It looks like Photoshop, but it’s not. The bird and the plane are actual size, frozen in time in Steve Shinn’s photograph.
The peregrine is a wild bird who nests on the seaside cliffs near Los Angeles, California. She has nestlings on the cliff and won’t tolerate anything flying near them. It doesn’t matter what it is.
The plane is a radio-controlled glider, guided by a human on the ground. Model airplane enthusiasts love the wind above the cliffs for testing their equipment. They have not thought that peregrine falcons could be a hazard.
Steve Shinn stops by the cliffs frequently during peregrine nesting season to capture awesome photos of their activities. He was lucky to be there the day this female peregrine had had enough.
Annoyed by the glider invading her airspace, she flew out ahead of it, talons dangling, watching her chance.
Boom! She grabbed it in mid-air and bit the “neck” to sever its spinal cord but it didn’t die quickly.
Steve writes, “Having grabbed this invader, she naturally wanted to chew off its head. Fiberglass is a tough nut to crack even for a Peregrine. … She has been reported to have ripped off the canopy of one plane and caused another to plunge into the ocean.”
You’d think the glider operators would learn.
“Take that, you pesky airplane!”
(photos by Steve Shinn. Click here to see more of his peregrine photos.)
Gulf Tower peregrine family: Yesterday morning, June 19, I heard from Amanda McGuire that the Downtown peregrines are hanging out near Point Park University and Oxford Center. You may remember her balcony at Lawrence Hall was the rescued juveniles’ way station last year, the place where they rested near the (former) nest after rescue from the ground. At 7:45am Amanda texted me saying:
Just ran for my life… There’s a peregrine on a little perch a floor below my balcony… and another one circled over me as I was looking over the edge. | They’ve been loud the past couple of days. Yesterday around 7pm there were two flying around Oxford Center. | I thought about going back out to get you a picture… but after that second one swooped by, I think I’m just gonna stay inside. | One of them has the voice of their dad. Volume-wise at least… Luckily it’s not as long winded.
If you want to see the Gulf Tower peregrines, check out the area only three to four blocks from the Gulf Tower.
Westinghouse Bridge peregrine banding, Tuesday July 1, 10:00am: The Westinghouse Bridge family is maturing later than other Pittsburgh area nests (perhaps this is a re-nesting). On July 1 the PA Game Commission will band the nestling(s) when they are approximately 20 days old. PGC’s Peregrine Falcon Coordinator, Art McMorris, writes:
We will meet at 10:00 AM on US Route 30 east of the bridge. From the east, driving westbound towards the bridge, there is a pull-off on the right side of the road about 1/3 mile before the bridge, across from Clyde Ave. … PennDOT will set up the snooper crane and we will access the nest via the crane. Everyone going onto the bridge deck to observe should have the standard safety equipment: at a minimum, a hard hat and safety vest. Others who would like to observe can watch from locations near the bridge. Observers can help by taking photographs in hopes of documenting the identity of the adults.
The delicate flowers of Bowman’s Root (Gillenia trifoliata) have five petals, but they’re arranged irregularly as you can see in Tom Potterfield’s photo above. When the flower fades each petal falls alone leaving three and four-petaled flowers to confuse us amateur botanists.
I took a (poor) photo of the profuse flowers and drooping stems. They look as if the rain beat them down but this perennial just won’t stand upright.
Gillenia trifoliata has two scientific names because there was a big disagreement about its first one. Conrad Moench named it Gillenia in honor of German botanist Arnoldus Gillenius, but another of Gillenius’ fans later named a completely different plant Gillena in his honor. Professor Britton decided that the single letter “i” was not enough to distinguish the two names so he renamed Bowman’s Root Porteranthus trifoliatus in honor of his friend, Thomas C. Porter.
Which name is right? In scientific naming there’s a rule that the first name takes precedence unless, of course, the organism is reclassed. As we have seen with warblers, the Dendroica genus name completely disappeared when American Redstarts, Setophaga ruticilla, were reclassed into the Dendroica genus. Because Setophaga is an older name the American Ornithologists’ Union declared that Setophaga replaced Dendroica. (Don’t get me going on how much I hate this!) Apparently botanists made no such pronouncement on Gillenia so both names continue.
