Evidence that the crows roosted here (photo by Kate St.John)
As I mentioned on Monday, thousands of crows are back in Oakland roosting near the University of Pittsburgh. Though the flock is spectacular they’ll soon be unwelcome.
If your neighborhood hosts a crow roost you know about the unpleasant debris left behind by these overnight visitors. Everything is dotted with bird poop. The sidewalks are slippery in the morning and the air smells “bird-y.” This fallout is the #1 reason why crow roosts aren’t welcome near us.
When people have had enough, the crows must go. The best way to move them is by persistent audio harassment.
In November 2013 the crows caused trouble night after night near the University of Pittsburgh Student Union so Maintenance set up a loud speaker that played bird distress calls and peregrine attack sounds over and over. In five nights the crows were gone.
I have a theory that my favorite bird helped move them. Read why at:
Per NOAA, this map is an oversimplification of ocean currents and areas of marine debris in the Pacific (NOAA Marine Debris Program)
Did you know that Earth’s rotation and the continents cause wind and currents to circle the oceans? This creates enormous slow-moving whirlpools called gyres. Every hemisphere has a big one with smaller gyres inside it.
The North Pacific contains a convergence zone and two recirculation gyres, one in the west near Japan and a bigger one near California. Surface debris naturally accumulates in the gyres and it doesn’t leave. Watch how this happens below.
Before the 20th century marine debris was generally organic, but in the late 1980s NOAA found that the gyres accumulate stuff that never decomposes — plastic garbage. The amount of plastic is especially high in the Pacific. Thus was coined the term The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The garbage begins its journey when it washes off land, is jettisoned from boats, or floats away from shipwrecks. Slowly, it migrates to the center where the concentration of plastic is intense because plastics don’t decompose, they just break into ever smaller pieces that form a slurry below the surface.
The plastics are bad for fish, birds, and just about everything including small organisms that feed near the slurry and humans who eat fish. It even kills baby albatrosses because they ingest it (sad video this: MIDWAY a Message from the Gyre).
What to do? Creative minds came up with two solutions that, implemented together, may fix it: One Big Thing and a Lots of Little Things.
Boyan Slat, the 22-year-old founder of the Ocean Cleanup Project, has designed a giant V-shaped boom to passively collect floating plastic garbage. Crowd-sourced funding financed a successful prototype off the coast of the Netherlands (Slat’s homeland). More tests will be deployed off the Dutch and Java coasts.
Meanwhile, to get a handle on where to deploy the North Pacific boom Ocean Cleanup conducted aerial surveys of the garbage patch and found out it’s much bigger that we thought. And it’s growing. Uh oh!
Millions of plastic bits and pieces are in the Garbage Patch, amassed from the hands of millions of people who throw away plastic every day. I’m one of them.
If we throw away less plastic, there will be less in the ocean. If we don’t buy disposable plastic there will be less to throw away. That’s why it makes sense to use durable shopping bags and reusable water bottles.
Snake skin shed at Hillman State Park, 1 Nov 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Here’s something I didn’t expect to find in November, but that’s because I didn’t know much about snakes.
A year ago at Hillman State Park near Florence, PA I found this freshly shed snake skin on a gravel road. I must have just missed the snake.
Snakes shed because their skins don’t grow. The skin stretches a bit but when it gets too tight the snake makes a tear on something sharp and slides out of the outer layer. The new skin underneath is the right size until the snake grows more. This snake chose the warmest place available to shed his skin — a sunny, heat-absorbing gravel road.
Snakes are cold-blooded (ectotherms) and can’t survive freezing so they go into hibernation or brumation in communal dens below the frost line. I thought they’d all be underground by November 1, but no. Even in cold northern Pennsylvania snakes don’t go to their winter dens until late October or early November. In Hillman State Park on 1 November 2015 the temperature ranged from 53oF to 66oF, very respectable snake weather.
This year is even better for snakes. Their favorite temperature is 80o-90oF and we reached that last week — a record-breaking 80oF on 2 November 2016.
Crows burst off a building as they prepare to roost in Oakland, 4 Nov 2016 (photo by Kate St.John)
Ever since the winter crows came back to Oakland I’ve wanted to watch them arrive at the roost so last Friday evening, November 4, I stopped by Schenley Farms and Pitt’s campus. What a spectacle!
Half an hour before sunset a steady stream of silent crows flew in from the southwest to the hill above Bigelow Boulevard near Centre Avenue. I assumed they would spend the night up there, but no!
Crows are afraid of great horned owls — for good reason — so they want a good view from the roost. They prefer the tops of tall well lit trees or rooftops five to ten stories high. And they want no owls nearby. Perhaps that’s why they like cities.
