This Tiny Bug is a Spotted Lanternfly

Insects, Spotted Lanternflies
First instar spotted lanternfly on a metal chair, Phipps patio, 4 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

5 June 2023

If you noticed spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) in Pittsburgh last summer you remember seeing this one-inch long insect.

Spotted lanternfly adult, 23 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

But they don’t start out this big.

Right now they are tiny black nymphs with white spots. I saw one perched on the edge of a metal chair yesterday at the Phipps BioBlitz and moved closer to confirm its identity. As I approached it jumped so far I couldn’t find it.

I tracked it down and smashed it with my shoe … and immediately wished I’d taken its picture. I found another one (there are lots of them) and learned how to get close enough for a cellphone photograph without making it jump. Not a sharp photo but you get the idea.

First instar spotted lanternfly on a metal chair, Phipps front patio, 4 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

The first instar(*) nymphs are tiny — just 1/4 inch long — and well camouflaged, even on a silver chair.

Ruler showing size of spotted lanternfly first instar (photo by Kate St. John)

Walking and hopping, they look for something to suck on, primarily Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) but they are generalists so they’ll eat anything that appeals to them. Fortunately they are only deadly to Ailanthus and grapevines.

As they feed on plants the insects grow and change through various stages of development. The first, second and third instars continue to be black nymphs with white spots, just progressively larger [B]. The fourth instar is a red nymph with white spots at 3/4 inch long [C].

Spotted lanternfly: What To Look For (image from Penn State Extension)

Right now they’re so small they are easy to overlook. When the one-inch-long flying adults emerge in July-to-September this invasive insect will be hard to ignore.

Read more about them at Cornell University’s Spotted Lanternfly Biology and Lifecycle.

(*) Definition of instar. noun, ZOOLOGY. A phase between two periods of molting in the development of an insect larva or other invertebrate animal. — from Oxford Languages via Google

(photos by Kate St. John, life phases photos from Penn State Extension)

About To Fly At Third Avenue

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines

4 June 2023

Peregrine falcons have nested in Downtown Pittsburgh since 1991 and though the players have changed they are very loyal to the territory. From 1991-2011 they nested at the Gulf Tower but since 2012, with three exceptions, they have nested at the back of a building facing Third Avenue. 2023 is their ninth nesting season at this site.

Yesterday morning I stopped by Third Avenue to see if any peregrines were visible and was lucky to see the entire family. Three youngsters perched at the ledge opening (photos at top) while their parents watched from above on the crossbars. The brown youngsters are exercising their wings and will fledge this week.

Downtown peregrine nest area as seen from Third Ave. Locations of birds noted in white. 3 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

The adults have been a mystery. On 3 March Jeff Cieslak photographed an adult-plumaged pair: an unbanded female (not 16-year-old Dori who was banded) and a male who did not show his legs. When Jeff returned on 14 April he saw a nest exchange that appeared to be a male (unbanded in dark brown immature plumage) bringing prey to a female (banded & in adult plumage). The behavior told us who was who. Or did it?

Here are photos of the adults.

Adult-plumage bird on 18 May and 3 June 2023. Jeff re-checked his photos and saw that this bird has black/red bands and several viewers have remarked that the bird’s face is like Terzo’s. This is the male, Terzo.

Adult plumage peregrine at Third Avenue, 18 May 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Adult plumage peregrine at Third Ave, 3 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Photos of the dark brown bird on 28 May and 3 June 2023 are more of a mystery. The flank stripes are horizontal so this is adult plumage. This dark brown unbanded bird is the female. More on her color in a future article.

Dark plumaged peregrine at Third Avenue Downtown, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Dark plumaged peregrine at Third Avenue Downtown, 3 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Stop by Third Avenue in the next few days to see the youngsters fledge.

(photos by Kate St. John and Jeff Cieslak)

A Few Insects Seen This Week

Insects
Golden-backed snipe flies mating at Frick Park, 1 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

3 June 2023

The flurry of birds in May has given way to a flurry of insects in June.

On Thursday I heard the first daytime droning/whirring bugs of the year and saw big-eyed bugs mating at Frick Park (at top). Glenn Koppel identified these as golden-backed snipe flies (Chrysopilus thoracicus). Click here for a nearly identical photo of a pair mating in West Virginia.

The bug shown below is a ladybug nymph, seen at Betty Rowland’s in Squirrel Hill. (Thank you, Lisa Ann Simpson, for identifying this nymph. Click here to read about them.)

A ladybug nymph, Squirrel Hill, 1 June 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Many insects were in a flurry of mating, swirling in stacks over Nine Mile Run.

A swirl of insects in the sun over Nine Mile Run, Frick Park, 1 June 2023 (video by Kate St. John)

Thanks to readers’ helpful comments I now have IDs for the insect photos!

And on a bird note: I’ve noticed low numbers of swallows this spring compared to years past. Who will eat the flying insects? Are you missing swallows, too?

(photos and video by Kate St. John)

Ten More Years To Go

Insects
Periodical 17-year cicada, Washington Cemetery, Washington, PA, 30 May 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
Periodical 17-year cicada, Washington Cemetery, Washington, PA, 30 May 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)

It’s been seven years since the 17-year cicadas (Magicicada sp.) emerged in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Back in May and June 2016 Brood V blanketed parts of West Virginia, Ohio and the bottom left corner of Pennsylvania. This video shows what their emergence was like in Ohio at Cuyahoga National Park.

(video by Marty Calabrese on YouTube)

I went to see them at Washington Cemetery in Washington, PA. Here’s what I found:

Magic Cicadas

There are 10 more years to go until the magicicadas return. Plenty of time to forget what they’re like.

(photo by Kate St. John, video embedded from Marty Calabrese on YouTube)

What’s He Say?

Vocalizations
Northern mockingbird on a wire (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

1 June 2023

Northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) are famous for mimicking the voices of other birds. Often they’re so good at it that the only way to recognize they’re mockingbirds is to notice that the phrases are repeated three times, then a pause.

On Tuesday 30 May I encountered a mockingbird singing his heart out atop a light post at CMU’s Morewood parking lot. He was so excited that he jumped up and down with his wings open. “Look at me!”

Just for yuks I turned on Merlin sound ID to see how the app would process his song. Sometimes Merlin said “northern mockingbird,” sometimes it said the bird he was mimicking.

In the following 2:49 minutes he’s the only bird singing.

What’s he say? Who is he mimicking? Leave a comment with your answer.

UPDATE: Check the comments for my list of songs that I *think* he sang.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons, audio by Kate St. John embedded from xeno canto)

About To Fly

Birds of Prey, Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
3 chicks in red-tailed hawks’ nest, Schenley Park, 28 May 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

31 May 2023

Spring nesting season is continuing apace. The first batch of baby robins is learning to fly and some are old enough to forage on their own. Raptor fledglings are not far behind.

On Sunday 28 May we watched three red-tailed hawk chicks in a nest under the Panther Hollow Bridge in Schenley Park. This species hatches in the order the eggs are laid, each one two days younger than the last. The chicks clearly show their age difference in Charity Kheshgi’s video. One chick is getting ready to fly, one is still fluffy, and the middle one is halfway between.

Red-tailed hawks’ nest, Schenley Park, 28 May 2023 (video by Charity Kheshgi)

At the Tarentum Bridge on Sunday afternoon, John English and I watched three peregrine chicks lounging on top of the nestbox while an adult “babysat” nearby.

Adult female peregrine watches her ledge-walking chicks at the Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by John English)

At first we saw only three chicks but after we moved to a better viewing location the fourth was on the top of the box as well, exercising his wings.

Four peregrine chicks at Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Four peregrine chicks at Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
One chick concentrates on exercising his wings (photo by Kate St. John)

And suddenly I saw him fly the length of the pier to the other end and back again to the top of the box! I have no photos of this feat but you get the idea. By today he may have fledged from the bridge.

All these birds are about to fly.

(photos by Charity Kheshgi, John English and Kate St. John)

Newly Found Peregrines’ Nest Near Brownsville, PA

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Female peregrine clutching prey and shouting, West Brownsville Lane Bane Bridge, 26 May 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)

30 May 2023

Last Wednesday, 24 May, Mark Vass drove down the Monongahela River valley looking for birds and checking bridges. In West Brownsville he found a peregrine perched under the US Route 40 Lane Bane Bridge. Mark’s checklist and photo set off a quest to find the nest (https://ebird.org/checklist/S139102470)

Jeff Cieslak made the trip on Friday 26 May and found the nest hole and a pair of peregrines carrying food to it. The female is peachy with heavy dots, the male is whiter. Neither bird is banded. (My male-female assessment is based on the tendency of mid-latitude males to be paler than females. Notice that both have the adult plumage trait of horizontal stripes on their flanks.)