Bowman’s Root has another common name, Indian Physic, because Native Americans used the powdered root for an emetic (bleah!) and other medicinal uses.
Four names are a heavy load for these ethereal flowers. I like to call them Bowman’s Root.
(Top photo taken at Longwood Gardens by Tom Potterfield. Click on the image to see the original. Bottom photo by Kate St.John)
(*) Life Flower: I’m borrowing a term from birding to describe the first time I’ve ever seen this species.
Strip mining consumes nearly 3,000 acres of Pennsylvania every year but there’s a ray of hope when the mines are reclaimed. The “strips” become grasslands that could attract this bird.
Though they are “shorebirds” upland sandpipers don’t live at the shore. They’re the quintessential grassland bird and an indicator of healthy tallgrass prairie. Eight months of the year they live on the pampas (grasslands) of Argentina but in early spring they fly 6,000 to 8,000 miles, sometimes in as little as a week, to nest in the grasslands of North America. Present from April to August, they stay here only four months.
In this century it’s a privilege to see one. In the late 1800’s the upland plover, as it was called at the time, was market-hunted to fill the dining niche vacated by the suddenly scarce passenger pigeon. Trainloads of dead “plovers” were shipped East while settlers drained the prairie and converted it to farmland. Nowadays habitat loss and pesticides continue to threaten the bird’s existence. Bartramia longicauda is listed as endangered in Pennsylvania.
Upland sandpipers are magical birds. Your first hint of their presence may be a long mellow courtship whistle, given in flight or upon alighting (click here to hear), or their short whistle: “Ba-tui-tui.“
They are graceful in almost everything they do. In flight they use a distinctive rapid fluttering style reserved for the breeding grounds. Scan the fenceposts and you’ll find one perched where he landed with wings held aloft in a V, then slowly lowered. It’s worth waiting to see one do this. With its 20 inch wingspan, you can’t help but notice the bird.
Upland sandpipers are very picky about grass. They require upland, ungrazed grassland with three kinds of habitat: perches for courtship, tall vegetation with overhanging cover for the nest, low vegetation for their young to forage in. They are also picky about grass species, preferring native grasses to invasives. This means there are few places to find them in Pennsylvania.
The opportunity to see an upland sandpiper is so tempting, though, that birders will drive long distances to find them. When I read last week that they were seen in Clarion County I drove an hour and a half last Sunday, 15 June 2014, to meet up with Carole Winslow, Clarion County’s bird compiler. We found a birder from New Jersey who had driven 5 hours to find “uppies.” He was lured by the magic, too.
Carole and I were very lucky. We saw four upland sandpipers in a large field at Mt. Airy and as we drove away were startled to see one perched on a fencepost close to the road. Oh my! We stopped in our tracks. He took our breath away.
Last month I learned a new word that describes what this springbok is doing.
Stotting, also called pronking or pronging, is a stiff-legged trot punctuated every few paces by a high jump.
Here’s a quick look at a stotting gazelle in real time.
And here’s a longer look at springboks in slow motion from the BBC.
Cheetahs make the springbok run. What makes them stott? One theory is that they do it to show off.
It’s certainly a “Look at me!” moment when a springbok jumps 13 feet into the air with his back arched and legs dangling. When a male jumps he opens the pocket of skin that runs from his back to his tail, as you can see in the photo above. This flashes his patch of white hair and, according to Wikipedia, emits a sweaty odor.
Springbok and Thomson’s gazelles aren’t the only animals that stott. North American mule deer and pronghorn do it and young sheep stott, too, as a form of play.
Who knew?!
(photo by Yathin_sk on Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
Because the barn swallow is very widespread and nests almost exclusively on man-made structures, it’s been easy to study this bird for a very long time. One interesting finding is that Hirundo rustica’s long tail streamers (outer edge tail feathers) are an excellent indicator of the birds’ health and a predictor of breeding success.
Birds with the longest and most symmetrical tail streamers are the healthiest and most desirable mates. According to Cornell’s Birds of North America, “Tail length tends to correlate with reproductive success, annual survival, propensity to engage in extra-pair copulation, parental effort, ability to withstand parasites, immunocompetence, and other measures of fitness.”
In other words, if you’re a barn swallow with a long symmetrical tail you’re really healthy, you get to choose the best mate, and your nest will be very successful. You’re also likely to be an older bird because tail length increases with age.
