Baby Birds Stepping Out

Bird Behavior
Piping plover chick at Queens, NY (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 July 2022

Before they can fly, baby birds make their first moves on foot. Watch three babies stepping out.

A piping plover chick (Charadrius melodus) at Rockaway, NY:

A flightless guillemot chick (Cepphus grylle), accompanied by his father, jumps into the sea at an island off the UK coast:

A baby emu gets excited.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

Drought?

Weather & Sky
Wilted white snakeroot at Schenley Park, 4 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

9 July 2022

Hot dry weather since early June has turned the grass brown and caused low water in Pittsburgh area streams. By the Fourth of July leaves were wilting in Schenley Park and Little Sewickley’s creek bed was exposed at Sneed’s.

Low water exposes the creekbed of Little Sewickley Creek at Sneeds, 4 July 2022 (photo by Karyn Delaney)

Precipitation had changed in only five weeks from 1.20 inches above normal at the end of May to -1.58 inches below normal on 4 July. A thunderstorm on 6 July reduced the deficit to -1.24 inches below normal this morning. (See statistics at the NWS Pittsburgh Local Climate page.)

Are we in a drought?

Not really. Despite wilting leaves this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor map puts most of Pennsylvania in the normal range. (S=short-term impacts, L=long term impacts)

U.S. Drought Monitor map, 5 July 2022 (map from US Drought Monitor at UNL)

The Drought Severity Index (Long Term Palmer) map, below, is both predictive and more fine grained. It shows a hint of drought in four southwestern Pennsylvania regions (pale yellow) and extreme drought in the U.S. West and Southwest (orange). The surprise to me is the extreme long term drought in eastern North and South Carolina, evident on both drought maps. Northeastern North Carolina needs 12 inches of rain to get back to normal (click here for the map).

Long Term Palmer Drought Severity Index by county (map from NOAA Climate Prediction Center)

It’s reassuring to know that Pittsburgh is not heading for severe drought. I feel bad for all the areas colored scary red and orange.

(photos by Kate St. John and Karyn Delaney, maps from US Drought Monitor at UNL and NOAA Climate Prediction Center)

Is She Making A Mistake?

Insects
Regal moth ovipositing on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)

8 July 2022

When Mike Fialkovich sent me photos of a regal moth laying eggs on a metal fence near his office I wondered if this female was making a mistake. The fence has no food for her tiny caterpillars. What will her larvae eat when they hatch?

The regal or royal walnut moth (Citheronia regalis) is the largest moth north of Mexico with a wingspan of 3.94 to 6.25 inches (females are largest). The adult moth never eats — its only job is to reproduce — but its caterpillars feast on trees including hickories, pecans, black walnuts, sweet gum, persimmon and sumacs.

Normally their lives unfold like this.

Adults emerge in late evening and mate the following evening. Females begin laying eggs at dusk the next day, depositing them in groups of 1-3 on both sides of host plant leaves. Eggs hatch within 6-10 days, and the caterpillars (known as the Hickory Horned Devil) feed alone. Young caterpillars rest on the tops of leaves and resemble bird droppings, while older caterpillars appear menacing because they are very large and brightly colored with red “horns” near the head. Caterpillars pupate in a burrow in the soil.

— Royal walnut moth account at butterfliesandmoths.org

There’s no explanation for why this moth chose a fence. Did it “smell” like a hickory?

Regal moth ovipositing on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)
Regal moth with eggs on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)

Her caterpillars, called hickory horned devils, will need a lot of food to reach this size before they pupate.

Hickory horned devil, final instar of regal moth (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

It looks like a mistake to me but we’ll have to wait and see.

(photos of regal moth by Mike Fialkovich, hickory horned devil photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Screeching All Day

Bird Behavior, Peregrines
Silver Girl complains at the Cathedral of Learning nestbox, 6 July 2022 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

7 July 2022

Parenthood can be trying especially when grown children who were briefly independent return home and complain that you’re not feeding them enough. Pitt peregrines Morela and Ecco are going through this with their two female youngsters, Yellow Girl and Silver Girl.

Last weekend Yellow Girl demanded a handout. Then a brief respite of silence ended this week with intensive screeching. I heard it yesterday morning as I walked past Phipps Conservatory and searched the sky for a young peregrine chasing an adult. Nothing.

What I heard was Silver Girl at the nest, a third of a mile away, screeching at the top of her lungs as shown in the video below. At the start you can hear Ecco chupping and whistling while Silver Girl screams. She calmed down for a moment but it didn’t last. She screeched off and on all day.

Weaning these youngsters from parental care is a very noisy activity.

(video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Lightning and Fish

Fish, Frogs, Weather & Sky
Lighting strikes as the USS Abraham Lincoln transits the Strait of Malacca (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

6 July 2022

When a thunderstorm approaches at the beach or a swimming pool, the lifeguards tell everyone to get out of the water. Lightning often strikes water and anyone in it can be electrocuted.

Fish live in water so why don’t they die from lightning? The National Weather Service explains:

Before a lightning strike, a charge builds up along the water’s surface. When lightning strikes, most of electrical discharge occurs near the water’s surface. Most fish swim below the surface and are unaffected.

— National Weather Service: Lightning and Fish

This NWS animation shows the positive charge building on the surface and the negatively charged lightning strike spreading horizontally. Fish swim below it all.

