Coltsfoot blooming in Schenley Park, 1 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
8 April 2023
This week the temperature stayed above freezing (until this morning) and set a record 85ºF on Wednesday. On a walk in Schenley Park last Saturday 1 April I saw coltsfoot in bloom, Virginia bluebells in bud and flowering Norway maples.
Virginia bluebells about to bloom, Schenley Park, 1 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
By the end of the week the city’s Norway maples had bloomed enough that their profiles looked like green balls instead of stick trees. You’ll can see this on the slope of Mt Washington as viewed from Downtown or the Bluff.
Norway maples flowering, Schenley Park, 1 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
By mid week it was sunny and HOT.
On Wednesday 5 April I visited the Lake Trail at Raccoon Creek State Park to find newly arrived Louisiana waterthrushes (). Near one of the singing birds was a puddle of trilling and mating American toads. I recorded their sound and added a my (lousy) photo of mating toads + a Wikimedia photo of the Louisiana waterthrush when he sings in the recording. You can also hear the wind on the mic.
video by Kate StJohn Birdblog on YouTube
Also at Raccoon: spring beauty () and yellow corydalis (). I wish I could have stayed longer.
Spring beauty, Raccoon Creek State Park, Lake Trail, 5 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)Yellow corydalis, Raccoon Creek State Park Lake Trail, 5 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
The hummingbird family (Trochilidae) is one of the five largest on Earth(*) containing 363 species in 112 genera. Though many are named “hummingbird” most have fanciful names that reflect their beauty including brilliant, emerald, woodnymph, coronet and sunbeam.
While we wait for our own hummingbirds to return on migration, here’s another look at my WINGS birding trip to Mindo and the Northwest Andes (28 Jan – 5 Feb) with hummingbird photos and video by fellow travelers.
The photos at top are by Bob Black. The 16-minute video below is by Peter Haines (P.B. Child Birding). You’ll meet Peter’s dogs at the beginning.
After lamenting Wednesday morning that Morela was again distracted and not spending any time at the nest she was there yesterday for nearly 3 hours. She even dug the scrape (where she’ll lay eggs) and stood over it for a minute looking rather pregnant as seen in the video below.
I slowed down yesterday’s 12-hour timelapse and cut out the empty spaces to create this 2-minute look at Morela’s nearly 3 hours on camera. Notice Ecco perching for an hour in the late afternoon and their 3 bowing sessions. Three!
If this keeps up we could see eggs this month. Fingers crossed!
Bad Day for the Downtown Peregrines?
Meanwhile Downtown Pittsburgh’s peregrine pair is already nesting at Third Avenue but something is happening at the Gulf Tower less than half a mile away. Ann Hohn, whose Make-A-Wish office is near the unused Gulf Tower nest, emailed me yesterday:
There is something going on up here. Two falcons are buzzing the building and one of them lands and chirps at the other and then they buzz the building (or each other) again. Been going on for a few hours. This doesn’t appear to be the juvenile that was here the other day. Video is the chirper. Turn up volume.
Kate – no bands on this bird.
— email from Ann Hohn, 5 April 2023
Here’s Ann’s photo of the dark-plumage peregrine seen the other day at the Gulf Tower. At the time we thought this was juvenile plumage but notice the horizontal stripes on the legs, the sign of an adult.
Dark plumage peregrine at the Gulf Tower, approx 3 April 2023 (photo by Ann Hohn)
Yesterday’s “chirper” peregrine is dark colored, too, and loud enough to be heard through double-pane windows.
(video by Ann Hohn via YouTube)
Birds of the World explains that this sound “in wild birds, is given during aerial encounters with conspecific intruders around nest site.” The chirper must be telling another peregrine to go away.
Chances are that this event was an encounter between an intruder and a member of the Downtown pair. Is one of them this very stripe-y female, seen last May with Terzo at BNY Mellon? There’s no way to know. None of them are banded.
Unbanded adult female seen with Terzo at BNY Mellon, 11 May 2022 (photo by Amanda Linn)
My hope is that Downtown’s troubles don’t fly over to Oakland and distract Morela and Ecco again. Additional fingers crossed!
Last month I had high hopes for eggs at the Pitt peregrine nest, but now I’m not so sure. Morela is distracted again.
The season started well as Ecco and Morela courted at the nest several times a day during 12-14 March. They toned it down to once a day on 15-18 March but I didn’t notice because they were back to normal shortly thereafter. And then Morela disappeared on 21 March to chase off a challenger.
Four days later she returned to the nest and the pair courted frequently. I was optimistic we’d have an egg by 8 April but I was wrong. Things have been very strange since then.
