Male ebony jewelwing, Frick Park, 2 July 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
17 July 2024
Bug season brings pests but also beauty. One of my favorites is this delicate damselfly, the ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), named for the males’ black wings with metallic blue-green edges. Their bodies are shiny blue-green, too.
The females are less flashy, darkly colored with white spots at the tips of the wings. When a female flies in the forest gloom the white tips are all you see.
Female ebony jewelwing, Frick Park, 2 July 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Ebony jewelwings prefer wooded habitats near creeks and streams where they flit from leaf to leaf. In early July in Frick Park we saw males and females courting and jostling for territory. When they mate they form a heart shape with their bodies.
Our largest swallow, the purple martin (Progne subis), has a very short breeding period in North America. In Pennsylvania they arrive in late April and fledge young in mid July.
Purple martins at Bob Allnock’s in Portersville, PA, July 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
As soon as the fledglings fly well, adults and young leave the nesting area and spend their nights in a communal roost.
Flocking begins as soon as nestlings fledge; birds of all ages assemble in roosts before fall departure. This may represent nonbreeding activity rather than a specific response to upcoming migration, because the species is highly social and flocks in large roosts throughout the overwintering period.
Since the breeding period is earlier in the South, roosts in the Carolinas fill up in July and contain so many birds that their early morning departure can be seen on weather radar. This happened last week in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Excessive heat from the western U.S. is now in the East and the next two days promise to be brutal.
Right now I’m in Tidewater Virginia where today’s high temperature will be 97°F and “feel like” 107°F. Just after dawn the turkey vultures warmed their wings in my sister’s backyard. I’m sure they know where and how to stay cool later today.
Turkey vultures wake up in Virginia before it’s hot (photo by Kate St. John)
We humans, however, are not always in control of our time and some humans are not as smart as turkey vultures so every newscast reminds us to be careful and stay cool.
Yes, today will be hot but tomorrow will be worse. There will be Extreme Heat even in the mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Yesterday in my sister’s backyard in Tidewater Virginia we watched about a hundred green beetles flying rapidly in wide circles over the grass. They moved so fast that we couldn’t see their features but we could tell they were big, 1/2 to 1 inch long. None of us had ever seen this phenomenon before.
Green June beetles are members of the scarab beetle family, same as the dung beetles of Africa, sacred in Ancient Egypt. Though these are called “June” beetles, July and August are the adults’ most active time. Males fly around seeking females. Females fly low over the grass looking for a place to lay eggs. So that’s what we were seeing.
When the eggs hatch the larvae tunnel underground and emerge at night to travel on their backs, waving their legs in the air. This sounds like odd and hazardous behavior.
North Carolina State Extension says the third instars “produce a secretion that binds soil particles together and enables them to form a protective case in which they overwinter in the soil.” The beetles pupate and emerge as adults in the summer.
Their dirt ball reminds me of the dung beetle. The photo shows one open with pupa inside.
Though we saw a lot of bugs yesterday it may not turn into many down the road. The grubs have many predators so North Carolina State Extension’s residential recommendation is: “If there is no indication of turf damage due to tunneling by the grubs, no action is really necessary.”
Green June beetles occur in Pittsburgh, even in Schenley Park, though not often (click here and here to see two iNaturalist entires). I have never noticed their courtship behavior in Pittsburgh.
Their occurrence map indicates that green June beetles are much more common in Virginia.
Sunset in Pittsburgh, 10 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
13 July 2024, Pittsburgh
Hot. Sultry. This week’s oppressive heat and humidity was curiously exhausting. Where have I experienced this weather before? Ah, yes. Florida in July. For the most part I stayed indoors so there’s not much “Seen This Week.”
On a brief foray around the Cathedral of Learning I did not find the peregrines but did see a beautiful flowerbed of black-eyed susans.
Flowers at Cathedral of Learning, 9 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The peregrines cope with the heat by perching in the shade. Carla looks sleepy an hour before sunset on 9 July.
Carla resting on the green perch, 9 July 2024, 7:25pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
I’m not looking forward to next week’s heat wave, though it won’t be as bad in Pittsburgh as further east.
We complain about staying indoors during winter but now we’re staying indoors in the summer, too.
Though they eat the plant they don’t like getting stuck in milkweed sap so they limit their exposure to it by purposely draining the veins.
(video of a red milkweed beetle cutting milkweed vein to reduce/stop latex pressure before feeding beyond the cut, embedded from Wikimedia Commons)
Other expected milkweed insects have not made an appearance yet. I have seen neither large nor small milkweed bugs. I usually find them on milkweed pods but the plants are only in the leaf growth and flowering stage right now.
Large and small milkweed bugs (photos by Kate St. John and John English)
Meanwhile, friends who grow milkweed to attract monarch butterflies are concerned that they have not seen any monarchs yet. Was last week too early? Steve Gosser photographed this one in July 2014.
Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed, July 2014 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Have you seen monarch butterflies this month in southwestern PA?
Coyote on the lawn, Illinois (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
11 July 2024
Coyotes live in Allegheny County and in the City of Pittsburgh. In fact I saw my first one in the city limits 21 years ago. But coyotes keep a low profile so people are often surprised when they see one and think they’ve newly arrived.
Six years ago I recorded a piece about urban coyotes for the Allegheny Front; this week they rebroadcast it. I’d forgotten I’d said such helpful things. Have a listen.
p.s. Everything I said in this piece is still true today except for the timing (“last year” refers to 2017) and my neighborhood (Back then I lived in Greenfield; now I live in Oakland).
Endemic to Guam, where their indigenous name is “Sihek,” the Guam kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus) has been extinct in the wild for almost 40 years. Though they nest in trees they were no match for the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) which was accidentally introduced from its native range into Guam in 1946. Thanks to the Sihek Recovery Program the offspring of this pair at the National Aviary will be among the first to return to the wild.
Since their near extinction in the 1980s the Guam kingfisher has existed only in captivity with fewer than 200 individuals on Earth in 2017. The captive breeding program is increasing their population.
Yesterday two Guam kingfisher chicks hatched at the National Aviary began their journey back to the wild.
When the youngsters are ready for release they won’t be returning to Guam. Unfortunately the brown tree snake is such a successful predator that it overran the island in only 30 years and caused the extinction of 12 native bird species.
On Guam these snakes are so pervasive and so good at hiding that there is a real possibility they could hitchhike on outbound equipment and invade other islands. USDA has trained sniffer dogs to check everything for snakes before it leaves Guam including cargo and the airplane landing gear!
Guam is still infested with snakes so where will the young birds go?
When they’re ready to live in the wild they will be released at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, one thousand miles south of Hawaii and equidistant from New Zealand and the continental US. The refuge is mostly water with only 4.6 square miles of land. Research scientists spend short stints onsite but no one lives there permanently. Guam and Palmyra Atoll are marked on the map below.
Adult peregrine at Monaca-East Rochester Bridge, 8 July 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
9 July 2024
July is usually a boring month for peregrines in Pittsburgh. It’s hot. Nest duties are over. The adults are molting. But this week there are two bits of news.
Monaca-East Rochester Bridge:
On Monday morning, 8 July, Jeff Cieslak checked for peregrines along the Ohio River and stopped by the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge. He usually looks on the Monaca (south) side but yesterday he checked East Rochester (north) as well. There he found two fledglings and one adult, pictured here.
Juvie peregrine flying in, shouting, at the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge, 8 July 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)Juvie peregrine landing at the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge, 8 July 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
The Monaca fledglings appear to be about 4-5 weeks younger than those at Pitt, putting their hatch date in late May and egg laying in mid-to-late April. Such a late nest makes me wonder if the first nest failed or if there was upheaval at this site with a change of partners that took until April to settle down. We’ll never know.
Cathedral of Learning: What was she looking at?
Carla on camera, 7 July 2024, 5:58pm (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
On Sunday 7 July Carla visited the nest from 5:08p to 7:36pm. In that 90 minute period she was very alert when jumped she up to the snapshot camera. I wonder what she was looking at.
Powdered dancer damselfly, Duck Hollow, 7 July 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
8 July 2024
Eight of us gathered yesterday morning, 7 July, to look for birds at Duck Hollow. Alas, I forgot to take a group photo.
It was hot.
We stuck to the shade and saw two fly-by ospreys and a host of juvenile songbirds. We also saw a Best Insect — the powdered dancer (Argia moesta) damselfly pictured above — and a Best Mammal sighting of two juvenile muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) swimming in Nine Mile Run creek.
We learned about the immature plumage of northern rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) when several perched on a wire and one turned its back. Through binoculars you can identify immature birds by their reddish-brown wing bars. Click here to see.
Juvenile northern rough-winged swallow, Duck Hollow, 7 July 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
We also saw two juvenile northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) — a first for me.
Juvenile northern mockingbird, Duck Hollow, 7 July 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
In 90 minutes we tallied 23 species. It was hot and getting hotter so we went home.
Duck Hollow, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US Jul 7, 2024 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM 23 species
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 30 — Youngsters w adults. Adults flightless. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 6 Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1 Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 15 Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) 1 Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 1 Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) 1 Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 1 Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) 1 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 2 Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) 1 Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 1 Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 3 Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 6 Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) 14 — At least 3 immatures Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 3 Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 4 — Two juvenile birds American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 12 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 6 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 3 Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius) 1 Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 5 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 4
