All posts by Kate St. John

Snow on the Delta

Weather & Sky
Snow drift on a car, New Orleans, 21 Jan 2025, 5:55pm (photo by Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons)

28 January 2025

This photo of a car in a snow drift was not taken in Minnesota. It was in New Orleans, Louisiana on 21 January 2025!

The winter storm that brought these blizzard conditions and 30-40 mph wind gusts had passed by the time this satellite image was taken on 22 January. Snow etches the contours of the Mississippi Delta.

Snow on the ground in the Southeastern U.S., 22 Jan 2025. Note including the Mississippi River Delta (image from MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC)

During the storm it really did look like Minnesota in photos by Infrogmation on Wikimedia Commons — at top and below.

New Orleans backyard during snowfall on 21 Jan 2025, 4:10pm (photo by Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons)
Snow drift in the backyard, New Orleans, 21 Jan 2025, 5:59pm (photo by Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons)

The storm left behind …

  • 200 miles of Interstate 10 closed due to snow and ice.
  • 8 inches of snow in New Orleans.
  • 7°F in Baton Rouge, the lowest temperature ever recorded in their 95 years of keeping track.
  • Frozen, broken water pipes …
  • and everyone huddled indoors!

The rare storm brought more snow to New Orleans than has fallen in Anchorage, Alaska, since the start of meteorological winter, noted the National Weather Service.

— from NASA MODIS Image of the Day 24 Jan 2025

The entire episode was quite a shock to a city that stays green all winter. Without snowplows Louisiana had to clear I-10 using backhoes.

Today’s high in New Orleans will be near normal at 61°F. This is what is should look like in January.

Cambronne Street, Carrolton Historic District, New Orleans, 2 Jan 2024 (photo by Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons)

UPDATE on 1 Feb 2025: After this storm paralyzed the Gulf Coast states it headed out to sea and strengthened into an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone in the North Atlantic. When it got to Ireland it had a name — Storm Éowyn.

“Éowyn barreled into Ireland and the northern United Kingdom on Friday, January 24, bringing heavy wind damage, a destructive storm surge, and widespread power outages.

“The ferocious windstorm brought the highest sustained winds — 135 km/hr (84 mph) — and the highest wind gust ever recorded in Ireland — 183 km/hr (114 mph).

“Sustained 10-minute winds of 84 mph are characteristic of a strong Cat 1 or weak Cat 2 hurricane. The damage being reported from Ireland and the U.K. is indeed characteristic of a hurricane, and Storm Éowyn may well end up being Earth’s second billion-dollar weather disaster of 2025, along with the Los Angeles fires.”

quoted from: Storm Eowyn brings hurricane-level destruction to Ireland

World’s Largest Iceberg is Heading Toward Penguins

Water and Shore, Weather & Sky
King penguins at St. Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia Island (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

27 January 2025

The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is heading for South Georgia Island, the home of millions of penguins including king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) shown above, and macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) listed as Vulnerable and pictured below. If the iceberg gets trapped near the island while it melts, it may block their access to food.

Macaroni penguins, Cooper Bay, South Georgia Island (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

A23a iceberg broke off of Antarctica in 1986 but it didn’t move for about 30 years while it was hung up on the bottom of the Weddell Sea. When it floated free it was captured by a spinning current called a Taylor column. Finally in 2024 it broke free again and started to move.

Iceberg A23a in Weddell Sea, 30 Nov 2023 (photo from Sentinel-2 satellite via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s hard to imagine the size of this iceberg without comparisons. Right now it’s nearly the same size as Rhode Island.

Map of Rhode Island within the US (from Wikimedia Commons)

And its ice is 920 feet thick, which is taller than Pittsburgh’s US Steel Tower at 841 feet. I’ve added a yellow arrow to this photo to approximate the additional height.

US Steel Tower with yellow arrow estimating of A23a ice thickness (photo from Wikimedia Commons, markup by Kate St. John)

Though it is huge, A23a is following the typical iceberg path to the South Atlantic. It floated in the Weddell Sea gyre, skirted the Antarctic Peninsula that points at South America, then was captured by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that sends it toward South Georgia Island.

Map of South Georgia and South Sandwich Island British territories (circled in red). Approximate path of A23a iceberg is drawn in yellow (map from Wikimedia, yellow path drawn by Kate St. John)

As it approaches South Georgia on 12 December 2024 you can see how huge it is compared to the island. Yow!

Satellite image of A23a and South Georgia Island, 12 Dec 2024 (photo from Wikimedia Commons;  Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024)

If A23a clogs the shore of South Georgia while it disintegrates, adult penguins and seals with young on the island will have to travel farther to get to food, which could cause their young to starve. This video explains what the iceberg is up to and how it could affect wildlife.

video embedded from France24 English on YouTube

For an interactive view of the iceberg and its path, see the BBC article –> A23a: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg as it drifts towards oblivion.

