25 July 2024
The question sounds foolish but … Can pigeons play Wordle?
Seven years ago a pigeon behavioral study found that the birds can recognize 4-letter English words and tell the difference between real words and mere jumbles of letters. This was the first time anyone knew that a non-primate species had this ability.
Their 4-letter prowess is described in the vintage article below. Do you think they can they deal with 5 letters? Can they play Wordle?
19 July 2024
Midway Atoll hosts the largest Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) nesting colony in the world where more than 600,000 pairs raise young each year. The birds are absent in September but return to court in November, lay eggs in December, and hatch in February.
There are so many birds that it’s hard to count.
After the eggs hatch the chicks begin to wander in March while their parents hunt at sea. By May the chicks start to grow adult feathers but it will take two more months before they are ready to fledge in July. During this period they are everywhere …
In open spaces …
… near buildings …
… under trees and on the roads.
On the Fourth of July a rain shower prompted the chicks to flap their wings, shown in two videos below. You can hear the raindrops on the audio tracks.
Thousands of young Laysan albatross simulate flying by flapping their wings during a rain shower at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, July 4, 2024. (video by USFWS volunteer Dan Rapp)
— video description at USFWS Pacific on Flickr
Nearly ready for takeoff!
As soon as they fly, Laysan albatross youngsters leave Midway for a life at sea. USFWS Pacific says they are “likely to move towards Japan or Alaska, but their known range extends to Mexico, too.” They won’t return to Midway Atoll until they are three years old. They don’t breed until age seven or eight.
16 September 2024
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.
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.
— Birds of the World: Purple Martin
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.
Facebook post from NWS Wilmington, NC on 12 July 2024
The same phenomenon happens at our latitude in August, as shown on radar in Wilmington, Ohio at top.
Learn more about purple martin roost rings in this article from Wilmington Ohio: Roosting Birds Detected By NWS Doppler Radar and this one from Wilmington, North Carolina: Purple Martin Roost Rings on Doppler Radar.
6 July 2024
Flowers, insects and birds were active this week though the end of the week was so humid that it felt like the tropics. Here’s a trail of photos from Duck Hollow, Aspinwall Riverfront Park, Schenley Park and my own neighborhood.
Don’t forget to check out the two photos at the end: A mystery match-the-leaves moth or butterfly and some amazing bird behavior.
With false sunflowers (Heliopsis helianthoides) at their peak in Schenley Park, the red aphids are out in full force.
Wineberry is already forming fruits.
I found a moth or butterfly that I could not identify at Duck Hollow. It was impossible to get close for a photo so this is the best I could do. Perched on Japanese knotweed. Can you tell me what it is?
And here’s some bird behavior I’ve never seen before: Two red-tailed hawks are perched on the hoist rope of this enormous crane on O’Hara Street near Thackeray on 29 June. This crane spends five days a week moving back and forth. I’m amazed that they decided to test it on a Saturday. Can you see them? If not, click here for a marked-up photo.
p.s. The dewpoint was 70°F yesterday. This link explains why that feels so hot.
p.p.s. See Karen’s comment below in which she identifies it as a Bad-wing moth (Dyspteris abortivaria). So my next question is, Why is it called a bad wing? –> And see J’s comment with the answer!
4 July 2024
Happy Fourth of July!
If the storms hold off tonight in Pittsburgh there will be splendid municipal fireworks and a host of homegrown displays thanks to Pennsylvania’s liberal law on consumer fireworks sales.
We know how to deal with our frightened pets. What does wildlife do while we are celebrating? Check out this 2013 vintage article.
30 June 2024
In May I encountered a building that showed me how to think like a bird. Here is the building. What do you see?
Sky. Trees. Four buildings. Railings. Stairs.
At street level we see stairs, railings, trees, white buildings but not the building we are close enough to touch. The Effron Music Building at Princeton University virtually disappears in its reflections.
Facing the glass you can see through it to suspended wooden practice rooms, yet the surface of the Effron Music Building still reflects its surroundings.
Now, imagine you are the size of a songbird.
What do you see instead of the window glass? Leaves. Branches.
What do you see instead of the glass? Sky. Trees.
What do you see here? Lots and lots of trees and an inviting backyard to fly into.
These optical illusions are why glass kills one billion birds every year in the U.S. That’s 2.7 million birds per day.
Towering skyscrapers might seem like the most obvious culprits [of bird deaths], yet Loss’s team found that 56 percent of the mortality occurs at low-rises (4-11 stories tall); 44 percent at residences (1-3 stories tall), and less than 1 percent at high-rises (12 stories and up).