The sky was clear on Friday evening and the light lingered long after sunset at 6:13pm so my camera could “see” them against the sky. Before it was dark nearly 40 crows chose this bare tree. The tree isn’t full yet.
Crows assemble in the treetops, 4 Nov 2016 (photo by Kate St.John)
As darkness fell they left the hilltop for the area bounded by Fifth, Bayard, Bellefield and Tennyson. And now they were loud! Hundreds flew above me on Bayard Street.
Hundreds of crows above Bayard (photo by Kate St. John)
They assembled at the roof edges of tall apartment buildings and then burst off to choose another site (photo at top). They landed on Alumni Hall and packed in tightly on the Wyndham Hotel roof.
As night falls, some crows choose Alumni Hall’s roof (photo by Kate St. John)
… and they settled in the treetops on campus, 100 to 200 per tree.
Others settle in the treetops on Pitt’s campus at Fifth Ave, 4 Nov 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
I calculated 4,000 crows in that four block area, but they were still arriving after it was too dark to see. I have no idea how many spent the night there.
Until today most people didn’t notice the crows because rush hour was over by 6:00pm. But today we’ve changed the clocks back and rush hour will be at sunset, 5:09pm.
People will be surprised by the spectacle — and some will be repulsed — that there are thousands of crows in Oakland.
Enfant écrivant by Henriette Brown (image from Wikimedia Commons)
6 November 2016
Tomorrow Outside My Window will be nine years old.
On anniversaries I like to look back at the past year’s high points. There were quite a few.
Three posts, written in prior years, continue as perennial favorites. Search engines must be sending folks to these articles when they ask questions such as:
Glow In The Dark from 8 October 2011 answers the question: What is that glowing green color in the wood? 94 comments.
Falcon or Hawk? from 19 April 2011 tells the difference between red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons, a useful thing to know. 65 people have commented.
Dorothy, the much loved Peregrine Queen of the Cathedral of Learning, reigned from Spring 2001 until late November 2015. News of her death and the video tribute to her life brought nearly 6,000 visits to the blog. If you missed the tribute, here it is: A Tribute to Dorothy.
Spring 2016: Drama at the Pitt peregrine nest kept thousands of you glued to your seats, checking in frequently, and commenting on the latest twists and turns. The new female peregrine, Hope, surprised us several times.
While seeing this isn’t that scary for us, if you’re a little mouse seeing this would be terrifying. Caught this Red-tailed doing a dive at the hawk watch today.
Some mouse is going to die of fright … if nothing else.
For more cool photos, see Steve Gosser’s website at gosserphotos.com
A lot of us love birds but we see them from afar. Those who live with them have a special relationship that goes much deeper.
Pigeon fanciers breed and race pigeons but it’s a relationship that goes both ways. The birds benefit from those who care for them and the people are made happy by being with their birds. This video about three New York pigeon fanciers is a window on their world.
As Vincent Outerbridge says, “This is the life. I wouldn’t trade it for nothin’.”
p.s. Pigeons were easy to domesticate because they are docile in the hand. As you can see in the film, they’re so docile that they can be held upside down and passed from hand to hand.
Golden eagle flies past the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Anthony Bruno)
If you want to see golden eagles, now’s the time to visit the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch in Cairnbrook, PA. Five of us made the trip last Tuesday, November 1, and we weren’t disappointed. It was a 20-golden day.
Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) migrate through Pennsylvania from late October through the end of November leaving their breeding grounds in northern Canada for wintering sites in the Appalachians from West Virginia to North Carolina.
Goldens fly almost daily during that period but you won’t see them at the Allegheny Front unless the wind has an eastward component that pushes them toward the Watch site. Tuesday’s forecast called for a south-southeast wind. Excellent!
Thanks to Donna Foyle and Anthony (Tony) Bruno I can show you what we saw.
Upon arrival the golden eagle statue greeted us at the parking lot.
Statue of the Golden Eagle at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch (photo by Donna Foyle)
Walking from the parking area to the mountain edge we could see it was hazy. Though everyone wasn’t present at the same time, the Hawk Watch had 11 observers and 55 visitors that day.
Approaching the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch (photo by Donna Foyle)
We all faced north, watching for raptors. Many red-tailed and sharp shinned hawks flew by since this is the height of their migration, too.
Watching for the next golden eagle at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Donna Foyle)
Sharp shins, small as they are, love to attack red-tailed hawks when they get the chance. Donna Foyle captured the action as this “sharpie” forced a juvenile red-tail to dive out of his way.
Sharp-shinned hawk attacks a red-tailed hawk on migration, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Donna Foyle)
And there were golden eagles.
