-secure the green perches with zip ties. She gives a thumbs up to the snapshot camera when she’s done. Thankfully the peregrines did not harass the crew.
The new camera is quite an improvement over the old one with sharper focus, better reach, and of course audio and infrared night light. The nest view is narrower because it’s a tight space and this camera is about 2 inches closer due to the length of the wall mount arm. (All the new cameras have longer arms nowadays.)
Though we cannot change the camera view when the adult peregrines are present — it spooks them! — the presets in the slideshow below will come in handy when the young explore the gully, the nestrail, and the nestbox roof. The slides begin with Ecco preening on the green perch. Kim ran the camera through its paces when no peregrines were around.
What can we expect on camera this season? Last year was a disappointment with no peregrine eggs and chicks because the female, Morela, became egg bound and died in mid May. Two days after Morela disappeared a banded female peregrine, Carla (Black/Blue S/07, Fort Wayne, IN, 2020), arrived on site and has been there ever since. Late May was too late to nest in 2023 so this year will be Carla’s first nesting season.
Carla and Ecco have been courting and bowing since they met last year and are intensifying their attachment this winter. They bowed and touched beaks last month in these snapshots taken before streaming began. When you watch them in full screen you’ll see tiny bones on the gravel and be able to read Carla’s bands.
Thank You to everyone who helped make this project a success, especially …
The National Aviary and their Ornithologist Bob Mulvihill, whose commitment to broadcasting the Pitt peregrines’ nest has provided us with a new camera.
Pitt I.T. who assigned Kim Getz to manage the project and provided additional tech assistance. Kim’s knowledge, dedication, and connections within the University made everything flow smoothly.
p.s. For those of you following my southern Africa trip, today is the day I leave Africa on a 33.5 hour journey home (flights + layovers). I am spending most of my time in the upper troposphere.
Africa has no hummingbirds (Trochilidae) but they have a family of nectar-feeding birds with many of the same characteristics: Sunbirds (Nectariniidae). Though the two families are unrelated they’re an example of convergent evolution, equipped with the same tools and habits.
The similarities between hummingbirds and sunbirds are striking. Both have:
Brilliantly colored males, often iridescent
Sexually dimorphic females
Long curved bills for collecting nectar
Short wings and fast, direct flight
Feed primarily on nectar
Feed insects and spiders to their young
Are important flower pollinators
Prefer red or orange flowers that are long and tubular,
Can enter torpor when it’s cold.
Their differences are also interesting:
Hummingbirds vs. Sunbirds
Hummingbirds
Sunbirds
New World only
Old World: Africa, Asia, Australasia
Range in size from 1.59 g to 20 grams
Range in size from 5 g to 45 grams
Hover and have tiny feet
Perch with normal feet
Don't hang out with family
Usually found in pairs; sometimes in family or larger groups
Some make long migrations
Sedentary or short-distance migrations
Hummingbird beaks can't pierce flowers. That's the job of flowerpiercers.
Sunbirds pierce flowers if the nectar is too hard to reach.
The scarlet-chested is very iridescent and, amazingly, is considered a pest in cocoa plantations because it spreads parasitic mistletoes according to Wikipedia.
Bee-eaters and rollers are both members of the Order Coraciiformes that includes kingfishers, motmots, and todies. All of them have colorful plumage, large heads, short necks, short legs, and usually syndactyly toes. In other words, two of their three pointing-forward toes (toes #3 and #4) are fused at the base.
Here’s what syndactyly looks like on a European bee-eater and a lilac-breasted roller.
The lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus) is every photographer’s dream. He’s as big as a blue jay, very colorful, and willing to perch prominently for a long time.
One of the visual treats for birders in southern Africa is a genus of iridescent birds known as glossy starlings (Lamprotornis). They make up only 18% of the starling family (Sturnidae) yet out-dazzle all the others from the mynas of Asia to the invasive common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in North America.
The slideshow above shows eight species I expect to see in southern Africa, two slides per species in no special order. Five are glossy starlings (Lamprotornis genus) including the African pied starling which isn’t glossy. One is a monotypic genus that is glossy violet like a hummingbird. The red winged starling is shiny black. The wattled starling male grows black wattles on his face for the breeding season. Here’s the list with links to the details.
In case you’re wondering why glossy starlings are so gorgeous, it’s because those with the best colors get the best mates. Read more about how quickly they evolve new colors in this vintage article:
In Africa there’s a fish eating eagle that has many characteristics in common our own bald eagle. It eats fish, builds a stick nest near water, has a white head and tail, and perches and calls in pairs.
Prior to 2018 it was in the same genus as North America’s bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) but DNA evidence moved the African fish eagle to Icthyophaga vocifer, the “fish-eater with loud voice.” It is closely related to the Madagascar fish eagle (I. vociferoides).
Nonetheless it behaves a lot like a bald eagle. This description of the African fish eagle could be written about the bald eagle, including the habit of stealing fish from ospreys.
… Red-knobbed Coot are important prey in addition to fish. Hunts mainly from a perch by swooping down to pluck prey from near the water surface, rowing larger prey to shore. Rarely hunts when soaring, but regularly pursues and pirates other piscivorous [fish-eating] birds. Perches for 85–95% of day in productive tropical habitat. Usually solitary, but more than 100 may gather at concentrations of stranded fish.
