Arizona's wildlife is really wild! ? Check out these awesome snaps of a bobcat perched atop a saguaro at Lost Dutchman State Park. ? You might think "ouch" but bobcats are adept climbers with tough paw pads. ? P. Giebelhausen (closeup) and Ranger Hailey on a hike last winter pic.twitter.com/q7825rQtwN
In New Jersey a buck ran through a front yard, jumped over two cars, and miscalculated the landing. Despite that he hopped out of the truck bed and ran away.
Today it’s been 16 years since Outside My Window began on 9 November 2007.
Every day I get up very early to write about birds and nature and am sometimes distracted by the birds themselves. The girl above is distracted by her pet goldfinch. This month, for me, it’s been the crows.
Crow on a spire; added a party hat (photo by Ian Shane via Wikimedia Commons, altered by Kate St.John)
My first blog post was Waiting for Tundra Swans but I didn’t have to wait this year. Last weekend I saw 29 at Yellow Creek State Park including these in Mark McConaughy’s photo.
On anniversaries I look back at the past year’s high points. My highest traffic day is usually when the peregrine eggs hatch at the Cathedral of Learning but there were no eggs this year. Instead, the most popular article was a surprise on Friday 7 April with 10,000 views of…
Though their names differ by only one letter bitternuts and butternuts are not the same at all.
Bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) is one of the most common hickories in southwestern Pennsylvania and easy to identify by its slender sulfur-yellow buds.
Bitternut hickory buds, April 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bitternuts are closely related to pecans and also share the hickory genus with shagbark hickories, pignuts and mockernuts. Unlike the pecan the bitternut tree is rarely cultivated.
The fruit is a very bitter nut, 2–3 cm (0.75 – 1.25 in) long with a green four-valved cover which splits off at maturity in the fall, and a hard, bony shell.
The “green four-valved cover” turns brown after the nut lies around for a while (see middle nut at top) and indeed the shell is hard and bony. I had to use a hammer to open this one and damaged the perfect nutmeat in the process. You’ll have to imagine it was shaped like a short squat pecan.
Bitternut hickory nut, opened (photo by Kate St . John)
I can tell you from taste-testing that the nut is bitter and astringent. Squirrels avoid these nuts though Wikipedia says that rabbits eat them.
Butternuts (Juglans cinerea), on the other hand, are prized because the nuts taste good.
Butternut in its soft furry husk, similar to a black walnut (photo by Kate St. John)
Butternuts are in the same genus as black walnuts and sometimes called “white walnuts.” The leaf arrangement is so similar that I didn’t realize that I was looking up at a butternut tree — to see warblers — until I saw the nuts on the ground.
The butternut’s natural range runs from Maine and southern Ontario to southeastern Missouri and is smaller than the bitternut hickory’s. While the bitternut thrives, the butternut is declining and listed as threatened in some U.S. states and endangered in Canada. Its biggest threat is a fatal disease, butternut canker, caused by a fungus imported with the Japanese walnut. Ironically butternuts are partly threatened by too-easy hybridization with Japanese walnut trees.
Like black walnuts, butternuts are shade intolerant and thrive only when they’re at the top of the canopy or in an open space. Now that I know what a butternut looks like, I’ll pay more attention.
Leucistic common grackle, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
7 November 2023
Last month at Frick Park Charity Kheshgi and I saw at least three birds with unusual white feathers in their plumage, a condition that labels them “leucistic.”
Leucism refers to an abnormality in the deposition of pigment in feathers. There is some disagreement as to whether the condition is genetic or caused by pigment cells that were damaged during development. Whatever the cause, the condition can result in a reduction in all types of pigment, causing pale or muted colors on the entire bird. Or the condition can cause irregular patches of white, and birds with these white patches are sometimes described as “pied” or “piebald.”
This common grackle had white feather patches on his head that were not uniform from side to side.
