Honeysuckle from buds to first leaves, Schenley, March 8 & 13 (photos by Kate St. John)
14 March 2026
As this week began it was as hot as May before temperatures returned to normal. Leaf and flower buds swelled and opened. Seen This Week were ….
The first Amur honeysuckle leaves (above) and Cornelian cherry tree flowers.
Cornelian cherry flowers: buds to fully open, Schenley, March 6 to 11, (photos by Kate St. John)
Swelling buds on ginkgo trees.
Ginkgo tree buds swelling, Schenley, 13 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Invasive Callery pear about to bloom.
Callery pear flowers buds swell, Schenley, 13 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Viburnum plicatum leaf buds swelling in Frick Park. (This shrub is invasive.)
Virburnum plicatum leaf buds, Frick, 8 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
First flowers on forsythia.
Forsythia drooping after cold night, Schenley, 13 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Pale green branches on the willows … tiny leaves.
Willows turning green in Schenley Park, 12 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
First goutweed leaves.
First goutweed leaves, Schenley, 11 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
My husband’s allergies gave him a twinge early this week. Why? The American elm’s wind-pollinated flowers bloomed.
Pixel Weather screenshot, Pollen count, 10 Mar 2026
Leaves and flowers will get smacked down this coming Tuesday and Wednesday when temperatures drop into the low 20s. I cannot feel bad for half of those pictured here. Four of the featured plants are invasive aliens.
Phenology is the study of the times when natural phenomena recur throughout the year.
At the beginning of this century, before the Internet was so accessible, Chuck Tague wrote a bi-monthly paper newsletter called The Nature Observer News that listed outings, nature club meetings, and what to expect outdoors in the upcoming half of the month.
In 2008-2009 I collaborated with Chuck to post a phenology for Western Pennsylvania based on his articles in The Nature Observer News. He created the lists about 20 years ago from his observations at the time. Since then our climate has gotten warmer and some nature events occur earlier than they used to, enough to jog them a half-month.
Thinking about what you’ve seen in recent weeks, have any of these nature events moved backward to a prior half-month? Are they all on time this spring?
I’ve marked the differences I’ve seen with an (X) and descriptions at the end.
Maple trees with sugar pails (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Large flocks of robins sing at dusk and dawn for about two weeks.
Intensive peregrine falcon courtship.
First flowers in gardens: Snowdrops, crocuses, forsythia (X)
Mud Season: switch from snow boots to mud boots.
Jacket Weather (instead of the winter coats) (X)
Coltsfoot at Barking Slopes, 25 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Phenology (20 years ago) for LATE MARCH
Migrating ducks, geese and tundra swans on local lakes. (X)
Tree swallows, eastern phoebes and eastern bluebirds arrive.
Garden flowers and trees: Daffodils, tulips, ornamental cherry.
Woodland flowers: coltsfoot, harbinger of spring, snow trillium
Skunks and groundhogs are getting active
Peregrine falcons lay eggs and begin incubation.
American woodcocks “peent” and twitter in their aerial mating dance. (X)
Spring peepers and wood frogs are singing and mating. (X)
Changing Expectations of Spring: Then and Now
Here are the discrepancies I’ve seen in the past few weeks.
I saw a turkey vulture on 10 February at Emsworth Dam. This was a half-month early but I didn’t think much about it because I thought they stayed in that area of the Ohio River all winter.
First of the Year common grackles came back in late February. They did not wait for early March.
We skipped Jacket Weather for summer clothes on 7 March when the high went up to 78°F.
Migrating ducks and tundra swans arrived at Yellow Creek State Park on 28 Feb and in the first week of March. Moraine State Park had waterfowl on 1 March.
American woodcocks were here doing their sky dance in early March. However they dance for at least a month so it may be that the phenology is pointing out their later dances.
Spring peepers and wood frogs began singing in early March (as reported by friends). They did not wait until the second half of the month.
In case you haven’t noticed, turkey vultures have begun migrating north to their summer breeding grounds. At first there were just one or two but their numbers are growing now that the snow is gone and the ground has thawed.
Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) originated in South America, then expanded into North America. They leave our area in autumn because winter has two big disadvantages: there are no rising thermals to help them fly, and frozen meat neither rots nor smells so their preferred food is hard to find. Nature’s Cleanup Crew goes south to dine on roadkill.
As you can see from their range map, they do not go far so it’s easy for them to come back earlier than other birds.
This annual celebration dates back to 1957 when 9,000 visitors flocked to the township to see the buzzards return from their winter hiatus. The event includes an early bird hike, skits, songs, stories performed in tents or fields, displays, crafts, photos, contests, and other hikes. Don’t miss this rite of Spring. Learn about the legend that surrounds Buzzard Day and why so many buzzards and people come out in March.
Few animals have a worse reputation than the vulture. But is it deserved? With Vulture, Katie Fallon offers an irresistible argument to the contrary, tracing a year in the life of a typical North American turkey vulture.
p.s. Why are they called buzzards in Ohio when “buzzards” are species of hawks elsewhere in the world?
“Early settlers in the Americas used the word buzzard to refer to large, soaring birds, especially the turkey vulture. The name stuck, and so in North America especially, “buzzard” often refers to a vulture, not a hawk.” — Buzzard vs. Vulture: Different Names for the Same Bird?
