White-breasted nuthatch at the feeder (photo by Cris Hamilton)
12 February 2024
Winter is back again so we need a good excuse to get outdoors. That excuse has arrived just in time. Join the annual Great Backyard Bird Count this coming weekend, Friday to Monday, 16-19 February.
Count birds at your feeders. Count birds at a park or hotspot. Count alone or with friends. You don’t even have to sign up.
Enter your sightings in eBird or use Merlin Bird ID. All the birds you record next weekend will automatically be included in the Great Backyard Bird Count.
We went there to find Schalow’s turaco (Tauraco schalowi), a fruit-eating African bird that frequents riparian habitats … and we were in luck! One flew by and landed near us. These eBird photos show its beautiful colors.
On 30 January we returned to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side where the water was even closer and more dramatic. Those who want to walk to Livingstone Island or the Devil’s Pool during low water start their journey on this side, walking 1 km (more than 2/3 mile).
No way! Look how fast the water rushes toward the cliff …
This is the edge where the water falls off the cliff in Zambia (video by Kate St. John)
… and falls down the other side.
Water falling off the edge on the Zambian side (video by Kate St. John)
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
10 February 2024
Beautiful sunrises, calm reflections and high water at Duck Hollow were on tap this week in Pittsburgh.
Wind-less clear skies along the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 4 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Pastel sunrise on 8 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The week began as Winter but ended even warmer than early Spring. The tulips in my neighborhood are well above ground, fortunately without flower buds. One week from today, on 17 Feb, the weather forecast calls for temperatures as low as 19°F.
These tulips think it’s already spring, Pittsburgh, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The tulips survive in my too-many-deer neighborhood because they’re surrounded by buildings and tall fences with no obvious exit other than a narrow driveway.
I thought that the maze of buildings and driveways would protect these Japanese yews in front of Newell-Simon Hall at Carnegie Mellon, but deer found their way in and munched the bushes down to sticks. There’s a lot more to eat here. The deer will be back.
Deer damaged yews at Newell-Simon Hall, CMU, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Like our chickadees, Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) are cavity nesters who may nest in backyard boxes.
The nest box shown below was lovingly decorated by the landlord and equipped with a camera to view the comings and goings of prospective renters. This bird seems satisfied and will soon take up residence.
There have been quite a lot of viewings here, but this client was keen to have a better look around inside. Feedback was positive. They felt it was more spacious than they had thought and they were keen on this furnished option. Great views from the front door!#GwylltHollowpic.twitter.com/i90DKbZXFf
In southern Africa, caterpillars of the emperor moth Gonimbrasia belina (or Imbrasia belina) are commonly called mopane worms because they feast on the leaves of mopane trees (Colophospermum mopane). Their final instar is shown above, adult below.
Mopane worms are prized as human food. When they reach full size women and children avidly pick them from the mopane leaves, squish out their guts and take them home to boil and sun dry. When fully prepared the mopane worms look like this:
I had the opportunity to sample mopane worms at Dusty Road Township Experience, an award-winning restaurant in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe where we ate traditional food.
What did mopane worms taste like to my naive palate? Earthy. Crispy. Very earthy.
Perhaps the flavor was so earthy because I ate the head first. In Zimbabwe this makes no difference but in Botswana they take the heads off before they eat them because the heads change the taste. I wish I’d known so I could have tried it both ways.
Learn more about mopane worms and how to cook them in this video by Emmy @emmymade. She tastes them both ways and describes their flavor at 3.5 minutes into the video.
Courtship season is underway at the Pitt peregrine nest where Ecco and his mate Carla are cementing their pair bond. Apparently they are not the only peregrines in the area.
On 26 January I received news from Charles Bier who was instrumental in establishing the peregrine nestboxes at Gulf Tower and Pitt. Charles saw a pair in East Liberty.
I happened to be in East Liberty on this past January 12th, and I happened to notice 2 peregrines flying into the top of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. One of the birds landed high on the church tower and the other one did, or flew behind the tower at the same altitude. I do not know that this was a “pair”, but they were behaving within that context, and at this time of the year they would be focusing on high ledges.
So, I am wondering if a pair is known to be using this church, or if possibly it could have even been the Cathedral of Learning pair having a lunchtime outing to East Liberty. I quickly measured out the direct distance between the CoL and this church in East Liberty and it came out to about 1.9-miles. Back in the day, this distance would have been regarded as too close for comfort; re: 2 pairs in close proximity (that was an initial concern for the Gulf Tower and CoL pairs, which were about 2.3-miles apart). In any case, there are many factors involved and I doubt this distance would be a problem for them.
— email from Charles Bier, 26 January 2024
I replied that the Pitt peregrines generally stay close to home to defend their territory at this time of year, so maybe it’s a new pair.
Then, outside my window on Sunday 4 February, I saw a peregrine flying hard toward Shadyside from the direction of the Cathedral of Learning. This falcon was using territorial flappy flight to make itself obvious as it approached another peregrine of the same size — likely both females — circling up in the vicinity of Negley Avenue and Baum Boulevard. This intersection is about halfway between the Cathedral of Learning and East Liberty Presbyterian Church. It might be a boundary line.
The peregrines did not fight. Instead they both circled up apart from each other and went their separate ways.
This is the time of year when peregrines with a less than satisfactory nest site try to claim a better one. The Cathedral of Learning is the best site in town and Carla is new there(*) so of course the challengers are testing to see if she’s up to snuff.
Perhaps that explains why she was so distracted while Ecco was courting her on Saturday 3 February. Though the courtship session lasted 6 minutes, Carla spent 3 minutes looking at the sky. To save you time, I chopped out those (boring) three minutes with a fade.
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.