The down side is that long-tailed females are fickle. They always get the best mates but even when they’re paired up they often “mess around” with un-mated long-tailed guys. “Thus long-tailed male barn swallows are cuckolded more often than their less attractive neighbors,” says Frank B. Gill.
The longer the tail streamers, the better the bird. I’ll be watching their tails now.
My neighbors will tell you I am not a gardener. When the growing season arrives I spend all my time birding. Around Memorial Day I glance at the garden and think, “Something must be done!” I go out there with my Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide and identify what’s growing, pull out the noxious weeds, and leave everything else in place.
That’s how I got King Devil.
Also called Field Hawkweed (Hieracium pratense), it’s a perennial creeping plant whose yellow flowers cluster at the top of a tall, hairy stem. The leaves are basal, thin, hairy, untoothed and hardly noticeable compared to the flowers.
I find the flowers interesting in all their phases.
I left the King Devil where it sprouted.
Wikipedia says, “This species finds its habitat where the soil has been neglected.” That’s a pretty good description of my gardening efforts. The birds are luring me away from home.
There’s a new bird in town with a brown body, faint stripes on his brown chest, black beak, black eye, and a little black mask.
What is he? A juvenile starling.
He’s confusing because he’s not in the bird guide unless you know to look for starlings. He doesn’t look like his parents but his behavior is the same as theirs. The big hint to his identify, if he’s still at the begging stage, is that he won’t leave his parents alone.
You can hear him begging, “Churrrr, churrrr, churrrr.”
Want to see peregrine falcons or bald eagles? This weekend four sites in the Pittsburgh area have young raptors ready make their first flight.
Watch Peregrines at …
Monaca-East Rochester Bridge: Four juvenile peregrines are fledging at this site June 11-16. The nest is over water so your watchful presence may save a young peregrine’s life if it lands in the river (you can alert a nearby boater). There are no officially organized times to watch at this bridge though I can tell you I plan to stop by on Saturday. Click here for a map.
Neville Island I-79 Bridge: One female peregrine is due to fledge from this site June 14-19. Anne Marie Bosnyak and Laura Marshall will be at the adjacent Port Authority Park-n-Ride and Fairfield Inn parking lots for much of the weekend. I plan to visit too at 9:00am Saturday. Watch this blog or Pittsburgh Falconuts for dates and times. Click here for a map.
Watch bald eagles at…
Hays eagle nest: Three eaglets have been flapping like crazy on camera this week so it’s only a matter of time before one of them makes his first flight. Dedicated eagle fans will be watching from the Three Rivers Heritage Bike Trail all weekend. Bob Mulvihill from the National Aviary will be there on SUNDAY at 9:00am. C’mon down any time. It’s free! Click on Bob’s name or here for a map.
Harmar eagle nest: This nest is much harder to watch since the Hulton Bridge construction closed the small parking lot with the best view. Eagle fans have been known to stand by the side of busy Hulton Road in Oakmont. (Yow!) Before leaf-out there was a good, safe view from the patio behind Oakmont High School. Bring a birding scope and look for watchers on the Oakmont side of the river. If you find a good place to stand, leave a comment with directions.
The weather will be great for Fledge Watching. Let’s get outdoors!
p.s. Happy news from Westinghouse Bridge: On June 11 PGC’s Tom Keller found a day-old hatchling at the Westinghouse Bridge peregrine nest (two eggs still unhatched). PGC will band the chick(s) in 18 to 22 days. Peregrine monitor John English is looking forward to a Fledge Watch in mid July.
(photo of Hays Eagle Watch site by Kate St. John, photo of Hays eaglets from the PixController Hays eaglecam)
Many warblers have olive-green backs, yellow breasts and black feather accents. Think of hooded, prairie, Wilson’s and Kentucky warblers like this one. Why are so many of them this color?
Steve Gosser’s photo shows why.
By the time a warbler nests in North America, the leaves are out and the forest’s light is soft yellow-green. Seen by a predator from above, the warblers’ olive color matches the dark understory. From below their yellow breasts match the light filtering through the leaves. Their black accent feathers break up the colors and look like shadows.
In the winter the warblers live in leafy places in Central and South America where they continue to match the habitat.
Here’s a quick update:
