Six of us braved the drizzle yesterday morning at Duck Hollow and were rewarded with an exciting visit from one of the Hays bald eagles. Connie Gallagher captured part of the action in photos.
Five of 6 participants at the Duck Hollow outing, 20 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
It all began with two herring gulls on the mud spit, manipulating a large fish.
Two herring gulls with a big fish, 20 March 2022, 8:45am (photo by Connie Gallagher)
The gulls hadn’t made much progress opening the fish when they saw the male Hays bald eagle flying upriver toward Duck Hollow. All the waterbirds could tell the eagle wanted that fish. The ducks stayed put, the gulls quickly stashed the fish and flew up calling and complaining.
The eagle made three dropped-talon passes at the fish but it was too hard to grab in flight. Meanwhile the gulls divebombed him and chased him every time. That fish was stashed so tightly that the eagle would have to land to get it. But the gulls were relentlessly annoying.
Finally the eagle left and the gulls resumed their meal, watched by a crow.
Herring gulls resume their meal, 20 March 2022, 10am (photo by Connie Gallagher)
The sun set at 7:27pm, the sky flamed and dimmed. It was barely glowing twenty minutes later when we heard the first “peent.”
On dry Spring nights male American woodcocks (Scolopax minor) gather in shrubby fields to mate with females who intend to nest there. Within the hour after sunset or in the hour before sunrise, they let the ladies know they’re available by stomping around in the dark calling “peent, peent, peent.” After some peenting each male flings himself into the sky climbing hundreds of feet before circling back down. While ascending his wings make a twittering sound, while descending his wings chirp. You can tell what he’s doing by listening in the dark. He lands where he started and does it again.
On Wednesday the moon was almost full and the woodcocks were very active. We heard at least six of them!
Waxing moon over Upper Field, North Park, 16 March 2022, 8:01p (photo by Kate St. John)
The spring peepers at Eagles Nest parking area were active, too.
Spring peeper calling in the Ozarks (photo by Justin Meissen via Wikimedia Commons)Spring peepers at North Park, 16 March 2022 (recorded by Kate St. John)
Woodcocks will continue their sky dance in April and early May but if you want two audio treats at once, go out in March by the light of the moon.
(sunset and moon photos + sound of spring peepers by Kate St. John. Woodcock and peeper photos from Wikimedia Commons. Woodcock audio from Xeno Canto)
This sundial in Ecuador at GPS 00.000, -78.103 shows the sun’s shadow falling on the equator during the equinox. Mark the shadow at your own home and see the sun return to this position on the Autumnal Equinox on 23 September.
Right away she stepped back to let it dry. After a minute or two she turned it.
Because peregrine falcons don’t begin incubation until the next-to-last egg is laid, Morela won’t sit on this one until she’s laid (probably) three eggs. Then she’ll lay one more — if her clutch size last year is any guide.
Today it is warm in Pittsburgh — 63oF — so Morela can safely leave the egg in the sun.
Morela dozes at the nest, simultaneously guarding her first egg, 18 March 2022, 11:16am
It’s “Pip Watch Week” at the Hays bald eagle nest. Hatching of the first egg is expected any day now.
Bald eagle eggs hatch, on average, after 35 days of incubation. At the Hays nest this pair has hatched 15 eggs over the past nine years, averaging just over 36 days per egg. Their first egg of the season, laid on 11 Feb 2022, is due to hatch soon. 35 days is today (18 March), 36 days is tomorrow (19 March).
Our hint that it’s close to hatch time will be a hole in the shell — a pip — hammered by the chick who’s preparing to hatch. After pipping the egg it takes an eaglet as much as a day to break out of his shell. Read the step-by-step hatching process here.
p.s. Five miles away, the USS Irvin bald eagles have two eggs. The first was laid on 27 Feb so Pip Watch will start there at the beginning of April. Click on this link to watch the USS Irvin bald eaglecam. Approximate first hatch date there is 2/27/2022 + 35 days = 4/4/2022.
Spring is here and tree sap is rising in western Pennsylvania. This month yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) are migrating through our area, pausing to drill holes in the trees to sip the welling sap.