Male peregrine, West Brownsville Lane Bane Bridge, 26 May 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Male peregrine, West Brownsville Lane Bane Bridge, 26 May 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)

Alyssa Nees and Fred Kachmarik visited on Memorial Day, 29 May, and counted a family of five — two adults, three chicks. Alyssa’s photos show an adult in the nest hole …

Peregrine inside the nest area on the Lane Bane Bridge, West Brownsville, PA, 29 May 2023 (photo by Alyssa Nees)

… and a chick clearly visible (red circle) with fluffy white top of head, feathered face and brown back. The arrow points to the tail of an adult watching from above.

Adult peregrine (arrow) and fluffy white head, face & brown back of nestling (circle) at Lane Bane Bridge, 29 May 2023 (photo by Alyssa Nees)

Fred’s photos of the chicks include an older chick and a fluffy young one:

Where are these peregrines located?

The Lane Bane Bridge, carries US Route 40 over the Monongahela River from West Brownsville, Washington County, to Brownsville, Fayette County PA. Its construction is very similar to the Graff Bridge at Kittanning, PA, which has its own nesting peregrines.

A truss structure spans the river and ends at a pillar on each side. As far as I can tell from the photos, the nest appears to be close to the pillar. So these birds are nesting in Washington County, PA.

Interestingly, when Google Street View cameras drove by on the West Brownsville side this month, the cameras “saw” a bird perched on the superstructure near the pillar. I’ll bet this dot is a peregrine.

Bird (probably peregrine) perched near on the Lane Bane Bridge over West Brownsville (screenshot from Google Street View)

Thanks and congratulations to Mark Vass, Jeff Cieslak, Alyssa Nees and Fred Kachmarik for finding and documenting this peregrine family.

If you’d like to see the birds yourself, Jeff provides a map.

Location of West Brownsville “scrape” at Lane Bane Bridge (screenshot from Google maps annotated by Jeff Cieslak)

p.s. Could there be another peregrine nest at the next bridge three miles away? Nope. The Mon-Fayette Expressway bridge is solid concrete. Click here to see a screenshot of the Mon-Fay bridge in Google Street View.

(photos by Jeff Cieslak, Mark Vass via eBird, Alyssa Nees, Fred Kachmarik via eBird, Wikimedia Commons and screenshots from Google Street View)

Yesterday at Schenley Park

Books & Events, Schenley Park
American robin at nest with young, Schenley Park, 27 May 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

29 May 2023

Twelve of us turned out in fine weather yesterday morning for a walk in Schenley Park.

Participants in Schenley Park outing, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

There were fewer birds than I expected but some really nice moments such as:

  • Peregrine falcon, Carla, seen through my scope as she perched on the Cathedral of Learning,
  • A red-tailed hawk’s nest with three young high in the superstructure of the Panther Hollow Bridge,
  • A wood thrush singing above Phipps Run,
  • Two magnolia warblers gleaning insects near a chickadee family,
  • Active robin nests and many adults gathering food. (The nest pictured above by Charity Kheshgi is well camouflaged among the stones of the tufa bridge.)

(Checklist is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S139602834 and listed at the end.)

I was happy to see that deer are eating Japanese knotweed in Schenley as well as in Frick.

Deer browse on Japanese knotweed in Schenley Park, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Because it had been two months since my last outing in Schenley, when we rounded the bend to Panther Hollow Lake I saw the park through new eyes. Sadly it looked unloved: scattered litter, algae on lake, and a large barren area after last Friday’s grading project.

Algae on Panther Hollow Lake, 26 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

At this moment the Panther Hollow Lake end of Schenley Park is not in good shape. However, there are birds.

Schenley Park, May 28, 2023 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM
—
Canada Goose 2
Mourning Dove 1
Chimney Swift 6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
gull species 1: Flyover
Great Blue Heron 1
Red-tailed Hawk 4: adult + 3 nestlings under PH Bridge
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Peregrine Falcon 1 Perched at CL visible from Schenley
Acadian Flycatcher 1
Red-eyed Vireo 4
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 3: adult feeding 2 young
Tufted Titmouse 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) 1
Carolina Wren 2
European Starling 6
Gray Catbird 1
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 20: including two active nests + 3rd family with recently fledged young
Cedar Waxwing 1
House Sparrow 1
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 3
Baltimore Oriole 2
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
Common Grackle 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 4

(photos by Charity Kheshgi and Kate St. John)

One Place, One Time, A Quarter Million Warblers

Bird Behavior, Migration
Bay-breasted warbler (photo by Chuck Tague)

27 May 2023

Imagine spending a day standing on dunes in cold wet weather and seeing a river of a quarter million warblers fly by. This amazing phenomenon was the perfect storm of location, migration and bad weather.