Pitt peregrine Carla pauses at the scrape and shows off her bands on 9 March 2026 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
10 March 2026
At the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest, Carla is getting closer to egg laying. Her actions in the past week have been very promising.
A month ago Carla was mildly interested in courtship. Her mate, Ecco, would beg her to come bow with him. It sometimes took several minutes before she would join him and she always left the session before he did. This week Carla is in the mood.
On 4 March, for the first time this season, Carla stayed at the nest after the bowing session when Ecco leaves.
On 7 and 8 March the pair stepped up their courtship frequency, engaging in four bowing sessions per day on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s four sessions are shown in single snapshots below.
Carla & Ecco at Pitt 8 March 2026: 1st bowing session
2nd bowing session
3rd bowing session
4th bowing session
Over the winter when we saw a bird at the nest it was always Ecco. Now it is Carla who spends many hours at the nest. This timelapse video from yesterday, 9 March, condenses her three hours into two minutes.
And finally, the best sign of all is that Carla has been spending the night at the nest. Here she is roosting this morning at 5:01am with her beak in her back feathers.
First dandelion in 2021? Schenley Park, 3 Apr 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
9 March 2026
Have you seen your first dandelion flower of 2026?
Probably not. My earliest photo record of a dandelion was taken on 3 April, shown above. My photo date might not match First Blooming date in Pittsburgh, though, because I rarely take photos of dandelions until they go to seed.
Dandelion Field of Dreams, 10 May 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Dandelions in North America are an invasive species, Taraxacum officinale, originally brought on the Mayflower for salad greens. They spread across the continent because their seeds disperse on the wind, each dangling from a tiny parachute of fluff called a pappus (plural is pappi).
The volumes of the pappi—the parachutelike structures that allow seeds to float away—in the rural dandelions were more than twice as large as those in the urban plants, the team found. That may be because seeds that travel beyond their small fields [in the city] die on their perilous city journeys, making the energy investment in a bigger parachute less worthwhile.
In Japan this is a problem because the dandelion is native. The study suggests methods to link isolated populations and reverse their potential demise.
Meanwhile in North America our invasive dandelions are doing just fine, though I wonder if they’ve evolved shorter fluff in dense urban settings such as New York City.
Woodland crocus in a lawn on Neville Street, 7 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
8 March 2026
The woodland crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) on Neville Street have been blooming for a couple of days but I didn’t notice until yesterday. My guess at their bloom date is Thursday 5 March.
This is not unexpected. The weather had been above 50°F for four days and yesterday topped out at 78.8°F!
Woodland crocus in a lawn on Neville Street, 7 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
During last year’s photo shoot many bees were visiting the flowers. None this year. 🙁
Woodland crocus in a lawn on Neville Street, 7 Mar 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
How does this year’s crocus bloom date compare to those in the past?
Crocus First-Bloom Dates in Pittsburgh’s East End range from late February to the first three weeks of March.
I don’t have a crocus record but the date was probably March 7, 2016 based on temperature data, this post about coltsfoot, and feedback from Supriya in Squirrel Hill.
This year follows the early trend but is well within the cluster. Interestingly, the dates in February are earlier each time they occur. Repeated dates are circled in green.
On the weather front, half the week was too wet to enjoy so I only went out when the sun was shining. Warmer at the end of the week than the beginning. On 1 March walked at Herrs Island.
Herr’s Island back channel of the Allegheny River, 1 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Way across the (finally thawed!) Allegheny River I saw a grebe-shaped water bird with a white face and chest and a black head. Even though these digiscoped photos are lousy, they confirm a horned grebe (Podiceps auritus) in non-breeding plumage.
Documentation photos of horned grebe at Allegheny River, 1 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Never abundant in Pittsburgh, most horned grebes breed in western Canada but a few stay in our area all winter if there’s open water. Here’s what they look like in a good photo by Steve Gosser.
Horned grebes, 15 Feb 2014 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Yesterday in Schenley Park we discovered that the Panther Hollow Bridge rehab project is temporarily in a VERY LOUD phase. Here are just 10 seconds of it.
Panther Hollow Bridge rehab project was VERY LOUD on 6 March 2026 (video by Kate St. John)
My guess at what’s happening: Inside the draped portion of the bridge I *think* they’re blasting off the peeling paint and rust. On the bridge deck there are two loud sucking machines that maintain negative air pressure.
Because of the noise there were almost no birds at this end of the park. We found them at the Bartlett end along with other signs of spring.
The buds look fat on this yellow buckeye (Aesculus flava).
Yellow buckeye buds in Schenley Park, 6 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) buds are already opening.
Cornelian cherry buds opening in Schenley Park, 6 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
The weather is warm today (77°F) but will return to near freezing on Wednesday night. Spring is moving forward in fits and starts.
One of the great joys of winter is to see murmurations of starlings wheeling at dusk. Their tightly packed flocks are often captured in photos and videos for us to enjoy at any time of year.
There are many ways to view the results: still shots (above), typical video (below), and two special video techniques.
Dennis Hlynsky’s video from November 2011 uses “extended moment photography.”
Described as extended moment photography the technique is not considered time-lapse film where time is condensed… flowers blooming, fruit rotting, city waking up… that sort of thing. This recording plays at real time speed. The footage is processed to extend the moment captured to show trails of where the animal has been / will be.
Now that spring is here the winter flocks of starlings have broken up to claim territory and breed. We will have to wait for November to see murmurations “live” again.
