Park anywhere along Commercial Street but meet at the Nine Mile Run Parking area (screenshot map from Google)
The meeting place is on the Swissvale side of the Parkway bridge so if you park on Commercial Street at the Boardwalk or Firelane Trail, cross Commercial Street and take the path under the Parkway bridge to reach us. You’ll see the Nine Mile Run Trail parking lot as soon as you’re under the bridge.
From Commercial Street at Frick Park follow the path to the meeting place
Near the meeting place we’re sure to see Queen Anne’s lace, fleabane, and goldfinches. If we’re lucky we’ll see orchard orioles, part of the family that nested near the creek.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.
Before you come, visit my Events page in case of changes or cancellations. The outing will be canceled if there’s lightning or heavy rain.
When Auke-Florian Hiemstra published Bird Nests Made From Anti-Bird Spikes on 11 July 2023, the news spread like wildfire. The Guardian and the BBC immediately announced his report that Eurasian magpies and carrion crows incorporated spikes in their nests in the Netherlands and Scotland. The birds’ ironic re-use of our threatening material captured the Internet’s imagination.
Are the birds thumbing their noses (beaks) at us when they use anti-bird spikes? For the most part, no.
In the city it’s pretty common to see plastic in nests. For example this pigeon (nesting on top of anti-bird spikes!) included a length of red plastic wire in its nest. Notice the pigeon’s head behind the bend in the wire.
Hiemstra (@AukeFlorian) explains that Eurasian magpies (Pica pica) look for spiky things, like thorn branches, to protect the top of their dome-shaped nests. But thorn trees are hard to find in the city so …
Bird nests made from anti-bird spikes! ? Even for me as a nest researcher, these are the craziest bird nests I've ever seen. Today my paper came out on this rebellious behaviour. And it's like telling a joke…
So nesting birds aren’t thumbing their noses at us but parrots probably are. In Australia, where cockatoos live in the wild, they show their attitude toward our anti-bird attempts. Take that you nasty spikes! Hah!
Water beads on wax begonia, 17 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
22 July 2023
Other than a few thunderstorms it’s been a quiet week in Pittsburgh.
At the Cathedral of Learning the garden beds are beautiful with begonias while the peregrines, Carla and Ecco, hang out and finish molting. The pair is no longer courting but sometimes bow together — less than once a day in late July.
On Thursday I was lucky to find the right mix of sun and shade to show off eastern enchanter’s nightshade’s (Circaea canadensis) bur-like fruits. They are notoriously difficult to photograph.
Enchanter’s nightshade near Herrs Island, Pittsburgh, 20 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
On 13 July a brief storm blew through Pittsburgh and broke this more than 100 year old London plane tree near Carnegie Library.
London plane tree at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh broken by strong wind on 13 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Meanwhile spotted lanternfly (SLF) red nymphs are everywhere, soon to become winged adults. I found thousands of them along the Allegheny River Trail near Herrs Island plus three adults, the first I’ve seen this year. This winged adult probably just emerged from the crumpled exoskeleton above it. Eewwww!
Spotted lanternfly adult near red nymphs on the Three Rivers Rowing Association building across from Herrs Island, 20 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
A few people along the trail were stamping on the nymphs and might have been recording their victories in the Squishr app (described here by WHYY). However, as Howard Tobias remarked a few weeks ago, “Tramping on spotted lanternflies is like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon.”
Are you upset by the bugs? Go hit the Panic Button at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the Main branch Music Department, 2nd floor. This Panic Button, built into a bookcase, used to be part of the old security system but was disconnected decades ago. Press it to your heart’s content. Very satisfying.
The Panic Button at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
And don’t forget to …
Confirm your paperwork? Or throw it in the bin? at Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, 19 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Above, two young bobcats explore near a motion detection “camera trap” at Bosque del Apache. Below, a backyard cam caught the moment when a fox found a skunk in the dark.
Trail cam snaps an encounter between a red fox and a skunk (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
At Melissa Crytzer Fry‘s video camera trap in the Sonoran Desert, a mother Gambel’s quail chased away danger. Turn up the sound and find out what upset her.
Back when I had a front yard, my hostas were periodically plagued by garden slugs. I also had a stash of aging beer bottles in my basement. (I drink about 12 beers a year so buying a case was a big mistake.)
In the summer of 2016 it all came together when I served old beer to my garden slugs. Read about it in this vintage blog.
Some fears, based on a species ancient experience, are bred-in-the-bone and guide behavior for millennia. For example, some people automatically fear snakes even though they never encounter them. This makes sense as an ancient fear spawned from early humans’ experience in Africa.
When wolves move in, coyotes leave the area and move closer to humans. Theoretically, the enemy of my enemy is my friend so humans would provide a shield against wolves.
Bobcats exhibit the same behavior in the presence of cougars, whom they fear.
Unfortunately, getting close to us is a bad bet for coyotes and bobcats with scant experience of humans. A recent study by Laura Prugh in northern Washington state, found that for 35 satellite tracked coyotes and 37 bobcats, the majority of those that died were shot.
Prugh’s work showed that in the case of coyotes and bobcats, gambling on safety with humans was a losing bet. Of the 24 coyotes that died, 14 were at the hands of people (13 shot and one roadkill). None were killed by wolves. Of the 18 dead bobcats, people killed 11. All told, a coyote was 3 times more likely to die at the hands of a human than in the jaws of a carnivore, the researchers found. For a bobcat, the odds were even higher at 3.8 times.