Peregrines Have a Nestbox at Sewickley Bridge

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Sewickley Bridge and icy Ohio River, 25 Jan 2025 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)

26 January 2025

Since 2021 a pair of peregrines has claimed the Sewickley Bridge as their territory but there’s never been a successful nest. Jeff Cieslak photographs the peregrines at this site and confirmed last April that the male was banded (black/green 05/S) and hatched at Pitt in 2010.

When the nest failed again in 2024 and Jeff heard that PennDOT was going to repair the bridge, he contacted the PA Game Commission and PennDOT to see if they’d put up a nestbox. And they did!

Here’s the story and photos from Jeff Cieslak at Our Daily Bird on Facebook:

“BIG NEWS: I can’t take any credit for constructing or installing it, but I will take 100% of the credit for making it happen at all: PennDOT installed a falcon nest box on the southern pier of the Sewickley Bridge. The pair nesting there for the past several years have not been able to raise any young, due to a dearth of good nesting sites. But they try every year, so when PennDOT announced that they were closing the bridge last April to do some expansion joint work, I contacted them to let them know that it seemed that there was an active nesting attempt going on (though I was pretty sure it would fail). At the end of a meeting with PennDOT, the PA Game Commission, and myself, PennDOT agreed to install a nest box under the PAGC’s direction. Apparently, they installed it in the fall — but I just found out about it last week and went to see it today.

“Nesting season will start in earnest around the beginning of March, but they might start checking the box out sooner. It would have been great to see one hanging out in the vicinity of the box today, but the falcons weren’t around this morning.

“Construction photos from PennDOT.”

— Jeff Cieslak, Our Daily Bird on Facebook, 12 January 2025

Early this month Mark Young at PennDOT sent Jeff these photos which were taken during the installation on 1 November 2024.

Peregrine nestbox before installation on Sewickley Bridge, 1 Nov 2024 (photo from Mark Young, PennDOT District 11)
Peregrine nestbox installed at Sewickley Bridge, 1 Nov 2024 (photo from Mark Young, PennDOT District 11)

Jeff checked it out on Saturday 11 January and sent me this map of the best place to view the nestbox area.

General location of Sewickley Bridge nestbox and best location for viewing it (Google Maps screenshot markup from Jeff Cieslak)

… and this is what you can see though binoculars or a zoom lens.

Peregrine nestbox at Sewickley Bridge, 11 Jan 2025 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)

Peregrine nesting season is heating up. Stay tuned or visit the site yourself to see what’s up.

For more news and a daily dose of birds, follow Jeff Cieslak’s Our Daily Bird on Facebook.

Seen This Week: Man O’War and Ice

Travel, Water and Shore, Weather & Sky
Portuguese man o’war jellyfish, Spanish River Park, Boca Raton, FL, 21 Jan 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

25 January 2025

This week was cold and drizzly during our family visit to Boca Raton. My brother said it was like Seattle weather. Yes.

We went to the beach on Tuesday where I saw many Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) washed up on the sand. They are named for the topside bubble that resembles the sail on a Portuguese Man O’War ship. Not technically jellyfish they are actually hydrozoa, small colonial predatory animals that sting powerfully enough to kill their prey. Do Not Touch, especially while swimming!

Best Birds were seven magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) soaring in the cold north wind near their northernmost point on the Atlantic coast. (This Wikimedia photo is from Colombia.)

Magnificent frigatebirds at Colombia (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Flying into Pittsburgh on Thursday I saw ice on all three rivers, especially on the Allegheny so I stopped at Duck Hollow yesterday on my way the grocery store. You can see that a lot of the river is ice free but the mud bar is surrounded.

Ice on the Monongahela at Duck Hollow, 24 Jan 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

Listen as floating ice scrapes past the dark green channel marker (in the center of this video) while 125 ring-billed gulls lounge on the ice.

Ice scrapes past the channel marker in the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 24 Jan 2025 (video by Kate St. John)

Dropping in From Outer Space

Weather & Sky
Perseid meteor shower in August 2021 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

24 January 2025

Last summer on 25 July a small rock dropped in from outer space. Six months later it’s famous as the only meteorite ever recorded in sight and sound as it hit the Earth.

When the rock exploded on impact at Joe Velaidum’s house in Marshfield near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the activity was picked up on the home’s RING camera.

It caused a divot in the walkway approximately 2 centimeters [3/4 inch] in diameter.  Velaidum reports that he was standing at that location minutes before the meteorite struck it; he considers the event “a near-death experience”.