How does a sapsucker know a tree is a good candidate for a meal? Can he hear the sap rising? Maybe so.
Seven years ago I learned that with special microphones we can hear the secret sounds of trees. Here’s an example from a Scots pine, recorded by Marcus Maeder’s trees project.
What looks like a glowing pincushion (above) or piece of plastic in the tweet below is an animal called a nudibranch. It’s not pronounced the way it’s spelled. The “ch” is a “k.” This is a “NEW-dih-brank.”
Nudibranchs are sea slugs whose name means “naked gills” though some of them have no gills at all. From a video at DeepMarineScenes I learned that nudibranchs are …
3000+ species of sea slugs similar to snails but without any shells inside or out,
Found from the poles to the tropics, most often in shallow tropical waters,
Carnivores that eat sponges, corals, anemones, etc.
Range in size from 1/4 inch to 1 foot long,
Use smell and feel to get around. Their eyes sense only light and dark.
Brightly colored from the toxic things they eat.
Toxic themselves. Their color warns off predators.
Their only real predators are other nudibranchs. Yow!
White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are large iconic birds that spend the winter in Africa and nest in Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. Famous for the legend that they bring babies, storks migrate long distances by soaring on thermals on 5 to 7-foot wing spans.
Storks avoid crossing open water that lacks thermals and are rare in the British Isles. Until 2020 they had not nested in the UK since 1416 when the last pair used the top of St Giles High Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. That changed in 2016 when the White Stork Project decided to reintroduce them to Britain. Since then they have released 166 juvenile storks brought in from Poland.
In 2020, for the first time in over 600 years, a pair of white storks nested successfully in the UK. This pair, which are part of the reintroduction program, nest at Knepp Castle in Horsham.
In this video they build the nest and pair bond by bill-clacking.
Introducing the UK’s FIRST live-stream white stork nest-cam! In partnership with Wildlife Windows, with generous support from The John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust, @ProjectStork have installed a LIVE-STREAM camera on the stork nest on Knepp Castle.https://t.co/hFJFTpMngapic.twitter.com/4sdThDtBUK
Right now the storks are gathering sticks and preparing to nest. Watch as they raise a family, live at the White Stork Project. (Note: Britain is 4 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. This is a good site to watch in the morning.)
Instead of bringing human babies these storks will bring their own.
White stork carrying baby (image from Shutterstock in 2013)
(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Shutterstock; click on the captions to see the originals)
Peregrine at the Sewickley Bridge, 3 March 2022 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
14 March 2022
Until they begin incubating eggs two to four weeks from now, our local peregrine falcons are quite visible. If you want to see peregrines, now is the time.
Most sites have recent observations but some have no reports in March — probably not because there are no peregrines but because no one has looked. Take some time this month to look for peregrines at the sites without March reports. Click here for a regional map. More info at end.
Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh:
Morela has been spending every night at the nest since the beginning of March. She and Ecco court here and mate off camera. In the video below Ecco chirps at her for 8+ minutes on 11 March before she joins him. (I shortened the time with a “fade to black.”)
Watch the nest “live” on the National Aviary falconcam. Last year Morela’s first egg was on 17 March. Soon!
Downtown Pittsburgh:
Downtown peregrine nest building, Third Avenue (photo by Lori Maggio, 2013)
Montgomery Brown is still seeing a single peregrine from a vantage point at Oxford Center, most recently on 11 March. Has anyone been to 3rd Avenue lately? We need more observers.
Railroad bridge over the Ohio River from Monaca to Beaver (photo by Kate St.John)
Dante Zuccaro reports one or two peregrines almost every day, seen from the mouth of the Beaver River, most recently on 12 March.
Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge, Ohio River:
Ambridge Bridge with a peregrine on top, 20 Feb 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
If you’re in the vicinity of the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge, check the top of it. Mark Vass saw a pair of peregrines there on 6 March. I saw a solo bird on 8 March.
Sewickley Bridge, Ohio River:
Peregrine on the Sewickley Bridge, 3 March 2022 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
The peregrines at the Sewickley Bridge have been very active lately. Jeff Cieslak saw them on 3 March, I saw them on 8 March from Sewickley Riverfront Park, Mark Vass saw them on 10 March.
In the photo below Jeff Cieslak shows where they were perching on 3 March.
Two peregrines on the Sewickley Bridge, 3 March 2022 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
It looks like one is banded per Jeff’s photo! Can’t read the bands yet. I wonder who this is.
Peregrine flying near the Sewickley Bridge appears to be banded, 3 March 2022 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
Westinghouse Bridge, Turtle Creek:
Peregrine pair at Westinghouse Bridge, 12 March 2022 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
When Dana Nesiti visited the Westinghouse Bridge on 12 March one of the peregrines was nearly invisible. He found it by looking through the walkway grating, circled in bold yellow in his photo. (I circled the visible bird in thin yellow.)
This is a great example of how peregrines can fool you until they fly.
Peregrine at Westinghouse Bridge, 12 March 2022 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Tarentum Bridge, Allegheny River:
Peregrine pair at Tarentum Bridge, 14 March 2022 (photo by Dave Brooke)
Dave Brooke sees the Tarentum Bridge peregrines every time he visits, sometimes one sometimes both.
On 6 March Dave noticed that the female’s left wing appears to be scraped. Perhaps she was in a fight. Obviously she won.
Peregrine at the Tarentum Bridge, 6 March 2022 (photo by Dave Brooke)
Female peregrines molt their primary wing feathers while incubating. She will eventually replace these feathers too and be back to normal. She is due to lay her first egg soon.
Peregrine at the Graff Bridge, Rt 422, Kittanning, 14 March 2022 (photo by Dave Brooke)
UPDATE at 2pm on 14 March: Dave Brooke went up to the Graff Bridge on the Manordale side this morning and found a peregrine. The bird was totally unconcerned about local crows, a bald eagle, and noisy traffic on the bridge. Just preening.
Peregrine preening at the Graff Bridge, 14 March 2022 (photo by Dave Brooke)
If you go: The best place to see peregrines is from the Armstrong Trail near or under the Graff Bridge. Park here on Water Street in Manordale (click link) and walk north (upstream) on the Armstrong Trail. Tell me what you see.
No recent news: No news since February at three sites. Can you help?
McKees Rocks Bridge, Ohio River:
McKees Rocks Bridge with ALCOSAN in foreground (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
The easiest place to observe the McKees Rocks Bridge and nearby power tower perches is at this eBird hotspot on Doerr Street.
62nd Street Bridge / Aspinwall Riverfront Park, Allegheny River:
62nd Street Bridge from the Pittsburgh side (photo by Kate St. John)
Over the weekend the 62nd Street Pittsburgh side was inaccessible due to a water main break. Visit this site from either side of the river — on the Pittsburgh side or Etna Riverfront Trail — and tell me what you see. (Click the links to see maps.)
In April nesting peregrines will be on eggs and very, very secretive. It will seem that they have abandoned their sites — but they haven’t. Go look for them now. Tell me what you see.
After yesterday’s 2.5 to 5 inches of drifting snow, this morning’s temperature is 14oF. Our progress toward Spring has been halted in only a day.
Last week I saw hopeful signs of Spring.
Skunk cabbage was blooming at Jennings Prairie on 5 March.
Skunk cabbage, Jennings Prairie, 5 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Northern magnolia buds were beginning to open at Schenley Park on 8 March.
Northern magnolia bud, Schenley Park, 8 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Spring peepers had started to sing at Moraine State Park on 10 March, calling very slowly in the cold. Turn up your speakers to hear 5 creaky peeps in the video.
And The Crocus Report came back positive on 7 March when I found a lawn of purple crocuses blooming on North Neville Street.
Crocuses blooming, North Neville Street, 7 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Lawn of purple crocuses, North Neville Street, 7 March 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
But yesterday morning brought heavy snow and gusty winds, drifts and bare patches.
(building provides a dark backdrop so you can see the snow.)
The tender plants have died. Those crocuses are gone. Spring has been dealt a setback.
