
3 February 2025
In the past week I’ve been lucky to see gulls on ice, an owl on the nest, and three Bonus Birds.
Tiny icebergs were floating down the Monongahela River when Charity Kheshgi and I visited Duck Hollow on 28 January.

Ring-billed gulls outnumbered every other species. A few immature herring gulls made a ruckus in the middle of the river. And a Bonus Bird: A peregrine falcon flew over. I wonder who it is!

On 1 February I visited Schenley golf course to take a photo of my shadow and decided to drive down Circuit Road on the way home. The sun was so bright that it illuminated the great horned owl’s nest under the Panther Hollow Bridge. From the road I digiscoped a photo of the female and cropped it for a closer look.


Yesterday I went back with Charity Kheshgi to see the owls. The captions on her video and photos tell the story.
We were able to see both the male on the left and the female on the nest from a trail on the same level as the nest (the “Lower Trail”).

Below the bridge we couldn’t see the nest but the male was visible, roosting in the shadows.

And later, two Bonus Birds: A golden-crowned kinglet who flashed his crown, yellow and red …

… and a brown creeper