This timelapse video from 3 April at 8:00pm to 5 April at 7:00am shows the change in behavior. It starts with Morela perched at the nest two nights ago, during the full moon of 3-4 April. Just before dawn on 4 April Ecco appears briefly. He’s the only one on camera all day yesterday and, surprisingly, the only one on camera last night!
Meanwhile, an observation from Betty Rowland at 10:30am yesterday might give a hint to what’s happening. As she was waiting for the red light at Bellefield and Fifth Ave she saw a peregrine burst out of a nearby tree(!) and fly over Fifth Avenue to the roof of Webster Hall where another falcon was perched. Was this Ecco flying up to mate with Morela? If it happened at exactly 10:30am Ecco was at the nest, not in flight. Was it the challenger and Morela?
I don’t know what’s going on and cannot predict what will happen next except for this: I doubt we’ll see an egg at the Cathedral of Learning this weekend.
p.s. Mary Ann Pike remarked yesterday that it looked as if Ecco was calling at 3:50pm. I found the incident and can see that he was trying to cast a pellet.
Though the next two days will feel like summer in Pittsburgh with highs of 72ºF and 82ºF, the hummingbirds will not be back yet. Where are they now? When will they get here?
Our only hummingbird, the ruby-throated (Archilochus colubris), has a wide breeding range in eastern North America and a narrow wintering range in Central America and the southern tip of Florida.
Thanks to Hummingbird Central’s spring migration map, we can see that a few daring individuals flew north inside Florida in February but most migrants showed up in Central/North Florida and on the Gulf Coast in early March. By now, 4 April, the leading edge of hummingbird migrants has covered central and coastal North Carolina and has a foothold in southeastern Virginia.
Today’s hummingbirdcentral.com snapshot shows the gap between Pittsburgh and the leading edge of hummingbirds.
Will they reach Pittsburgh this month? Yes, one or two brave ones, but I predict the big push won’t get here until early May. My eBird sightings of ruby-throated hummingbirds in Frick/Schenley Parks consistently shows first arrivals on May 2-4 for the past five years.
13 May 2012
… gap of 6 years …
4 May 2018
4 May 2019
3 May 2020
3 May 2021
2 May 2022
(Go ahead, hummingbirds. Prove me wrong and arrive early!)
On Saturday before the storms I saw my First Of Year eastern phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) in Schenley Park while Kathy Saunders found a first Louisiana waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla) at Tom’s Run Nature Reserve. Two tail-waggers are back in town.
Few birds wag their tails side to side but we do call it “wagging” when they bob or pump their tails up and down. Eastern phoebes are subtle about it but the movement is almost constant and it draws our attention.
What makes phoebes wag their tails faster? Predators! Sibley describes a 2011 study of black phoebes:
Avellis concludes that tail pumping is a signal meant to send a message to the predator. It tells the predator that the phoebe has seen it, and therefore the phoebe is not worth pursuing.
Louisiana waterthrushes don’t just wag their tails. They continuously bob the entire back end of their bodies by moving their ankle joints. Birds’ ankles are the backward “knees,” the middle joint on their legs, hidden by this waterthrush while he dips his butt.
Louisiana waterthrush, April 2020 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Louisiana waterthrushes have a different reason for tail wagging than eastern phoebes and they hold their technique in common with another April migrant, spotted sandpipers.
In case you missed it, here’s why they “wag” their tails.
Here in Pennsylvania when we see a photo of an armadillo we immediately think “Texas,” but we could just as well think Tennessee. Nine-banded armadillos expanded across Tennessee in less than 50 years and by the end of this century, probably sooner, they’ll walk into Pennsylvania. Their current (2006) and future ranges are shown on the map below.
Armadillos have no fur so they are sensitive to cold weather but not all of it. Yale Climate Connections says, “Researchers now believe that armadillos can thrive as long as average minimum temperatures stay above about 17 degrees Fahrenheit.” Pittsburgh has 12 to 32 days each winter that drop below 17, which are probably too many for an armadillo.
But just wait. They’ll get here. This video explains how and why.
Star magnolia in bloom, Schenley Park, 27 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
1 April 2023
Welcome to April! Last month brought flowering trees, frost damage, more flowers and early leaf out.
The star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) above was looking good on 27 March but the one below bloomed too early on Pitt’s campus and sustained frost damage.
Frost damage on a star magnolia, Univ of Pittsburgh campus, 22 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
This honeybee didn’t care about the brown petals. She probably flew in from The Porch beehives across the street.
Honeybee at frost-damaged star magnolia, Univ of Pittsburgh, 22 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Non-native flowers are blooming. Eyebright (Euphrasia sp) popped up in the grass at Frick.
Eyebright in Frick Park, 22 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Purple dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) bloomed before the frost and still looked good on the 29th, here with chickweed (Stellaria media) in a Shadyside front yard.
Purple dead-nettle and chickweed, 29 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Meanwhile leafout is already underway. Bush honeysuckle had leaves on 18 March.
