Pigeons courting (photo by Aomorikuma via Wikimedia Commons)
In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast
In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest
In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove
In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Small brown birds at the feeder in Indiana County, PA, early February 2014 (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
What bird is that?
There’s a small brown bird at the feeder and there’s no one to help you identify it.
Don’t you wish you had a personal assistant to help you?
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s free Merlin Bird ID app for Android and iPhone does just that. Introduced in 2014, the app gets smarter every year. It uses the simple information you already know — your location, the date and the words “small,” “brown,” and “at the bird feeder” — to narrow your choices and identify the bird.
(screenshot from Merlin Bird ID app, Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
You can even take a picture with your cellphone and ask Merlin what it is.
Merlin’s answer is a list of the most likely suspects with photos, sounds and descriptions. It even tells you if the bird is uncommon or rare for your date and location. That’s one of the best clues you’ll find anywhere because an “uncommon” species in March can become “common” in May.
Watch the video below to see how Merlin works, then download the app.
Merlin’s a wizard at identifying birds!
p.s. What birds are at Marcy Cunkelman’s feeder shown above? She took the photo in Indiana County, PA, in early February 2014.
(bird photo by Marcy Cunkelman, Merlin Bird ID screenshot and video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Birds in the Americas are on the move every day of the year — even in winter.
Migration animation by Frank La Sorte/Cornell Lab of Ornithology
This animation by Frank La Sorte at Cornell Lab uses eBird data to show the movements of 118 species in the western hemisphere. Yes, your eBird checklists can lead to something useful and beautiful like this.
There’s a birding hotspot at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania that attracts some of the rarest birds in the state. It also attracts intrepid birders willing to make the one and a half mile hike from the parking lot … until now.
Gull Point is the eastern tip of a feather-shaped sand spit that arcs out to create Erie harbor. The tip is closed from April 1 to November 30 to protect wildlife from human intrusion. Now it’s even more protected. On March 10 Gull Point became an island.
With the high winds the last 24 hours or so, it has finally happened. Lake Erie cut a channel through Gull Point Trail to Thompson Bay about half way out to Gull Point on Presque Isle S.P., PA. Gull Point is now an island. The breach is about 30 to 40 feet across, and for now it is only about six inches deep. The lake level is predicted to continue rising into June or July, so the channel is likely to deepen especially following storms. Even after crossing the channel you still can’t access Gull Point Trail since the trail is washed away for the next 100 or so feet before it begins again. Because the honeysuckle and bayberry is so thick it is impossible to try to walk through to reach Gull Point Trail, so you need to walk along the brushline. Hip boots will be required for now to make it to the trail.
The sand always moves at Presque Isle but this breach was hastened by our exceptionally warm winter. Normally, ice on the lake prevents high waves during winter storms but there’s no ice this month so the waves crashed in. Who knew!
The trail looked like this a year ago …
Mary and Sarah walk the Gulf Point Trail, April 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
… but knee boots are not enough now!
Park management will assess the situation after the winter storms subside.
It’s humanly possible to reconnect Gull Point to the peninsula if you have enough money. But the sand will keep moving and it will breach again. Nature wins the battle every time.
Red-breasted merganser hen at Duck Hollow, March 2017 (photo by Tom Moeller)
Oh my! I should have posted this last Monday. (It’s been a busy week.)
Just a reminder that I’ll be leading an outing at Duck Hollow and Lower Frick Park tomorrow. Hope to see you there.
Sunday March 19, 2017 — 8:30am – 10:30am
Duck Hollow and Lower Frick Park Bird and Nature Walk
Meet at Duck Hollow parking lot at the end of Old Browns Hill Road. We hope to see migrating waterfowl on the river and and walk the beginning of nearby lower Nine Mile Run Trail at the south end of Frick Park. Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars, scopes (for river watching), and field guides if you have them.
(photo of a red-breasted merganser at Duck Hollow, March 2017, by Tom Moeller)
Hope shouts at Terzo, 2:20pm 15 Mar 2017 (screenshot from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Ever since the female peregrine at Pitt laid her first egg on March 15 lots of people have been watching her on camera. The first question on everyone’s mind has been, “Why is she shouting?!?”
Indeed, Hope spent a lot of time shouting at the top of her lungs on Wednesday. Here’s just a tiny dose of her voice.
She’s always been a vocal bird but this is over the top. People can hear her inside the Cathedral of Learning and as far away as O’Hara Street behind Soldiers and Sailors Hall. Peter Bell @PittPeregrines said, “She’s so loud you can hear her over all the traffic!”
So why is she shouting?
I don’t know but I can tell you what was happening off camera.
Before Hope began shouting, she and her mate Terzo were communicating softly over the egg and bowing in courtship. (Note! This behavior is a happy thing. It is not fighting.)
After he bowed, Terzo flew up to a perch above the camera about six feet away from the egg. Hope looked right at him and began shouting. When he flew away she shut up and sat down on the egg. When he came back she resumed shouting.
Peregrine shouting, also called wailing, means “I want [____] to change.” None of us speak ‘peregrine’ so we don’t know what’s in that blank.
In Other News:
Hope was silent on Thursday March 16 because she was busy chasing off an unbanded female intruder. The intruder visited the nest twice and even bowed with Terzo at 12:24pm.
In the video below you can hear Terzo and the visitor chirping for 30 seconds before Terzo jumps into the nest. Look carefully at the female and you’ll see she resembles a bird who visited three times last year: April 8, August 2 and November 14.
Will this be a quiet nesting season at the Cathedral of Learning? No.