Leucistic common grackle, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
The circle of white dashes around his eyes indicate his eyelashes are white. (Did you know birds’ eyelashes are modified feathers?)
Leucistic grackle zoomed in, white dashes around his eyes (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
In early October we saw a white-faced chipping sparrow …
Leucistic chipping sparrow — white face, Frick Park, 7 October 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
… and a leucistic American robin in the middle of the month.
Leucistic American robin, Frick Park, 18 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
It seems that leucism is more common in robins than in other species — or at any rate I see more of them. Here’s one that was photographed in Missouri.
By now you’ve probably heard that a lot of bird names are going to change in the U.S. and Canada.
The American Ornithological Society [AOS] has vowed to change the English names of all bird species currently named after people, along with any other bird names deemed offensive or exclusionary.
The AOS can do this because they have jurisdiction over all the bird names in the Americas. Every year they make 5-10 name changes, usually among scientific names due to new DNA research, and we birders cope. This project is larger and will take several years as they change the common English names of 70-80 birds.
My first reaction was typical. I don’t like change unless I instigate it so I thought: “This sounds like an overreaction to the name problem. All the field guides will be out of date(*ummm, they already are). It’ll be an ordeal to change the data when 4-letter bird banding codes, based on the English names, change as well. I don’t want to do this. Stop Change.”
But then I changed my mind because … I made a list of names that will change and began to invent new ones and the new names were better than the old ones. I could see the point. Here are two examples.
The Wilson’s warbler (Cardellina pusilla), pictured at top, has held the same English name for 185 years, though its scientific name has changed five times since it was first described in 1811 by Alexander Wilson. Its current 4-letter banding code is WIWA.
Suppose it’s new name becomes “black-capped warbler” as suggested by my friend Shawn Collins. It’s so much more descriptive! When someone asks, “What is that warbler with the black cap?” the answer is obvious. The new banding code would be BCWA.
The Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii), doubly named for ornithologist William Cooper, is most often noticed near backyard bird feeders because it eats birds for a living.
[The Cooper’s hawk] it is an inconspicuous species. However, since the 1970s, Cooper’s Hawks have commonly nested in suburban and urban landscapes, such that it is likely the most common backyard breeding raptor across North America.
Suppose its new name becomes “backyard hawk.” When someone says, “There’s a hawk in my backyard…” the answer is almost obvious (there are several possibilities). The new banding code would be BAHA.
AOS might not use these suggestions but I’m happy to have found names that are unique and available as well as the proposed banding codes.
So now I’m a bit excited by the prospect of fixing up the people-names.
Held all kinds of jobs: herder, journeyman, peddler, weaver and then…
Became a poet, sometimes satirical & incendiary enough to get arrested. One popular poem started a libel suit against him which he countered by blackmailing the libeler.
He was living in poverty so he decided to emigrate to America in 1794 at age 27.
In the U.S. he taught school for 5 years until he got into a scandal with a married woman.
And then he met naturalist William Bartram who encouraged his interest in birds and painting. Wilson traveled, sketched, painted and described birds. His illustrations and descriptions of 268 birds included 26 which had not been described before. The way he posed the birds inspired other bird illustrators including Audubon.
He died in poverty in 1813 at age 47.
When Alexander Wilson got hooked on birds he became a very good observer, illustrator and ornithologist in the final decade of his life (1802-ish to 1813). Wilson’s warbler was named for him 25 years after his death.
Humans are complicated.
(credits are in the captions except for the Stop Change sign formerly used by Pittsburgh Regional Transit to denote a BUS stop change. I used to have that sign hanging in my office.)
Yellow-rumped warbler, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
5 November 2023
Some days it seems like all the birds are turning their backs on us. Warbler season is especially challenging because they tend to pose just like the yellow-rumped warbler above. Fortunately The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson & Scott Whittle includes a butt-shot for every bird so if you take photographs you can look them up when you get home.
Most birds just happen to be facing away but others, like this hermit thrush, do it intentionally. The thrush was keeping an eye on us while he hid in the shadows with an escape route mapped out ahead of him.