Lightning hits positive charge at water’s surface (animation from NWS)

Humans swim on the water’s surface where lightning has its greatest effect. In addition, lightning is a hazard in open outdoor spaces like beaches.

West Beach Galveston, 1973 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Interestingly in the US, the most dangerous activity during lightning is fishing; beaches are second. We thought golf was the worst but it is far down on the list.

US lightning death statistics by activity, 2010-2021 (table from National Weather Service, Paducah, KY)

During a thunderstorm the fish are safer than the fisherman.

(photos and animations from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

Mama Possum at Full Capacity

Mammals
Female Virginia opossum with a full pouch (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

1 July 2022

By mid June Mama Possum looks very “pregnant” though it’s merely that her pouch is full of growing babies.

Eventually the babies are too large to fit inside so they travel on top.

Momma opossum with babies on her back (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The whole family looks vulnerable. How can this be safe when a fox shows up?

Perhaps they all play dead.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons)

By The 4th Of July

Books & Events, Phenology
Cornfield in early July in Ontario (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

4 July 2022

Some Rules of Thumb for Nature are timed “by the 4th of July.” Here are three. Can you think of more?

Corn is knee high by the 4th of July. Or at least it should be. This year in Minnesota there was worry that it might not come true. KARE 11 in Minneapolis reports:

Native rhododendrons bloom by 4th of July in the Laurel Highlands. Cultivated rhododendrons bloom in May because they’ve been bred to do so.

Rhododendron blooming, Fern Cliff, Ohiopyle, 1 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Most songbirds stop singing around the 4th of July. Others will follow this month.

Baltimore oriole (photo by Steve Gosser)

Birds sing to attract mates and maintain their nesting territories. Those that migrate to Central and South America are on such a tight schedule that they finish nesting and stop singing by early to mid July. Song sparrows, robins, and cardinals are still singing because they have new nests this month.

When is the last time you heard a Baltimore oriole sing? For that matter, when did you last see one? He won’t leave until September but he is far more discreet than he was in May.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, Kate St. John and Steve Gosser)

Yellow Girl Demands A Handout

Bird Behavior, Peregrines
Yellow Girl looking for a handout, 2 July 2022 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

UPDATE 7 July 2022: Both young peregrines have been screeching. Silver Girl screamed all day on 6 July.

3 July 2022

By late June two of this year’s juvenile Pitt peregrines remained in Oakland. Sometimes they waited for their father Ecco to bring food. Sometimes they left campus to go hunting. Eventually I saw only the adult peregrines at the Cathedral of Learning.

Then on 30 June something changed. Michelle Kienholz saw and heard a noisy juvenile begging loudly. Yesterday morning my husband heard lots of peregrine begging from St. Paul’s Cathedral steeple.

Cathedral of Learning in the distance beyond St. Paul’s Cathedral steeples (photo by Kate St. John)

By 4:30pm the falconcam showed that Yellow Girl had come home for a handout and Ecco was having none of it.

Here’s an edited sequence of events. I have spared you 8 minutes of screeching.

Ecco is letting Yellow Girl know that it’s time to fend for herself.

(peregrine photo and video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh; St. Paul’s steeple and Cathedral of Learning photo by Kate St. John)

Catnip, Fleabane, Mullein and More

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Catnip in bloom, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

2 July 2022

Seen this week at Duck Hollow, listed in photo order:

  • Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is in bloom (at top). No cats were present but plenty of dogs walked by. The Duck Hollow trail is popular with dog-walking services.
  • Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is 5-6 feet tall now with a spike of yellow flowers.
  • Moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) is a much more delicate plant than common mullein.
  • Daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) cast petal-shadows on its disks as it opened in the morning sun.
  • Leaf miners are active now, making squiggles inside the leaves. (I don’t know the identity of the leaves pictured below.)
  • Teasel (Dipsacus sp.) hasn’t bloomed yet but it is getting close.
Common mullein in bloom, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Moth mullein, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Fleabane opening in morning sun, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Teasel not quite blooming yet, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

I heard ravens calling in the distance while I took these pictures. Woo hoo!

(photos by Kate St. John)

Weevil Not Evil

Insects
Yellow poplar weevil on my window, 24 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

30 June 2022

It’s that time of year again when yellow poplar weevils come out en masse for their courtship flight. I had a hint that they’d “bloomed” when I saw one on my window on 24 June. Today there are more.

This week they were clearly present when I walked through Schenley Park. I brushed off one that landed on my shirt while I watched northern rough-winged swallows wheeling overhead. Were the swallows eating flying weevils or something else?

Billbug on black locust, Schenley Park, 8 June 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)
Yellow poplar weevil on black locust, Schenley Park, 8 June 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)

Yellow poplar weevils (Odontopus calceatus) are harmless to humans but can show up in unexpected places. When I got home I sat down to eat lunch and a weevil jumped off my shoulder and landed near my salad. Dang! I smashed it before I realized I could have taken a closeup photo.

This weevil is not evil but is certainly annoying. Learn more about its lifestyle and what it eats in this 2018 article.

Amaze Your Friends

p.s. Years ago these bugs were misidentified in the newspaper as “billbugs.” Every year I forget their “weevil” name until I look them up in June.

(photos by Kate St. John)