The Charlottetown meteorite came from the asteroid belt, according to the University of Alberta researcher [Chris Herd], and would have traveled at least 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph) just prior to impact.

— Wikipedia account: Charlottetown meteorite

No wonder Velaidum considers it a near death experience! Even though the rock was small it could easily have killed him at that speed.

This photo embedded from the CBC’s P.E.I. homeowner captures sound and video of meteorite strike on camera, and scientists believe it’s a first shows Chris Herd holding a fragment of the rock.

Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s meteorite collection, says this is the ‘first and only meteorite ever found on the Island.’ (Travis McEwan/CBC) (photo embedded from cbc.ca)

Learn more and see the meteorite explode in this video from New8Now on YouTube.

video embedded from News8Now (La Crosse – Eau Claire, Wisconsin)

Check out the CBC’s article: P.E.I. homeowner captures sound and video of meteorite strike on camera, and scientists believe it’s a first.

Snowy Owl? Or Plastic Bag?

Birds of Prey, Musings & News
Is that a snowy owl? Franklin County, PA 12 Jan 2014 (photo by Nancy Magnusson via Flickr Creative Commons license)

23 January 2025

Those who ventured out in this week’s bitter cold hoped to see birds from the far north who had just arrived on the wind. The typical way to find them is to drive past frozen fields watching for movement and scanning for anything that looks like a bird.

What’s that white lump in the field? Is it a snowy owl? Or a plastic bag?

Eleven years ago the winter of 2013-2014 was extremely cold and there was a huge irruption of snowy owls in the Northeast and Great Lakes. People photographed all of them, even the distant ones, to document them in eBird.

At top: Is that a plastic bag on that patch of snow? Below: Are there plastic bags or snowy owls in this photo? And how many?

Where’s the snowy owl? There are 3 in Jackson County, MI on 26 Dec 2013 (photo by Don Henise via Flickr Creative Commons license)

Is there a snowy owl in this picture?

Where’s the snowy owl in this picture? West Dennis Beach, Cape Cod, 17 Jan 2014 (photo by On The Wander via Flickr Creative Commons license)

Answer: All three photos have a snowy owls in them. The middle photo has 3 along the ridge top.

This winter we have not seen a big influx of snowy owls into Pennsylvania though there have been a couple of sightings.

screenshot of snowy owl sightings in the northeastern US in Jan 2025 (eBird species map as of 23 Jan 2025)

Recently there’s a snowy owl near Grantsville, Maryland which is often photographed from afar. A white lump?

If you’ve ever looked for a snowy owl and found a plastic bag you’ll enjoy the story and photos at The Search for Snowy Owls by Friends of the Fox River in Elgin, Illinois.

Ice, Anyone?

Water and Shore, Weather & Sky
Crew members from icebreaker USS Bristol Bay take a dip in icy Lake Erie after freeing Algoma Hansa (ship closest to them) 8 March 2015 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

22 January 2025

While it snowed in Florida yesterday (click here for video!) the deep freeze up north is making the Great Lakes ice up.

As of yesterday Lake Erie was iced over on its western and all along the shore to Buffalo. Erie freezes before the other lakes because it’s so shallow.

Great Lakes surface Temperature and ice cover as of 21 Jan 2025 (map from Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab)

With the western end frozen solid it’s hard to keep shipping channels open. Ten years ago during the very cold winter of 2015 ships got stuck in Lake Erie’s ice. This one is stuck near Ashtabula, Ohio that February. Coast Guard icebreakers came out to rescue it.

Ship stuck in ice near Ashtabula, OH, 19 Feb 2015 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

When the job is done the crew gets “ice liberty” to jump in the water. In the photo at top they are gazing at the ship they freed. Below you can see they are wear waterproof ice suits when they do it.

Crew of USS Bristol Bay on “ice liberty,” (photo )

This is their a reward for a job well done.

Ice, anyone?

p.s. The day after I wrote this article, the USS Bristol Bay was called out to Buffalo, NY to free a ship stuck in the ice. Here’s news on 23 January 2025 before the icebreaker showed up.

Instead of Snow, Snowy Egrets

Travel, Water and Shore, Weather & Sky
Snowy egret in flight at Wakodahatchee, Florida (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

21 January 2025

It’s Crazy Cold in the U.S. right now. While half the continent is unusually cold a winter storm is sweeping through the deep South. You know it’s wild when there’s a Blizzard Warning in coastal Louisiana today!

National Weather Service Blizzard Warning for the Lake Charles, Louisiana forecast area, 21 Jan 2025, 4:36am CST

Fortunately there’s not much snow in Pittsburgh but it’s cold with a low tonight of -8°F.

