Albion Falls in fog, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
However at ground level there were beautiful water droplets on all the plants. Many of them “weeds” but all looked gorgeous. Top to bottom:
Perennial sow thistle
White sweet clover
Common salsify
Gray dogwood berry stems shrouded in cobwebs
Tartarian honeysuckle berries
White sweet clover in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Common salsify in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Gray dogwood, mostly eaten berry bunch shrouded in cobwebs and fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Tartarian honeysuckle berries in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Back in Pittsburgh I see deer every day now in my neighborhood. These two are munching a garden on Neville Avenue — a 6-point buck in velvet with a doe. They are a persistent couple.
Muching a garden: 6-point buck in velvet with doe, 10 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Yellow at the nest, 6 July 2026, 8:36pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
10 July 2026
On Tuesday morning, 7 July, I was chatting with friends at Schenley Plaza when I heard a young peregrine whining for food — a normal sound in early June when young peregrines have just fledged but atypical in July.
I looked up to see the whiner chasing her parents around the Cathedral of Learning. Yes, it was Yellow. She arrived at the nest the previous evening when her parents were not around.
Yellow arrives at the nest, 6 July 8:35pm
Yellow tape on her USFW band
Her parents aren't here
She pounces on scraps in the nest
Streaming starts to get weird.
Recording is weird. Digital fractals.
Right now the Pitt peregrines are mostly off camera but there are occasional moments of excitement. Ecco and Carla bow at the nest. Yellow pops in unexpectedly.
Not A Leaf: Acanalonia planthopper on a stem, Schenley Park, 3 August 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)
9 July 2026
Now that Bug Season is in full swing it’s fun to find the bugs in camouflage.
Planthoppers are parasites that suck the juice from plants, though they rarely reach the pest level in their native range. They barely move when perched but if you jostle them they jump like grasshoppers. Plant.Hoppers. Every life stage uses camouflage to hide from predators.
Google Lens identified the bug at top as an Acanalonia planthopper that sucks the juice of woody plants. Usually green in color, the adult is trying to look like a leaf.
Yesterday on Ellsworth Avenue my husband was surprised to see a curious fawn inside the Hunt Mansion fence. The fawn began to approach him. Where was its mother?
Not far away. After a few steps the fawn paused and went to mom nearby. Its mother taught it that humans on the sidewalk are not dangerous, but don’t get too close.
The doe must have indicated she was going outside the fence. “I’m going to eat that hedge. Go to your hiding place while I’m gone.”
The doe crossed the street to the yard with the delicious hedge and the fawn trotted away.
This means that even on vacation you’ve gotta watch out for ticks.
The bites of two species can make you very sick: black-legged ticks and lone star ticks. This diagram shows their relative size and shape, shown with the familiar dog tick for comparison.
Black-legged (or “deer”) ticks are at the top of the danger list. They are exceptionally plentiful and they spread Lyme disease.
Don’t let this tick get on you!
Black-legged tick (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Just about anywhere you’d want to vacation in the Northeast and Great Lakes States is prime territory for black-legged ticks. Planning a beach vacation? Notice that this tick is there too.
These ticks are especially plentiful in the Southeast and have begun moving into PA. When they bite they transmit a protein in their saliva that causes an allergic reaction to mammalian foods — meat and dairy products — called alpha gal syndrome.
There is an elusive desert wild cat that is so similar in size and shape to a domestic cat that it could be mistaken for one. The sand cat (Felis margarita) lives in disjoint areas in deserts from North Africa to the Middle East to Turkmenistan and is so well camouflaged that it is almost impossible to see in the wild. They are always in remote desert areas and possibly extinct in some of their range.
Almuntasir often received inquiries about the video but it led nowhere until Firas Hayder at Sol Plaatje University in South Africa proposed searching for and mapping sand cat locations using GPS, still shots and video.
It was a dangerous effort for humans because of armed smugglers in the region. However, the 8-year collaboration placed the sand cat on the map in Libya. I’ve hand drawn the approximate location in blue.
If you’ve seen a sand cat in a zoo I’m sure you’ve been surprised by how much it looks like the cats at home(*). These are the zoo-bred descendants of sand cats caught in southwestern Pakistan in the early 1970s and exported to zoos worldwide. Sand cats are gone from Pakistan in the current map. It is encouraging to hear they are in Libya.
In my neighborhood on 1 July I encountered a deer very close to the sidewalk who didn’t care that I stared at her.