This gorgeous bird flew past low enough for us to see his golden head and nape. (Great shot, Tony!)
Golden eagle, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Anthony Bruno)
The white crescent under the wing is a sign that this golden eagle is immature.
Golden eagle, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Anthony Bruno)
And yes, it’s odd for so many humans to sit on the edge of a mountain. This eagle checked us out as he flew by. “What are all those humans doing?”
Golden eagle looks at the all the people at the Hawk Watch, 1 Nov 2016 (photo by Anthony Bruno)
We had a great day at the Allegheny Front … and we happened to leave before the last 10 eagles flew by. (Golden eagles are famous for migrating in the last hour before sunset.)
Happy Hawk Watchers: Karyn Delaney, Donna Foyle, Kate St. John, Geralyn Pundzak, Kathy Miller, Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, 1 Nov 2016 (photo courtesy Donna Foyle)
Visit the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch soon to see the golden eagles.
Before you go! Check the wind forecast at Weather Underground, Central City, PA forecast, scroll down to the 10-day forecast and choose the “Table” tab, then click on the day you’re planning to visit for the hourly wind forecast. Remember that a southeast wind is good. A northeast or east wind will bring fog.
(photos by Anthony Bruno and Donna Foyle. See the photo captions for credits)
Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) are in town eating fruit on our trees, vines and shrubs. Their nomadic flocks go where the fruit is and right now it’s in Pittsburgh.
These sleek, fast moving, unpredictable birds are so social you almost never see one alone. The flocks can number in the hundreds, bouncing from tree to tree or perched high on bare branches.
Without binoculars they look like the last remaining leaves.
If you get a good look at a waxwing you’ll see a sleek bird, smaller than a robin, with a crest, black face mask, yellow tail tips, an olive brown back that fades to gray, a taupe breast and lemon yellow belly. If you’re lucky you’ll also see the waxy red wing tips that give the bird its “waxwing” name.
Cedar waxwing adult, showing wax-tipped wings (red) and yellow-tipped tail (photo by Cris Hamilton)
Its “cedar” name comes from the birds’ fondness for cedar berries.
Fruit of eastern redcedar, Juniperus virginiana (photo by Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service, Bugwood.org)
Cedar waxwings look easy to identify but they can fool you. They often flatten their crests and move so fast you can’t get a good look at them. In flight they resemble starlings, and there are some odd-looking birds among them.
Cedar waxwing, immature (photo by Cris Hamilton)
The mottled ones are immature waxwings whose body shape, black masks, and yellow tail tips are the hint to their identity.
Immature cedar waxwing eating fruit (photo by Cris Hamilton)
While feeding, the flock bounces and swirls above you. Then just before they all take off they raise their voices in high-pitched Zeeee’s and are gone. If you can’t hear the sound below, click here for the sonogram to see what you missed. (Note: There’s a cardinal in the background of the recording. You might hear the cardinal but not the waxwings. Cedar waxwings are one of the first bird sounds we lose as we age.)
“Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)” xeno-canto XC313683 by Antonio Xeira
Though some waxwings stay all winter in southern Pennsylvania most of the nomads are on their way to the southern U.S. They’ll leave when they run out of fruit or a cold front arrives.
p.s. Cedar waxwings are one of the few species whose population has increased in the past 20 years, perhaps because there’s more fruit as invasive honeysuckle spreads and we plant ornamentals in new suburbs.
(cedar waxwing photos by Cris Hamilton, photo of eastern redcedar berries by Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service via Bugwood.org)
American crows saunter on the driveway (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
The crows are back in town! On Halloween evening they made such a huge scene in Oakland that I’ve preempted my scheduled blog for this breaking news.
Christina Schmidlapp reports,
Oh, they are back! They’ve been massing around trees in Schenley Farms for about a week, though I think they only settled here for a night or two along Bigelow Blvd. between Schenley High School and Bayard. They make stops on the tops of the Madison Apartments on Bellefield and also an apartment building on Dithridge en route to even higher ground. I can watch their flight trajectory at the end of the day from the east into the Hill district. Almost nonstop for quite awhile.
And Dr. Tony Bledsoe wrote:
A student sent me a video of American crows assembling to roost around the Clapp/Langley/Crawford complex earlier tonight [Halloween]. I estimate, inferring from some in the background, at least 1,000. That’s probably conservative.
Crows love to spend the winter in Pittsburgh because it’s 5-10 degrees warmer than the countryside, our night sky glows with light, and food is everywhere if you aren’t picky (garbage dumps in the suburbs and dumpsters in town).
The flock is settling in and retaking the streets. Here’s their South Side Story to the tune of When You’re A Jet, a throwback to November 2009:
