This bird’s normal range is Eurasia in the summer, Africa and southeast Asia in the winter. The immature bird found on Long Island was on its way to Africa when it went off course.
We found out about the bird because a golfer, who is not a birder, thought it was unusual and texted a photo to his ornithologist nephew.
The Rare Bird Alerts were galvanizing. The cuckoo’s location on the eastern end of Long Island was only a two hour drive from Manhattan. Hundreds of birders and photographers came out to see it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 24-26 October.
As far as I can tell, the cuckoo was not seen yesterday.
p.s. Like brown-headed cowbirds, common cuckoos are nest parasites who lay their eggs in the nests of other birds –> If You Think Cowbirds Are Bad… On the plus side, their song is the sound of a cuckoo clock. The CBS video explains that this bird is too young and in the wrong season to sing.
Almost the whole group (5 out of 6) at the Schenley outing, 26 Oct 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
27 October 2025
Yesterday morning six of us came out to look for birds at the Bartlett end of Schenley Park. I had high hopes for sparrows but we only saw song sparrows. It was cold and the birds did not become active until the day warmed up at 10:15am. By then we were done.
At first we stayed in the sunlit warmer areas, then walked the interior up the Falloon Trail and walked to Circuit Drive on the golf course. That’s where things got interesting.
We saw an 8-point buck in a tiny woodlot sandwiched between the road and the now-closed hole near the maintenance garage. He posed nicely for several of us and leapt away while Roger Day snapped this action shot. This buck was the second 8-point I’ve seen in four days; their antlers were different.
8-point buck leaps out of the tiny woodlot at Schenley golf course, 26 Oct 2025 (photo by Roger Day)
Further down the road I found stark evidence of deer damage in the park. These northern white-cedars (Thuja occidentalis) would normally have branches and greenery all the way to the ground (click here to see what I mean) but cedars are a favorite food of white-tailed deer who eat them up as far as they can reach.
Deer damage to northern white-cedar at the golf course, Schenley, 26 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Best Birds were two immature Cooper’s hawks (Astur cooperii) flying together and calling. Shortly thereafter we briefly saw an adult Coopers hawk hunting in the same area. Perhaps the youngsters were whining for food. No wonder the birds were hiding!
Allegheny River and Highland Park Bridge, 25 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
26 October 2026
Over the years, peregrine falcons have been seen near the Highland Park Bridge but the most recent evidence of nesting was in 2022 when Mark Vass saw an adult feeding a juvenile in late June 2022.
In early March 2024 Justin Kolakowski saw a pair of peregrines chase a bald eagle, then land on the water tower near the bridge. I visited Aspinwall Riverfront Park and walked the trail seven times from March to July that year and found as many as 70 American herring gulls (Larus smithsonianus) but no peregrines. Then on 8 August 2024 I saw 1 peregrine falcon, obviously not nesting, and 60 herring gulls.
August 2024: Peregrines: 1, Gulls: 60
Yesterday I went back to Aspinwall Riverfront Park and was surprised to find no gulls at all — zero — but while I was counting pigeons a peregrine falcon zoomed upriver and made two sharp dive-and-climb displays. I lost track of him when a female peregrine arrived from upstream, flew past him and landed on the bridge. Their size difference was obvious –male and female.
October 2025: Peregrines 2, Gulls 0.
Allegheny River and Highland Park Bridge, 25 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, 19 October 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
25 October 2025
Vibrant reds and oranges graced the sky and the forest in Pittsburgh this week.
Our region is in the midst of an oak-hickory forest so red-colored leaves can be scarce. Oaks turn dark red after most other trees are bare and hickories turn yellow, so I look forward to the moment when our few sugar maples turn red. It happened this week in Schenley Park, as you can see below.
Fall color on maples in Schenley Park, 23 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Fall color on maples in Schenley Park, 23 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Fall color along the Lower Trail at Schenley Park. Notice that it’s yellow. 20 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Fall color on maples in Schenley Park, 23 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Sunlight breaks through the background; fall color in Schenley Park, 23 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Two deer browsed near Schenley’s Upper Trail. One is already in her gray winter coat but so close to the trail that her camouflage didn’t matter. I would have missed the other deer (yellow arrow) except that it moved.
Two deer browsing in Schenley Park near the Upper Trail, 20 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Cold temperatures have ended this year’s spotted lanternflies so I was surprised to see one on the Panther Hollow Bridge. The air was so cold that didn’t move as I approached. Hah! I see you.
Spotted lanternfly, Schenley Park, 20 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
p.s. Mary Kate reminded me that sweetgum trees are very pretty in the fall. I’ll try to get some pictures this coming week.
A week ago Powdermill Nature Reserve posted a size comparison of a “sharpie” and a Sharpie. Before I show you their photo… How big is a sharp-shinned hawk (“sharpie”)? How big is a Sharpie indelible pen?
The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) is North America’s smallest accipiter with a total length of males 24–27 cm (9.5-10.6 in) and females 29–34 cm (11.4-13.4 in). The tail (for both) ranges 12–19 cm (4.7–7.5 in).
Let’s calculate the bird’s size using the smallest dimensions. Males are smallest. 9.5″ total length – 4.7″ tail = 4.8″ body.
Sharpie pen, measured on a ruler (photo by Kate St. John)
Here’s the real life comparison from Powdermill Nature Reserve‘s bird banding station. This sharpie has just been banded and is about to be released.
NOTE: If you’re viewing this on mobile: There is a bug on Facebook’s end since October 2024 that prevents displaying embedded Facebook posts on mobile devices. Until Meta fixes it click here to see the photo.
Here’s Powdermill’s complete Facebook text:
Sharp-shinned Hawks, often referred to as “sharpies,” are the smallest diurnal raptor (not including falcons) that we have in southwest Pennsylvania. They look a lot like the larger Cooper’s Hawk and can sometimes pose an identification challenge in the field. In fact, female Sharp-shinned Hawks are nearly the same size as male Cooper’s!
In these two species, and most raptors, the males are noticeably smaller than the females, which is called reverse sexual dimorphism. Researchers think that this is due to the sex roles during the breeding season: males need to be smaller and more agile to be efficient hunters to help feed nestlings.
Pictured here is a male Sharp-shinned Hawk next to a Sharpie marker, demonstrating that his body is about the length of the marker.
All birds are captured and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Murder of crows at staging area in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, 22 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
23 October 2025
Pittsburgh’s winter crow flock is growing day by day to reach its maximum size in late December / early January. As the murder grows they change their evening pathways and foil my attempt to count them.
For a while they’ve been staging in mature trees in Shadyside, then flying west after sunset to an unknown location. But they’ve also spent a couple of evenings staging on my building’s roof and on Cathedral Mansions.
Yesterday I went to Shadyside at 5:30pm to watch them come into the trees. At first each tree had 15 crows, then 20, then 30, then … More crows per tree and more trees with crows.
Murder of crows at pre-roost in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, 22 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Murder of crows at pre-roost in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, 22 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
They were loud and they were probably annoying the neighbors. Fortunately their visit was temporary. At sunset they departed for points west.
Seven years ago Pittsburgh’s growing murder of crows roosted on Pitt’s campus near the Cathedral of Learning and of course they caused trouble. Crows can’t help it.
Here’s more on crow trouble at home and abroad in a vintage article from 2018.
Dead deer in Schenley Park, road kill in Nov 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
22 October 2025
This week I learned of another side effect of this summer’s drought. Deer in the southeastern Ohio and western West Virginia are dying of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). It has also been reported in western Pennsylvania. I learned about EHD in The Guardian.
When landowner and hunter James Barkhurst went scouting his property about a month ago to assess the local deer population ahead of the fall hunting season, he was left in shock.
“I’ve seen about 14 dead in less than a mile stretch. There’s a lot of does, big bucks and even fawns. You smell the dead everywhere,” he says.
The longtime deer hunter owns several hundred acres and runs a small Airbnb business in Athens County, Ohio. This time of year, hunters from North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere usually descend on his accommodation and property to hunt. This year, with so many dead deer in the area, his business has been almost wiped out.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) is more prevalent during a drought because the tiny biting midges that carry it are concentrated at the watering holes and so are white-tailed deer. The disease kills rapidly. As soon as an infected deer shows symptoms it dies within 3 days, usually seeking water before it dies. Fortunately EHD cannot infect humans and deer cannot infect each other. Also fortunately, the midge dies at the first hard freeze. (Hooray for winter!)
Longspur Tracking used a drone in Wood County, WV to find dead deer and tally them. Their 25-minute video shows each deer found. I have started the YouTube embed at 22 minutes into the full video so you can see their last find and their conclusions. “This is what we’ve been talking about. The smell of death everywhere we go.”
Panther Hollow Lake, Schenley Park, documentation photo, 10 October 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
21 October 2025
It was a hard summer for Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park. In early July I wrote What’s Wrong With Panther Hollow Lake? about the many challenges it faces due to sediment, low water and the concrete edge. Its problems were exacerbated by summer’s drought and heat making it impossible to ignore the pond’s ugly surface of filamentous algae (pond scum) and duckweed. This month I noticed another challenge lurking below.
Last Friday duckweed (Lemnoideae) covered most of the water.
Panther Hollow Lake, duckweed documentation photo, Schenley Park, 17 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
But we have two helpers eating it now. A pair of mallards.
Mallard pair eating duckweed from the surface of Panther Hollow Lake, 17 Oct 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
This is what they’re eating.
Duckweed from Panther Hollow Lake, 22 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
At the railroad (west) end of the pond I could see into its shallow depths and finally realized that Panther Hollow Lake is choked with invasive hydrilla (waterthyme).
The water looks stagnant but the plants do move.
video by Kate St. John
Hydrilla is a problem in many Pennsylvania waterways.
Hydrilla moves from lake to lake on boats and gear. Fishing gear is a likely source of it since hydrilla is in the shallows at Duck Hollow, another a nearby fishing spot.
Despite its man-made origin Panther Hollow Lake is passing through the normal life cycle of a natural lake and is now doing its best to turn into a swamp and ultimately a meadow.
If we want an artificial lake or pond in a place where nature wants a meadow, we will have to spend a lot of money to make it that way and a lot of money over and over again to keep it that way. Money is tight, even for basic things … so that’s why Panther Hollow Lake is the way it is for now.
I can tell it’s fall because warbler migration has given way to sparrows. The first indication was an influx of yellow-rumped warblers at Frick on 12 October, who arrive late in warbler migration, followed by a few white-throated sparrows on 15 October.
It’s sparrow time! Join me for a bird & nature walk in Schenley Park on Sunday, 26 October 2025, 8:30am – 10:30am. We’ll meet at Bartlett Shelter on Bartlett Street.
We’re sure to see fruits, seeds, and fallen leaves, acorns, chipmunks and blue jays. Will we find white-throated sparrows? I sure hope so. See why below.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.
Visit my Events page before you come in case of changes or cancellations.
White-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) come in two color morphs — tan-striped and white-striped — and because look-alike morphs will not mate with each other, this effectively means there are four sexes of white-throated sparrows, shown in the table below. Click here to learn more.
White-throated sparrow colors and sexes — green arrows show the only combinations that can mate successfully (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
Fur color of two early mammals = Artistic reconstruction of pelage coloration of Arboroharamiya fuscus (CUGB-P1901) and Vilevolodon diplomylos (SDUST-V0010). Science387, 1193-1198(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.ads9734 CREDIT: Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang Li. (*)
19 October 2025
Mammalian ancestors have been around for 320 to 315 million years, but the first true mammals evolved during the time of the dinosaurs in the Late Triassic. These early mammals were uniformly nocturnal and small, no larger than a house cat, and they were furry. What did they look like? A study in Science in March 2025 examined six fossils species and found they were not as colorful as modern mammals. All of them were dark gray.
Back in 2008 we learned that dinosaurs were colorful. Studies of melanosomes found within their fossils indicated they were not only colorful but sometimes brilliant.
Using the same technique on six Mesozoic mammal fossils, researchers led by Matthew Shawkey compared the fossil melanosomes to those of 116 current (extant) mammals and found that extant mammals have more fur colors while the Mesozoic mammals were all the same color.
The diagram below shows the dark gray color scores compared to extant mammals (** see complete caption at bottom). I have added a pink line to diagram B to point out the difference. Extant mammals on left have a wider range of color (below line) than the fossil mammals (above line).
Fig. 3: Melanosome diversity and pelage coloration: (B) Width variation of melanosomes. Science387, 1193-1198(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.ads9734 CREDIT: Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang Li. (** see complete caption below)
It’s hard to imagine these ancient mammals until you see an illustration. I have cropped it into two parts. See the complete caption (**) for the entire Fig. 4 below.
At top: Two fossil mammals that resembled flying squirrels. “The green eyes of Arboroharamiya fuscus are an artistic license of the tapetum lucidum, an intraocular reflecting structure that enhances visual sensitivity, indicating nocturnality.“
Below: Three more mammals. (**) see the caption for details.
Fur color of three early mammals = Artistic reconstruction of pelage coloration of Megaconus mammaliaformis (PMOL-AM00007), and Docodontans (SDUST-V0006 & SDUST-V0007). Science387, 1193-1198(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.ads9734 CREDIT: Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang Li. (*)
Modern mammals are more colorful because melanosomes have changed over millions of years. But the one dark color was just fine for early mammals. They needed nighttime camouflage to hide from many much larger predators.
The full study citation –> Mesozoic mammaliaforms illuminate the origins of pelage coloration. Science387, 1193-1198(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.ads9734
(**) Complete caption for Fig. 4Artistic reconstruction of pelage coloration of five Jurassic mammaliaforms. (Top to bottom) Arboroharamiya fuscus (CUGB-P1901), Vilevolodon diplomylos (SDUST-V0010), Megaconus mammaliaformis (PMOL-AM00007), and Docodontans (SDUST-V0006 & SDUST-V0007). The green eyes of A. fuscus are an artistic license of the tapetum lucidum, an intraocular reflecting structure that enhances visual sensitivity, indicating nocturnality. Eutherian SDUST-V0008 from the Lower Cretaceous is not included in this artistic reconstruction. CREDIT: Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang Li.
(**) Complete caption for Fig. 3. Melanosome diversity and pelage coloration across extant mammals and Mesozoic mammaliaforms. (A) Scatterplot of individual melanosome measurements from 116 extant mammals and six fossils; dot color shows RGB values derived from spectral curves measured at specific hair locations. Extant hair melanosomes, n = 2615; A. fuscus, n = 760; M. mammaliaformis, n = 103; V. diplomylos, n = 395; docodontan SDUST-V0006, n = 289; docodontan SDUST-V0007, n = 407; eutherian SDUST-V0008, n = 205. (B) Width variation of melanosomes. (C) Length variation of melanosomes. (D) Measured reflectance spectra of selected extant mammals [Vulpes vulpes (orange), Ailurus fulgens (red), Cephalophus dorsalis (brown), Pelomys fallax (darker brown), and Mephitis mephitis (black)] and predicted reflectance curves for six Mesozoic mammaliaforms (browns), highlighting their constrained brown coloration and minimal variation. (E) Detailed view of the predicted reflectance curves for the six Mesozoic mammaliaforms.