She was eating a large Japanese spindle hedge (Euonymus japonicus)*, a plant that is toxic to humans and pets but not toxic to deer. She must be eating it day after day because the long hedge is damaged and see-through.
Japanese spindle hedge browsed by deer, 1 July 2026 (photo my Kate St. John)
Terribly hot weather. Even the sunset looked hot.
Heatwave sunset, 2 July 2026, 8:41pm (photo by Kate St. John)
So we’re on a mini-vacation in Hamilton, Ontario where it is not as hot. “Why Hamilton?” asked the Canadian immigration officer at the Peace Bridge. Well, we didn’t want to drive all the way to Toronto. Fair enough.
Hamilton (H on the map below) is on the way to Toronto (T) and more than an hour+ from the Peace Bridge in Buffalo (B). As we learned, there is a lot of stop and go traffic on the expressway.
Hamilton is at the westward tip of Lake Ontario and is bisected by the Niagara Escarpment, a 650-mile cliff that arcs from New York state to Ontario, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is not a fault line but the result of unequal erosion with hard rock on the cliff top and eroding limestone on the cliff face. Both the Genesee River in Rochester, NY and Niagara Falls cascade over the Niagara Escarpment.
Both the lake and the escarpment are visible from our hotel windows.
Lake Ontario seen from Hamilton, Ontario, 4 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)A portion of the Niagara Escarpment as seen from Hamilton, Ontario, 4 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
But not visible today. We were going to see the escarpment but it’s foggy.
Fog in Hamilton, Ontario, northeast wind, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
(*) p.s. It’s possible that I’ve misidentified the hedge the deer was eating. Cultivated Euonymus japonicus and E.Fortunei are very similar.
Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, 250 years ago.
We often hear a sentence or two from the Declaration but it’s worth a look today to see how well it holds up. I have transcribed the beginning below. NOTE: I added 1 paragraph break for readability.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
I usually write about Birds & Nature. A natural event is in the photo at the top. On 10 June 2021 an annular solar eclipse was visible from parts of Russia, Greenland, and northern Canada. Those in Northern Asia, Europe, and the United States saw a partial eclipse. This is what it looked like near the Statue of Liberty. Photo by Anthony Quintano posted on Wikimedia Commons.
In early June I routinely saw only one juvenile peregrine at the Cathedral of Learning. This was puzzling because young peregrines usually hang out at home for a couple of weeks, chasing their parents and playing in the sky with their siblings. Where were the other three? Puzzle solved for one of them: “Red” was rescued in early June and is on his way to rehab.
On Tuesday morning 9 June, the young male peregrine “Red” (Black/Green 09/Z) was found bleeding and stunned at 4400 Forbes Avenue near Carnegie Museum. He was admitted to Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh’s Wildlife Center (HARP) in Verona at 7:00am where the team treated his wounds and evaluated his condition.
Red must have hit something really hard head first because his head was bleeding and he had a concussion. Katie Kefalos, Director of Wildlife Rehabilitation, also told me his lead tests came back positive. He was treated for lead and his levels returned to normal.
HARP was hopeful that Red could rejoin his family soon for hunting school but on 18 June, wounds healed and lead-free, he flunked his flight test. He was too wobbly to go home. (Concussions can do that.)
“Red” at Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh’s Verona Wildlife Center, 2 July 2026 (photo from HARP)
Yesterday, 2 July, Red had another flight test but his skills were still not where they should be for him to learn to hunt. Meanwhile his parents, Carla and Ecco, have moved on from hunting school to “it’s time to leave home, kids.”
At this point Red needs to gain strength and balance and learn to hunt so he can become an independent peregrine. HARP has arranged for Red to be transported to Tamarack Wildlife Center whose rehab facility is equipped to help Red through the next steps.
“Red” at Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh’s Verona Wildlife Center, 2 July 2026 (photo from HARP)
Red has been a celebrity at HARP and is featured on their fundraiser page. If you’d like to thank HARP for helping Red and injured wildlife, consider a donation by clicking here or on the photo below.
We’ve been living with extreme heat in Pittsburgh since Monday and we’re learning to cope, but it’s worth pointing out Extreme Heat will continue in the City and Allegheny Valley through Sunday 5 July.
We won’t really be out of the furnace until the work week begins on Monday. See slideshow below. Click on a slide to zoom it. 🙁