Hermit thrush presents his back and keeps an eye on us, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Kinglets face every which way as they busily flit to find tiny insects. Inevitably they end up in a butt shot.
Ruby-crowned kinglet, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Sometimes we see a new feature of the bird from behind. This golden-crowned kinglet shows a bit of red at the back of his yellow crest …
Golden-crowned kinglet showing a hint of red in his crest, Frick Park, 26 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
… as seen in this closeup.
Closeup of golden-crowned kinglet’s head with hint of red in his crest (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Surprisingly, some sparrows have faces on their back ends as seen in Wes Iversen’s photo of a fluffed up sparrow. Notice how the secondary wing feathers, back, and undertail coverts form eyes, nose and smiling mouth. The photograph is embedded from Wes Iversen’s original here on Flickr.
Witch hazel in a garden, 28 Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
4 November 2023
Throughout October Pittsburgh’s city neighborhoods had not experienced a freeze, even though it was felt in the outlying areas. That changed on the first two days of November with a whisper of snow. We still had fall colors before the freeze. There are brown leaves and bare trees in our future.
At top, landscaping plants are often bred to maximize fall color as seen on a cultivated witch hazel on 28 October.
The oozing “sweat” beads on this polypore mushroom are just the right color for autumn.
Bracket polypore fungus, Schenley Park, 27 Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Heavy mist on 29 October clung to ornamental grasses at Phipps Conservatory.
Heavy dew on ornamental grass at Phipps, 29 Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) was still blooming last week. Alas, it’s invasive.
Canada thistle still blooming, 27 Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
This week is the coldest we’ve had since last March or early April. Squirrels are getting serious about winter in @YardGoneWild‘s North Carolina backyard.
There is more to this nebula than meets the eye. In addition to visible light it’s emitting radio waves, infrared, X-rays and ultraviolet. Here it is in the ultraviolet range.
If you find a small spiny capsule on the forest floor that opens to reveal two to three nuts (in this case two are nicely packed together) you’ve found beechnuts. Without even looking up you can be sure you’re near an American beech (Fagus grandifolia).
American beech fruit capsule with nuts, Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
The fruit [of Fagus grandifolia] is a triangle-shaped shell containing 2–3 nuts inside, but many of them do not fill in, especially on solitary trees. Beech nuts are sweet and nutritious, can be eaten raw by wildlife and humans, or can be cooked. They can also be roasted and ground into a coffee substitute.
American beech seed capsule with nuts inside, Oct 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Beechnuts can be eaten raw? Well, it’s complicated. Foraging Beech Nuts explains that it’s best to let the capsules dry out for 2-3 weeks and then cook the nuts because some people get throat irritation from the raw seed coating.
In Pittsburgh’s parks beechnuts can be hard to find because they are so popular with deer and squirrels. Looking for a beech without looking up? Here’s another clue.
Beech drops (Epifagus virginiana) are parasitic on beech tree roots so if you see these well camouflaged plants you are definitely near an American beech. Read about them at On The Beech.
Looking up at American beech trees this month you’ll see brown beech leaves clinging to the branches.
American beech leaves, 15 Nov 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Its buds are distinctive: long, pointed and golden brown like its fall leaves.
American beech buds and autumn leaf (photo by Kate St. John)
The trunk has smooth gray bark.
Bark of American beech, Nov 2011 (photo by Kate St John)
And at the end of winter, small American beeches have pale, rattling leaves that make them stand out in the forest.
Forest with young beech tree, February 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)
All the beechnuts will be eaten or hidden by the end of winter.
p.s. If you’re my age you probably remember Beech-Nut chewing gum. Were there beech nuts in it? No, that was the name of the company. The gum’s claim to fame was its peppery peppermint zing.
Whatever happened to the candy? The candy division of Beech-Nut went defunct in 1976. Read about the Beech-Nut company here.