Bush honeysuckle leafout in Schenley Park, 18 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
This month southwestern Pennsylvania’s peregrine falcons got down to the serious business of defending their territories (at Pitt) and laying eggs, summarized in the spreadsheet below.
Note the last line! Margaret & Roger Higbee + others saw a peregrine along US 422 near Craigsville, Armstrong County. It’s an odd location but noteworthy in that it’s 8+ miles due east of the Kittanning nest site on the US 422 Bridge.
Though Morela did not lay yet this spring, her hormonal situation may be similar to having lost a clutch of eggs. According to Birds of the World, in temperate latitudes [such as Pittsburgh] clutch may be replaced in about 2 weeks if first clutch is lost.
Downtown Pittsburgh:
On 3 March Jeff Cieslak stopped by Downtown Pittsburgh and found a pair of peregrines at home on Third Avenue. Both members of last year’s pair, Terzo and Dori, were banded so he could tell immediately that the unbanded female is new. The male is a puzzle; Jeff couldn’t see his legs.
In Jeff’s 27 March photo below, taken from Mt. Washington, it appears that incubation has begun at bottom left.
Third Ave nest site as seen from Mt. Washington. Peregrine circled in red, Peregrine on nest inside red square, 27 March 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Monaca RR Bridge, Ohio River:
TWO YEARS AGO: Peregrine on Monaca RR Bridge, March 2021 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
During March Dante Zuccaro reported one or two peregrines almost every day at the Monaca Railroad Bridge. He last saw two on 18 March, but now only one. Perhaps incubation has begun.
Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge, Ohio River:
Ambridge Bridge, 20 Feb 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
Every once in a great while a solo peregrine is seen perched on the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge. The last incident happened to be this week, 28 March.
Sewickley Bridge, Ohio River:
Peregrine on the Sewickley Bridge, 11 Mar 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Like the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge, a solo peregrine is sometimes seen on the Sewickley Bridge. The last one was on 14 March.
Eckert Street near McKees Rocks Bridge, Ohio River:
COMPARISON, 2 PHOTOS: Female and male peregrines at Eckert Street, 26 March 2023 (photos by Jeff Cieslak)
Jeff Cieslak visits the Eckert Street peregrines nearly every day to see them courting loudly(!). On Tuesday the pair bowed near the nest. The female’s belly bulge indicates that eggs are due any day now.
Female peregrine looking egg-y at Eckert Street, 28 March 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)Male peregrine high-stepping and calling to his lady at Eckert Street, 28 March 2023 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Westinghouse Bridge, Turtle Creek:
Peregrine at Westinghouse Bridge, 18 March 2023 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Dana Nesiti saw the male peregrine at the Westinghouse Bridge on 18 March, above, and the pair on 23 March.
62nd Street Bridge / Highland Park Bridge / Aspinwall Riverfront Park, Allegheny River: No photo this time but on 8 March a bunch of observers, myself included, saw one and then two peregrines near the 62nd Street Bridge. We were all at the Sharpsburg Marina to see a long-tailed duck and happened to luck out with the peregrines.
Tarentum Bridge, Allegheny River:
Female peregrine getting off the eggs at the Tarentum Bridge, 30 Mar 2023 (photo by Dave Brooke)
This week Dave Brooke suspected that the female peregrine is incubating at Tarentum Bridge. Yesterday, 30 March, he came very close to confirming it in this photo showing her head-dipping and carefully moving away from the nest so as not to disturb the eggs with her talons.
No news in March from…
Graff Bridge, Rt 422, Kittanning, Allegheny River
Clairton Coke Works
Speers Railroad Bridge, Washington County, Monongahela River: A solo peregrine was seen on 25 February. No news since then.
Check out any of these sites and tell me what you see. Need directions? Leave a comment.
Peregrine locations in Southwestern PA (annotated by Kate St. John)
SEVEN YEARS AGO: Great horned owl on nest under the Homestead Grays Bridge, 30 March 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
30 March 2023
Seven years ago I wrote about two great-horned owl nests on local bridges — one on the Homestead Grays Bridge incubating eggs, the other with young at the Anderson Bridge in Schenley Park.
A lot has changed in seven years. At the Homestead Grays Bridge there is still a nest but it’s occupied by a red-tailed hawk this year. We saw the hawk incubating last Sunday from the Duck Hollow parking lot. Bring a scope if you stand here.
We view the red-tailed hawk’s nest on the Homestead Gray’s Bridge from Duck Hollow, 26 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
The nest is where it’s always been, even seven years ago, on a cross bar flush to the upright above the pier. For better viewing, look at it from the Homestead side.
Location of red-tailed hawk’s nest at the Homestead Gray’s Bridge, 26 March 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
