Meet at Duck Hollow parking lot at the end of Old Browns Hill Road. We’ll check the river for migrating waterfowl and walk the beginning of lower Nine Mile Run Trail watching for birds and many signs of Spring.
Duck Hollow can be excellent or just ho-hum. Yesterday, in addition to the usual suspects, I found one male blue-winged teal (similar to the one pictured above) and eight distant lesser scaup.
Next Sunday I’m counting on the male bufflehead who’s been hanging around for a couple of weeks to still be there in the distance.
Rain gauge holding three types of precipitation (photo from Marianne Atkinson, Dubois PA)
23 March 2025
Whether it rains or snows, sleets or hails, after the event the National Weather Service can tell you how much precipitation fell in your neighborhood.
For example, after Hurricane Sandy plowed through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in late October 2012, the National Weather Service (NWS) published this Actual Rainfall map showing a maximum of 12.83″ at Bellevue, Maryland and about 3″ in Pittsburgh.
NWS can do this thanks to radar estimates from airports which are later updated by actual rain gauge readings from official weather stations and from volunteers across the country. The volunteers are members of the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow network or CoCoRaHS.
This month CoCoRaHS is holding their annual Rain Gauge Rally in which each state competes to add new volunteers to the network. As of 11 March the network in Pennsylvania looks likes this. Notice it is heavily populated in some areas but sparse elsewhere. Volunteers needed!
CoCoRaHS network in PA as of 11 March 2025
My friend Marianne from DuBois PA joined in 2023 and is encouraging others to join the network this month. She writes:
I have been a CoCoRaHS volunteer since July 2023. This is citizen science that is easy and fun! It is cool that I am able to contribute data to many weather organizations with one daily reading. Even a daily gauge reading of 0 is important, which could indicate drought conditions. Volunteers report their daily observations on the interactive Website or using the CoCoRaHS mobile App. The picture is my rain gauge on Feb. 6, 2025 that has one inch of snow, sleet and freezing rain combined!
— email from Marianne in March 2025
It’s easy to join! Click here and they walk you through the sign-up.
Still curious? This 6-minute YouTube video describes CoCoRaHS and this month’s Rain Gauge Rally. If you want to join, don’t delay. Get in on the Rain Gauge March Madness!
p.s. CoCoRaHS is free to join but you will need a 4” manual rain gauge (or the NWS 8- inch gauge). If you don’t have one, here’s where to get one at weatheryourway.com. (This screenshot does not show the entire page.)
American sycamore seed ball disintegrating at the end of winter (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
22 March 2025
As the weather warmed this month American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) seed balls disintegrated to disperse their wind-driven seeds.
On 16 March it was very windy when I visited Herr’s Island back channel. Sycamore achenes (seed packets) blew by me in the wind and piled up in the cracks like snow drifts.
A single American sycamore seed, 16 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sycamore snow.
Many sycamore seeds gathering like snow drifts, Herr’s Island, 16 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
They had come from seed balls like these that had waited all winter for spring heat to make them stretch and burst.
Sycamore seed balls hanging like ornaments, 3 March 2018 (photo by Kate St.John)
Not only do they disperse on the wind but the fluff-tops have a second mode of transportation. They float.
Sycamore seeds swirling in the Allegheny River in Herr’s Island back channel, 16 March 2025 (video by Kate St. John)
Water carries them to their favorite habitats.
American sycamore is found most commonly in bottomland or floodplain areas, thriving in the wet environments provided by rivers, streams, or abundant groundwater.
UPDATE: I WAS WRONG! Carla laid her 3rd egg much earlier than I originally thought. It was before 2:07am on 21 March 2025.
I had expected Carla to lay her third egg last evening but it took a longer than expected. As early as 8pm she looked like she was ready to lay it (below), but it did not happen until this morning at 2:07 am (above).
At 5:40am I saw Carla corral the clutch, bob her body to expose her brood patch, and lay down with her back feathers standing up a bit, as shown in the video below. It looks to me like she’s begun incubation. (You can hear Ecco whining in the background.)
As I said earlier, there’s always a possibility that I’ve missed something and miscalculated the dates … and sure enough I’ve already had to make a correction.
p.s. Here’s a better look at the 3 eggs with Ecco standing next to them.
Schenley Park great horned owlet, 19 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
20 March 2025
Schenley Owlet flying
The Schenley Park owlet, who spent two weeks in rehab at Tamarack and came home on 11 March, has been making fast progress. Many have seen her roosting in trees this week and assume she must have flown to get there, but we never see it. She only moves in the dark. Fortunately, Dana Nesiti captured a video of her in flight before sunrise on Tuesday. He slowed down the video so you can see her.
And click here for Dana’s 10 minute video of her chilling in Schenley Park.
Pitt peregrines not incubating yet
Carla laid two eggs at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest on 16 and 18 March and a third egg is due this evening.
However, we’ve seen both parents cover the eggs and we know incubation begins when the next to last egg is laid. Are they incubating? Is Carla going to lay only 3 eggs?
As of this morning, 20 March, we have nighttime evidence that the peregrines are not incubating yet. Both were off the eggs the majority of the time last night as seen in this time lapse video.
Nighttime timelapse at Pitt peregrine nest, 19 March 7pm to 20 March 2025 7am ()
When peregrines are truly incubating they open the feathers that cover their brood patches before laying down to place their skin on the eggs. If they don’t, those feathers keep the eggs from reaching incubation temperature.
On the falconcam it is impossible to see if their skin is touching eggs but we can tell if they are opening the feathers. Watch for them to bob their bodies before they lay down. Ecco does this in a more exaggerated way than Carla.
Speaking of Ecco, did you notice that he relieved Carla around 3am? The literature says that the female incubates all night, but not last night. Peregrines can always surprise us.
This afternoon Carla got into position at the Cathedral of Learning to lay her second egg of the 2025 season. In the slideshow you see her standing upright with her tail down. After the egg is laid she tips up so her tail feathers don’t drag on the wet egg.
Carla prepares to lay her 2nd egg of 2025
she opens her beak a bit
Carla takes a very big breath while laying 2nd egg, 18 March, 3:12pm
I expect her to lay four eggs as she did last year. The time between these first two eggs is a little shorter than the same eggs last year. I wonder if this quicker trend will continue.
Peregrine at East Liberty Presbyterian steeple, 18 March 2025 (photo by Adam Knoerzer)
18 March 2025
The peregrines at East Liberty Presbyterian Church steeple are very active as they prepare to nest.
A week ago on 11 March Jeff Cieslak stopped by and found both birds at home.
Both peregrines at East Liberty Presby steeple, 11 March 2025 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
He caught one in the act of landing on its favorite floodlight.
Peregrine about to land on East Liberty Presby steeple, 11 March 2025 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
And Jeff saw them doing a lot of flying. Adam Knoerzer found out why.
Peregrine flying in East Liberty, 11 March 2025 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
The pair was vigilant on 11 March because a third peregrine showed up and took an interest in their territory. Adam captured a video of the encounter as the pair flew around chirping and drove the intruder toward Morningside/Stanton Heights and the Allegheny River. Turn up the volume to heard their territorial sound. The chirp sounds “happy” but it is not!
video by Adam Knoerzer, 11 March 2025
Yesterday, 18 March, Adam saw the male flying a lot and both of them perched in their favorite spots.
Both peregrines at East Liberty Presbyterian steeple, 18 March 2025 (photo by Adam Knoerzer)
The female wanted to mate again.
Female peregrine at East Liberty Presby steeple, 18 March 2025 (photo by Adam Knoerzer)
After they mated, the male stopped by the nest.
Don’t let the sticks fool you. Peregrines don’t use sticks but the ledge is sloped and this old red-tailed hawk nest prevents the eggs from rolling off the building. Last year they fledged one youngster from this nest.
Male peregrine at East Liberty Presby nest, 18 March 2025 (photo by Adam Knoerzer)
Stop by East Liberty to check out the action. With all this mating, eggs are surely on the way
p.s. Brief Update from Downtown Pittsburgh, Third Avenue
On 11 March I viewed Downtown’s Third Avenue nest using my scope from Mt Washington and saw one peregrine dig the scrape and wait on the ledge.
Peregrine on the nest ledge at Third Ave as seen from Mt. Washington, 11 March 2025 (digiscoped by Kate St. John)
St. Patrick’s and Ireland’s shamrock symbol is a leaf cluster of either lesser clover or white clover. We don’t see much lesser clover (Trifolium dubium) in the U.S. but we used to have lots of white clover. When I was a child our lawns were a mixture of grass and white clover (Trifolium repens).
The mixture worked well because clover sets nitrogen in its roots and naturally fertilizes the grass. As kids we used to search for lucky 4-leaf clovers in the yard.
But times changed. People didn’t want weeds in the lawn and the easiest way to remove them was to spread weed killer that targeted broadleaf plants. Clover is a broadleaf so it died and fertilizer had to be added to the chemical mix.
These neighboring lawns in New Jersey show both types of lawn treatments. At top is a chemically treated lawn without broadleaf plants. At bottom is an old fashioned grass-and-clover mix. If you can’t see the dividing line, click on the photo to see the divide.
Chances are you’ll have to search for lucky 4-leaf clovers in a photo instead of on the lawn. How many are in this photo? (Click on it to see a larger version.)
p.s. False Shamrock: The “shamrock” plant often sold around St. Patrick’s Day is not related to clover. “False shamrock” or “purple shamrock” (Oxalis triangularis) is native to Brazil.
Today at 1:17pm Carla laid her first egg of the year at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. The Pittsburgh area and large swaths of western PA and neighboring states were under a Tornado Watch at the time.
The first heavy downpour and lightning had passed when Carla arrived at the nest at 12:30pm but it was still raining and the wind was gusting to 48 mph. She took one last look at 12:53pm before hunkering down at the scrape.
When a female peregrine is getting ready to lay eggs she spends the night at the nest ledge. As egg laying becomes imminent she doesn’t have far to go to crouch over the scrape.
Last night Carla spent five hours at the nest and, from the start Ecco encouraged her to do so.
This Day-in-a-Minute timelapse video shows nest activity from 10:30 on Saturday night through 7:00am Sunday morning, 15-16 March, as follows:
15 March 2025: The nest is empty from sunset until 10:30pm, not shown in the video.
When Ecco arrives he pops in and out so fast that you might not realize it’s him. Carla arrives soon after.
Carla stands on the gravel or the green perch for most of the night; she leaves at 4:40am.
A few minutes later Ecco arrives, checks the scrape and spends a while on the green perch.
The real time video clip below shows the most interesting segments. With audio on you can hear Carla calling before she leaves the nest, perhaps wailing to Ecco for a snack. After a short gap with no peregrines, Ecco comes to the nest.
