17 May 2025

This week I went birding in three western Pennsylvania parks: Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Moraine State Park in Butler County (halfway north) and Presque Isle State Park on the northern edge of PA. While there I noticed how plants showed the progress of spring from south to north.

Schenley Park has been at Full Leaf since 5 May so it’s hard to see the birds there. In the understory white fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) hsa just gone past its blooming peak. Two “weedy” plants caught my attention, identified in the PictureThis app as slender woodsorrel (Oxalis dillenii a native species) and mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium fontanum) introduced from Europe.

For comparison, PictureThis identified this one found at Presque Isle as sticky mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium glomeratum), also European.

Though Schenley Park had already been at Full Leaf for six days on 11 May, oak leaves were just coming out at Moraine State Park.

I found poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii) leaves in all three parks. At Presque Isle the leaves were smaller and newer but still able to cause an itch. Poison ivy is getting big in Schenley Park on 14 May. Watch out!

One week after Full Leaf, I saw this year’s first yellow poplar weevil* (Odontopus calceatus) clinging to my window. They usually swarm in June but last week was unusually hot.

(* Despite knowing better I can’t help but call these insects “billbugs” even though I know the name is wrong. Oy!)