In late May boreal forest warblers such as Cape May, bay-breasted and Tennessee have reached or surpassed Tadoussac, Quebec on the way to their breeding grounds further north. They aren’t nesting yet, so if the weather turns sour they head back south temporarily to wait it out.

Google map showing location of Tadoussac bird count on 24 May 2023 (screenshot from Google maps)

The weather forecast for 24 May looked promising for this perfect storm as Ian Davies (@thebirdsguy) writes in the day’s eBird checklist:
“There were southwest winds overnight (tailwinds good for migration), combined with a big cold front arriving right around dawn, bringing rain, strong northwest winds, and colder temperatures — the same setup that has resulted in flights of tens or hundreds of thousands of birds in past Mays.”

Hoping for a river of warblers, Ian and 11 others headed out to the Tadoussac dunes to count birds. In 11.25 hours they saw 263,771 birds in 96 species! Ian writes:

The first couple hours of daylight featured drizzle and strong winds, and not many birds until about 6:45 … then 500 birds/minute by 7:30. The Tadoussac river of warblers had begun.
This flight continued at 300-500 birds/minute until about 9:20, at which point the rain dropped significantly, and the flood gates opened, as many as 1345 warblers/minute raging past in a torrent of flight calls and glowing songbirds. Birds were everywhere, below eye level, flying between people, pouring through the bushes, landing on the sand, and one Cape May Warbler even tried to land on my arm. A Red-eyed Vireo flew into someone. It was madness. …
For one period of time, the rate of warblers was 80,000/hour.

— ebird checklist for 24 May 2023 Tadoussac

Here’s just one of the many videos attached to the checklist. See the checklist for amazing photos, videos and counts.

The location was key to this phenomenon. Tadoussac is located on the northwest coast of the wide St. Lawrence River which funnels birds heading south. If you look at the videos you’ll see that the cameras are pointed toward the St.Lawrence River — east/southeast — and that all the birds are flying southwest.

Satellite Google map showing location of Tadoussac bird count on 24 May 2023 (screenshot from Google maps)

These birds had made it further north but when bad weather arrived they changed direction to escape the storm. Flying on the northwest wind they reached the unsheltered coastal dunes at Tadoussac so they headed southwest to the forest.

What a privilege it must have been to witness a quarter million warblers in just one day.

(maps are screenshots from Google maps; tweet embedded from Ian Davies @thebirdsguy)

Seen This Week

Deer, Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Prothontary warbler in Frick Park, 25 May 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

27 May 2023

This week’s big news was the unexpected prothonotary warbler that Charity Kheshgi and I found in Frick Park on 25 May. He was still present yesterday but BirdCast showed birds migrating out of our area last night so we’ll see if he’s still there this morning.

Migration is nearly over and the dominant landscape color in Pittsburgh now is green. It’s hard to remember that only five weeks ago (23 April) most of the trees were brown.

Daisies are blooming along meadows and roadsides, invasive wineberry is in bud, and bladdernuts have already formed green seed pods in the city parks.

Daisy blooming at Schenley Park, 22 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Wineberry leaves and buds, Schenley Park, 22 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bladdernut seed pods, Frick Park, 23 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

On our walk in Frick Park on 23 May, Charity and I saw many deer including an obviously pregnant doe who looked ready to drop twin fawns. We wondered where she would hide them now that the browseline makes it possible to see right through the woods.

This deer-browsed Japanese knotweed shows how little food remains for deer in Frick. Normally they don’t eat Japanese knotweed but with few native plants left they are hungry enough to try it now.

Deer damage on Japanese knotweed, Frick Park, 23 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

In Schenley Park the color green extends to the rampant algae in Panther Hollow Lake. See last November’s article on why the lake has algae so often.

Algae in Panther Hollow Lake, Schenley Park, 26 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

What birds will we see this weekend? Come to my Schenley Park outing tomorrow, 28 May, to find out.

(photos by Kate St. John)