Monthly Archives: March 2016

Green Leaves in the Woods

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Garlic mustard in winter (photo by Kate St. John)
Garlic mustard in winter (photo by Kate St. John)

I should be excited to see green leaves poking up in the woods but these are bad ones.

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial alien invasive.  It turns green early because it’s out of synch with our seasons — and that gives it a growing advantage over many native plants.  Read more here about its invasive ways.

The only place I know of in western Pennsylvania that has no garlic mustard is Duff Park in Murrysville, thanks to the vigilance and activism of Pia van de Venne.   Over the years she has pulled out tons of garlic mustard, trained countless volunteers in invasive plant eradication, and placed signs at every park entrance that describe garlic mustard and urge folks to pull it up.

Everywhere else, these leaves are our first sign of spring.  🙁

 

(photo by Kate St. John)

Grackle Day

Migration, Songbirds
Common grackle in his dominance pose (photo by Shawn Collins)
Common grackle in a dominance pose (photo by Shawn Collins)

Because I’ve kept track of their spring arrival March 5 is Grackle Day at my house. It’s the day that the first common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) usually arrive in my neighborhood in the spring.

I hear them before I see them: “Skrinnnnk, Krinnnnk”  “Djuk Djuk.”  Listen to this audio clip and you’ll know what I mean.

The video below shows the males puffing up and calling to display their dominance.  The grackle whose beak points the highest is the one who wins.  😉

This year a few ambitious grackles passed through early.  I heard and saw a single common grackle on February 5 and two on March 1.  I’m waiting for more today.

Are there grackles in your neighborhood yet?

 

(photo by Shawn Collins, audio link from Xeno Canto, video by The Critter Window on YouTube)

Getting In Tune

Bird Behavior, Nesting & Courtship, Water and Shore

If you’ve been watching the Gulf Tower and Cathedral of Learning falconcams this month, you’ve seen the peregrines bowing and “chirping” to each other in courtship display.  Their rituals cement their pair bond and get them in tune with each other for the breeding season.

Some birds have fancier courtship displays.  Pairs of waved albatrosses (Phoebastria irrorata) get reacquainted after six months at sea by doing a courtship dance.

The video above shows their elaborate ritualized moves: bill clacking, rapid bill circling, bowing, touching the ground and their sides with their beaks, raising their bills, and making a whoo sound.  You have to visit the Galápagos to see them as it’s the only place where they breed.

The pairs do their dance in time for the female to lay her single egg in April to June.  Nestlings reach adult size in December and leave the colony by January to forage at sea until they reach maturity at 5-6 years old.

During El Niño there is too little food to raise a family so many birds don’t breed at all.  This year is a hard one for the waved albatross.

Sadly, this species is critically endangered.  The waved albatross’ range is confined to the Galápagos and the Humboldt current off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador.  Though long-lived, these birds are slow to reproduce and their population is declining, especially at the hands of longline fishing.

It’s quite a privilege to see them dance.

 

(video from Peregrine Travel Centre Adelaide on YouTube)

Found A Brainy Bird

Bird Behavior, Songbirds
Florida scrub-jay on Joan's hat (photo by Chuck Tague)
Florida scrub-jay on Joan Tague’s hat (photo by Chuck Tague)

On Throw Back Thursday:

Last week in Florida with Chuck and Joan Tague we found these brainy birds on Merritt Island.  On a similar trip in 2009 a jay was so bold that he perched right next to a replica of himself — a Florida scrub-jay pin on Joan’s hat.

Read how the Florida scrub-jay got so smart in this Throw Back article from February 2009:  Speaking of Brainy Birds.

 

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Setting Up Housekeeping at the Gulf Tower

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Dori arrives to join Louie in courtship at the Gulf Tower nest (photo from National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori arrives to join Louie in courtship at the Gulf Tower nest (photo from National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower). Click on the photo for a bigger view.

Pittsburgh Peregrine Fans are pleased as punch that Dori and Louie have taken a new and intensive interest in the Gulf Tower nest.

For the past four years they’ve flipped from site to site instead of choosing the Gulf Tower that peregrines had used continuously since 1991.  In 2012 and 2013 they left Gulf for a nook on Third Avenue. In 2014 they returned, but last year (2015) they left for Macy’s Annex.

In December the PA Game Commission’s peregrine coordinator, Art McMorris, refurbished the Gulf Tower nest in hopes it would entice the peregrines back to stay.  Since February 24 the signs have been very good:

  • Louie and Dori both visit the nest area:  The photo above shows them about to court on February 27.  Click on the image for a bigger view.
  • Louie calls for Dori to arrive:  Amazingly, he even calls to her at night. Click here to watch him calling her at 2:00am on February 29.
  • The pair courts at the scrape by bowing and “chirping” to each other.  Click here to see their courtship at WildEarth.tv archives.
  • Dori frequently perches near the nest or at the scrape. (The scrape is the actual nest site, a shallow depression where she’ll lay her eggs.)
  • Dori has dug two scrapes and continues to enlarge them.  See photos below.
Dori digs the scrape on the left (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori digs the scrape on the left (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori walks over to the other side ... (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori walks over to the other side … (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori digs the scrape on the right (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
Dori digs the scrape on the right (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)

Dori is setting up housekeeping at the Gulf Tower so we’re hoping she’ll lay her eggs here this year.  The real confirmation will be her first egg, due to arrive in mid to late March.

You can watch what she’s up to on the National Aviary falconcam at the Gulf Tower.

 

(snapshots from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)

Out In The Open

Bird Behavior, Water and Shore
American bittern with fish (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)
American bittern with fish (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)

American bitterns are usually hard to find because their plumage matches their favorite habitat — marshland vegetation.  Last week I saw one easily when he stepped into the open to catch a big black fish at Green Cay Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida.

These photos, taken at a New Jersey marsh by Billtacular, are so similar to my experience that I just had to share.

At first the bittern was impossible to find.  I saw him nearby when he moved but he “disappeared” into the background when he stood still.

American bittern craning his neck (photo by Billtacular on Flickr Creative Commons license)
American bittern craning his neck (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)

A fish caught his eye and he struck.  What a long neck!

American bittern splashes to get a fish (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)
American bittern splashes to get a fish (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)

Success!

American bittern catches a fish (photo by billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)
American bittern catches a fish (photo by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)

At Green Cay the fish was so large that the bittern had to pause to swallow it.  He remained in the open — very photogenic — until the bulge in his throat finally went down.

 

(photos by Billtacular via Flickr Creative Commons license)