— National Audubon: Hundreds of Millions of Birds Are Killed Annually from Building Collisions
56% of the deaths are at 4-11 story buildings: offices, apartments and academic buildings such as 5-story Craig Hall at Pitt where a juvie peregrine died in 2012.
Low-rise buildings are more likely to cause bird deaths when they reflect trees in the glass. I noticed that the Effron Music Building does not have greenery anywhere near the reflective surface so it probably doesn’t cause many bird deaths.
Our homes, however, have landscaping that reflects on the glass. 44% of bird deaths are at 1-3 story residences.
Do birds hit your windows at home? Take a look at your windows. Think like a bird. What do you see?
PREVENT BIRDS FROM HITTING YOUR WINDOWS AT HOME: Reflective glass must be treated on the outside to alter the entire look of the windows. The treatment must make the birds see a wall or a mesh too small to fly through. Here are tips from Fatal Light Awareness Program in Toronto and the American Bird Conservancy
28 June 2024
If you watch peregrines you know how improbable it is that you will ever see one make its first flight. In 23 years of watching peregrines I’ve seen it once, maybe twice. I have no photographic evidence but I know of two Pittsburgh examples.
In June 2022 Dana Nesiti captured the moment of first flight at Westinghouse Bridge, above. This year on 2 June, Jenna Burdette happened to be taking a cellphone video of the second chick flapping at the Cathedral of Learning when it fledged at 6:58pm.
So what does it look like when a peregrine chick makes its first flight? Wakefield Cathedral, UK (@WfldPeregrines) has so many cameras on their peregrines that the moment was captured on 17 June.
First flight at 5:34. pic.twitter.com/NcwLsvsEOR
— Wakefield Peregrines (@WfldPeregrines) June 17, 2024
First flight is so unremarkable that you might not realize what you’re looking at.
However, it is remarkable to see juvies chasing and playing in the sky just a few days after their first flight. Watch them fly in this video from Charing Cross Hospital in London (Fulham and Barnes Peregrines).
PFV and ZAS playing early this morning (around 5:40am). pic.twitter.com/7SbJBLl3Us
— FaB Peregrines (@FaBPeregrines) May 29, 2024
23 June 2024
Yesterday morning when the heat index was 96°F, Carla sunbathed for 20 minutes at the Pitt peregrine nest. Her fanned tail shows us why she was doing it. Not only does sunbathing kill feather lice, it eases the discomfort of molting. Carla is molting her tail feathers two at a time.
Carla began her sunbathing session after she and Ecco bowed briefly over the scrape. She might have stayed longer but her youngster “Blue” showed up. Carla and Ecco are both avoiding their “kids” in an effort to make them independent.
(photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
This summer you might see songbirds looking stunned on your lawn or roof. They’ll be molting too.
Aaaaaah, that feels good.
22 June 2024
Most of us didn’t see much of the outdoors this week. It was just too hot. Fortunately today is the last day of Pittsburgh’s Excessive Heat Warning. Tomorrow we’ll have rain, thunderstorms and wind, though it will reach 90°F. Certainly hot. Not “Excessive.”
Yesterday while it was 93°F, one of the Pitt peregrine youngsters (“Blue”) tried to beat the heat by resting in the shade at the front of the nest. She opened her wings and gular fluttered (like panting) to cool herself off.
Two days earlier her father, Ecco, was sunbathing at noon! The sun’s heat kills feather lice and forces the live bugs off the bird’s back to places where it’s easier to preen them away. After roasting a bit, Ecco spent time preening in the shade.
Some day soon (I hope!) it will be pleasant enough to take a walk in the sun as I did on 12 June at Aspinwall Riverfront Park. Every time I go there I look for peregrines but have not found any.
21 June 2024
On Tuesday afternoon when it was 94°F, a Cooper’s hawk stepped into a stream of running water on a street in Squirrel Hill. When blue jays and robins raised the alarm, “Hawk! Hawk!” Alan Juffs took these pictures.
Birds are feeling the heat this week because they wear down coats all year long, but special circulation in their legs makes chilling their feet an excellent way to cool off. The National Zoo explains:
Wading birds, such as flamingos and ibises {and this Cooper’s hawk}, have long, thin, featherless legs that make it easy to release heat from their bodies. When the blood circulates up and down their legs, heat dissipates through their skin. This natural method of thermoregulation gets a boost when the birds’ feet are submerged in cool water.
— National Zoo: How Do Birds Handle the Heat? July 28, 2023
For a quick minute the Coopers hawk cooled his heels.
His respite was cut short when the robins and jays drove him away.
Fortunately today is the last full day of Pittsburgh’s Excessive Heat Warning. The warning ends tomorrow, Saturday 22 June, at 8:00pm. Sunday will be better. Whew!
(credits are in the captions)
