5 October 2022
Some dogs are bred to herd sheep and the instinct is so deep that they try to herd at every opportunity.
However, training helps. So does experience, as shown in this tweet from @SlenderSherbet.
When your lack of sheepdog experience is cruelly exposed on your first day. pic.twitter.com/5lUozof6dk
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) September 7, 2022
(photo from Wikimedia Commons, embedded tweet from @SlenderSherbet)
3 October 2022
The hardest thing to notice in Nature is the date of an absence. When did the last junco leave in the spring? When did the last groundhog go into hibernation?
Right now eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) are busy gathering nuts to store in their underground burrows for the winter. As the season changes and temperatures drop they will disappear into their burrows to enter torpor, sleeping off and on through the winter.
The warm winters of climate change can fool them into not entering torpor but the result is deadly. Only 10% survive. Find out why in this vintage blog:
Meanwhile I will hope our chipmunks disappear and will try to figure when they do it.
Here’s how I notice an absence: I write down every day when I do see them and then scan my notes for days when I’ve not logged them anymore.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the link to see the original)
3 October 2022
Migrating chimney swifts roost for the night in local chimneys and wake up when the sky glows before dawn. This morning the sun had not yet cleared the horizon when the swifts flew out of Cathedral Mansions chimney and circled the chimney over and over again, testing the air. It was 41 degrees F.
Though the sky is clear this morning and the wind is from the north, the swifts (probably) decided there were not enough bugs flying so there would be nothing to eat on their way south. They would be cold and hungry if they left now but the bugs will come out as the day warms up. They decided to wait for that to happen.
So they all went back to bed. Here’s a photo of them pouring back into the chimney. (They are just dots in my cellphone photo.)
(photos from Wikimedia Commons and by Kate St. John)
2 October 2022
Though the breeding season is six months away the Pitt peregrines visit the nest almost every day and bow together to strengthen their pair bond.
Here they are on the last day of September.
The streaming camera is off for the season but you can see live snapshots at Cathedral of Learning Falconcam Snaphots.
(all photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at University of Pittsburgh)
1 October 2022
Last week, after a four-year hiatus, my husband and I enjoyed revisiting Acadia National Park. The scenery was beautiful and even the fog was gorgeous, as shown in the slideshow above. Jordan Stream was in full flow after a long day of rain.
We also learned a few things about Acadia and ourselves in 2022.
Acadia will be busy through Columbus Day weekend and perhaps beyond. Fall color still hasn’t peaked yet.
(photos by Kate St. John)
30 September 2022, 6am
UPDATE 30 SEPT, 6 PM. See UPDATED info at end
After wrecking a swath of Florida, Hurricane Ian popped out over the Atlantic Ocean, gained strength, and is bearing down on the Carolinas. Though Pittsburgh is quite far inland we will see the remnants of Hurricane Ian’s rain on Saturday.
These maps show total rainfall forecasts for the next three days as Hurricane Ian moves up the eastern U.S.
Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts, Continental US, 30 Sept to 3 Oct 2022 (maps from NOAA)
Pittsburgh will receive less than an inch of precipitation because Ian is tracking south and east of here. Fortunately this is far different from our experience of Hurricane Agnes 50 years ago.
This map shows rainfall potential from Hurricane Ian alone — anything greater than an inch — as of 30 Sept 2022, 6am.
(maps and animation from NOAA; click on the captions to see the originals)
29 September 2022
In western Pennsylvania, where we have a high deer population, gardeners have learned from experience that white-tailed deer will eat some plants and not others. They heavily browse their favorites to the point of killing them but leave others untouched, even plants in the same genus.
Viburnum is a case in point. Gardening advice at Rutgers University’s Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance indicates that arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) is deer resistant. Pictured at top, these shrubs are healthy in Schenley Park where the deer population is more than 100 per square mile.
Deer also don’t like the Japanese snowball (Viburnum plicatum) which thrives as an invasive in Frick Park, shown below.
But they love our native hobblebush (Viburnum lactoides) and consume it to local extinction.
Read about hobblebush in this vintage article.
When it comes to viburnum, deer are picky eaters.
(photos by Kate St. John)
28 September 2022
In September large, dark brown sea ducks swim in rafts off the coast of Maine. When they aren’t resting on the water they dive for mussels and crustaceans or walk up on the rocks to stand among the seaweed.
They vaguely resemble the lead field guide pictures for common eider (Somateria mollissima) but their current plumage is motley and variable. Right now common eiders are in eclipse.
Like many ducks and geese, eiders completely molt their tail and wing feathers after the breeding season, rendering them flightless for 3-4 weeks. Flight is restored in time for fall migration, but then they molt their body feathers. All told the process takes 4+ months.
To see eiders in all their glory watch them in breeding plumage from January to early June.
And you’ll see them fly.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)
27 September 2022
If you’re birding on the coast of Maine you already know this is a good year for winter finches, but I’d just arrived from Pittsburgh so I was surprised to hear jip-jip-jip among the conifers last Saturday in Acadia National Park. Was I hearing crossbills? Yes!
The Finch Network’s Winter Finch Forecast 2022-2023 explains:
In eastern North America, there is a good food crop along the coastal areas of Maritime Provinces southward into New England, which should hold many finches this winter.
Spruce cones are everywhere at Acadia, littering the trails in various stages of ripeness from sappy to seedless.
Small groups of red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) are almost everywhere, too. If you know what to listen for the birds are easy to find on Mount Desert Island.
Lots of people are seeing and hearing them as shown in eBird’s September 2022 map below. Note that the high density of crossbill reports is actually due to the high density of birders in the park.
On Sunday at Flying Mountain I saw eight red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) eating spruce cones. This 2013 photo on a hemlock shows how they feed:
The Winter Finch Forecast 2022-2023 predicts that points south along the coast will see crossbills this winter.
The “Northeastern Crossbill” (i.e. eastern Type 10) will be around this winter, but will they migrate down the coast to Long Island, Cape May and Delaware and points south, as they sometimes do as cone crops are depleted as we progress through the winter season.
— Winter Finch Forecast 2022-2023
Though Pittsburgh won’t see crossbills, check out the Winter Finch Forecast 2022-2023 for what we can look forward to in western Pennsylvania. If we’re lucky we may see:
(photos from Kate St. John and Wikimedia Commons, map from eBird.org; click on the captions to see the originals)
26 September 2022
UPDATE 1 OCTOBER, 5:51PM: THIS OUTING IS CANCELLED BECAUSE I DON’T FEEL WELL
In early October the weather’s fine and there’s plenty to see outdoors. Birds are migrating, fruits are maturing, and insects have their final fling.
Join me on a bird and nature walk in Schenley Park on Sunday 2 October 2022 — 8:30am – 10:30am(*). Meet me at Schenley Park Cafe and Visitor Center near Phipps Conservatory where Panther Hollow Road meets Schenley Drive.
We’ll look and listen for signs of fall, yellow leaves and chirping crickets. We many find a goldenrod “rose” like the gall at top. Or a million blue jays and chipmunks.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.
Before you come, visit the Events page in case there are changes or cancellations. The outing will be canceled if there’s lightning (unlikely this coming Sunday but you never know).
From experience I can say … there will be lots of blue jays and chipmunks.
(*) If the birding is suddenly good at 10:30am we’ll have the option to continue to 11a.
(photos by Kate St. John)