DNA of giraffe and elephant were both detected in the air outside Copenhagen Zoo (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
18 July 2023
We’ve been paying attention to air quality this summer as Canadian wildfire smoke blows into town. The smoke that reaches us, called smog or soot in the chart below, is labelled PM2.5 by air monitors (the particles are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter). As you can see there’s a lot of other stuff in the air that the monitors are not analyzing — but they could. In the past few years scientists have discovered that we can check the air for DNA.
In 2021 Mark Johnson, a graduate student at Texas Tech, realized that pollen and plant fragments are such a big component of air quality that he decided to compare manual plant surveys to eDNA measurements at Texas Tech University’s Native Rangeland.
The two methods complemented each other. Manual surveys detected 80 species while eDNA found 91 using the devices pictured below. According to Science Magazine, “eDNA was better at finding easily overlooked species with small flowers, such as weakleaf bur ragweed. But people were better at spotting plants too rare to release much eDNA, particularly when they had showy flowers, such as the chocolate daisy.”
It was only a matter of time before similar air monitoring was used to detect animals.
Two recent studies — one in the UK, the other in Copenhagen — collected and analyzed air samples for animal DNA. And they found it. To prove their equipment, each study located air samplers near a zoo and both found zoo animal DNA. According to NPR, the Copenhagen study “picked up 49 animal species including rhinos, giraffes and elephants. ‘We even detected the guppy that was living in the pond in the rainforest house.'”
Cathedral of Learning from CMU, 29 June 2023 (photo by Kaleem Kheshgi)
30 June 2023 (photo by Kaleem Kheshgi)
17 July 2023
When Canadian wildfire smoke swept into Pittsburgh in late June it gave us two and a half days of terrible air quality, then dissipated suddenly on 30 June. Kaleem Kheshgi captured the stark contrast from smoke to clear in photos on 29 and 30 June. Even as the smoke dispersed meteorologists warned that it could and would return because the fires are still burning.
Today their prediction comes true. Wildfire smoke from Alberta and British Columbia has blown into the U.S. and caused Code Red air quality alerts yesterday from Montana to Michigan and Kentucky.
Pittsburgh was in the clear at the time but not anymore. At 5am today Pittsburgh was already in Code Orange and the red zone was approaching. Cleveland and Buffalo are among the many locations in red. (Pittsburgh is marked with a * on these maps.)
Code Orange will force some of my friends indoors today. Code Red is bad for everyone.
A code ORANGE air quality alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sensitive groups include children, the elderly, and people suffering from asthma, heart disease, or other lung diseases. The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding outdoor exercise or strenuous activity.
A code RED air quality alert means that air pollution concentrations are unhealthy for the general population.
A look at some individual monitors on the AirMatters app tells the story at 6:30am. I’ve set my app to look at Pittsburgh, plus local monitors near Frick Park (“Forest Glen”), Carlow University and one of several monitors in Homestead.
Today’s forecast says we’ll be in Code Orange but the Red Zone is so close that we will probably see Red spikes before rain and thunderstorms clear it out late this afternoon/evening.
Check your own air quality at AirNow https://www.airnow.gov/. Download the AirMatters app at the Apple Store or Google Play.
Find out what causes iridescence in this 16 minute video from PBS @BeSmart. If you don’t have much time, watch the first 4+ minutes about hummingbirds.
Clouds over Cape Cod Bay near Mayflower Beach, 11 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
15 July 2023
Last week at Cape Cod I came away with many impressions and a few photos of things-that-stand-still. The clouds above Cape Cod Bay and the shallow waves at low tide made a pretty picture on 11 July.
Bird photos are beyond my cellphone’s capability so I’ve borrowed from Wikimedia Commons to illustrate. The Best Birds without a doubt were piping plovers and their chicks at Sea Gull Beach. So cute!
Best Insect was an ebony damselfly seen at Stony Brook Mill Site with Bob Kroeger who took this photo.
Ebony damselfly, Stony Brook Mill Site, 8 July 2023 (photo by Bob Kroeger)
Cape Cod has *lots* of rabbits everywhere. I didn’t think to take a photo when a rabbit was nearby. Can you see it in dappled shade in the middle of this photo?
One of the many rabbits on Cape Cod: on the trail at Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary, 11 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
The flowers on this spotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata) had not yet opened on 6 July.
Spotted wintergreen, South Dennis, MA, 6 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
American cow-wheat, Wellfleet Bay Audubon Sanctuary, 8 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Greenery we never see in Pittsburgh –> seaweed.
Seaweed at Sea Gull Beach, Yarmouth, MA, 7 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Our family prefers the beaches on Cape Code Bay where there’s lots of space to spread out at low tide. At high tide all but the far edge is underwater.
Overcast morning at Corporation Beach, Dennis, MA, 9 July 2023 (photo by Richard St. John)
And the waves are shallow like those at Lake Erie.
Sunny afternoon near Mayflower Beach, Dennis, MA, 11 July 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
At the end of our stay it was 90 degrees for a couple of days. Not so much fun in the sun. Though it’s nice to travel I’m glad to be home.
(photos by Kate St. John, Bob Kroeger and from Wikimedia Commons)
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