Ecco looks at the snow, 20 Jan 2025 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

But I woke up in South Florida this morning and I feel mighty lucky. My husband and I started planning this trip two months ago and just happened to pick the same week as a continental cold snap.

South Florida is not particularly warm right now and it’s going to rain shower every day but I can’t complain. Instead of snow I’m in the land of snowy egrets. And they don’t care if they get wet.

video embedded from Geoffrey Smith on YouTube

By the time we get back to Pittsburgh the 4-day cold snap will be over. I have no regrets about missing it!

Hays Bald Eagle ‘Dad’ is Back!

Birds of Prey, Nesting & Courtship
Adult male bald eagle ‘Dad’ at Hays, 18 Jan 2025 (photo by Dana Nesiti, Eagles of Hays PA)

20 January 2025

From 2013 through 2023 a male bald eagle, nicknamed ‘Dad’ by his fans, nested at Pittsburgh’s Hays site. Here he is adding sticks to the nest in November 2018.

Male bald eagle, ‘Dad’ adds sticks to the Hays nest in Nov 2018 photo by Dana Nesiti, Eagles of Hays PA)

Sadly ‘Dad’ disappeared from his territory in September 2023 and many feared he was dead. A new male, HM2, mated with the original female in 2024 and she laid one egg but the nest failed when the egg deteriorated and collapsed.

Then on a gray and rainy morning, Saturday 18 January, Dana Nesiti (Eagles of Hays PA) was taking photographs at the Hays nest viewing site when an adult eagle came in, perched, and flew. Dana’s in-flight photos show that this bird has ‘Dad’s unique traits: a wing gap and a stubby talon.

It didn’t take long to spread the happy news. ‘Dad’ eagle is back!

With Dad’s return hope is renewed for a successful nesting season even though it’s already late January. As Merry Wander commented on Facebook:

…and Dad only needs 4 days to whip this place into shape…

Woo hoo!

p.s. If you aren’t on Facebook you won’t be able to see Dana’s entire Facebook message. I’ve quoted it below.

“1-18-2025 Got to the trail while it was still dark and was able to see a eagle in the cam tree with binoculars. While I was watching that eagle it flew out at 7:22am and circled the river a couple times before flying downstream. It appeared to be a sub adult. I continued down the trail to the nest area and took my pack off and was going to get set up. Another eagle was flying down the hillside which looked like a sub adult and it had a adult eagle chasing it. They did some maneuvers and also flew downstream. It was still dark and my camera was in my backpack.

“At 9:20am a eagle came over the hill and landed in the slanty tree area and sat for a few minutes. When it flew we were shocked. This eagle appears to be the original Hays male “dad”. I’m 99.999% sure it is. What do you think?

“EDIT: Looking at other images from the flight of the hill, we can see the top wonky feather and his stubby talon. I’m saying 100% the original male!!

“There have not been any signs of nest building that we are aware of and the past week there have been several different sub adult eagles hanging around. Sorry for the bad quality pics as the sky was drab and rainy.“

— quoted from Eagles of Hays PA on Facebook, 18 Jan 2025

Follow Eagles of Hays PA on Facebook for more news of the Hays bald eagles.

Green Woodpecker Murmurs and Shouts

Bird Behavior, Songbirds

Green woodpecker in France (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

19 January 2025

The Eurasian green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is a bit unusual. Instead of drilling trees he spends most of his time on the ground, poking his beak in the soil.

Eurasian green woodpecker foraging on ground (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

That’s because he …

Predominantly [eats] ants, chiefly meadow-dwelling species of genera Formica (winter) and Lasius (spring to autumn); generally, larger ant species preferred.  …

Uses bill to sweep away moss, dead leaves, other debris, or snow; pecks funnel-shaped holes up to 12 cm (4.7 in) deep in ground, and procures prey with action of the very long tongue; such holes may be exploited in lengthy and repeated visits. When snow cover heavy, can dig tunnels almost 1m (more than 3 feet) long to reach prey. 

— Green Woodpecker account at Birds of the World

About That Tongue: When Shaun Robson in Dorset, England worried that green woodpeckers were disappearing from his area, Jason Miller (@jasonmillerart) answered with a video that proved they’re still around. Can you hear the green woodpecker murmuring?

embedded video from Jason Miller Jason Miller @jasonmillerart on X (Twitter)

He can also be quite loud.

video embedded from European Wildlife by Lukáš Pich on YouTube

These traits may remind you of a North American woodpecker. Though not closely related, our northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) also forages on the ground for ants and shouts in the spring.

Northern flicker foraging on ground (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
video embedded from MyBackyardBirding on YouTube

… and he murmurs “wika wika wika” with his lady. (Note: In the audio below you’ll also hear the chattering of an upset wren.)