23 August 2025
This week someone ate crow near the Cathedral of Learning. I usually find pigeon feathers but yesterday I found a pile of crow feathers under a tree near Heinz Chapel. Who would have perched in a tree to eat crow? My guess is a red-tailed hawk. The peregrines prefer to eat high up on the Cathedral when they’re this close to home.
In other news, late summer flowers are blooming and late summer bugs are busy.
These gorgeous flowers are the reason why Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) was imported as an ornamental plant. (Hmmm, the scientific name has changed?)
Up close Indian tobacco (Lobelia inflata) shows tiny dots on the edges of its leaves, below.
Wikipedia explains: The plant is called Indian tobacco because Native Americans chewed and smoked the leaves and used it for respiratory and muscle disorders, as a purgative, and as a ceremonial medicine. Its purgative property gave it a second name: puke weed. “Consuming lobelia causes adverse effects, which may include sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, rapid heartbeat, mental confusion, convulsions, hypothermia, coma, or possibly death. The root is toxic and can be fatal if eaten.”
Ragweed (Ambrosia sp) was getting ready to bloom this week. Soon it will open and scatter its copious pollen on the wind. Maybe it has already but my nose never tells me. I am not allergic to ragweed, but don’t get me near hay.
Spittle bugs are very busy lately. Why was this yellow jacket sipping from the spittle? Or was she sipping plant juices? Or was she eating the bugs?
In summer 2023 when Pittsburgh had a spotted lanternfly plague, this building was one of the best places to find an infestation. Back then it was creepy how many lanternflies crawled up the foundation. This year the number is low. Only 8 in this photo. Click here to see them circled.
Are crows often preyed upon by RTH? My impression is that it is uncommon. The crows certainly do regard them as a mortal enemy, so there must be some history there.
Normally it would be predation by a great horned owl, but owls also prey on juvie peregrines. Fingers crossed that it wasn’t an owl.
We see crows battle RTH’s fairly often here in our suburban neighborhood in Venetia. Nothing to do with this particular case, but earlier this year, several crows had a RTH pinned on the ground for about 30 seconds until the hawk was finally able to break free. There was no visible sign left behind that any such thing had happened, but the hawk definitely flew fast and far that time! Usually when under attack, they’ll just head to a nearby tree and wait until the crows settle down, or simply fly away when they decide to. But, in this one case the hawk definitely high-tailed it out of here! There was A LOT of loud crow communication going on for several minutes leading up to the actual attack on the ground, too!