Duck Hollow’s resident common merganser has a stubby wing (photo by Dan Dasynich)
In September, Dan Dasynich saw a flightless common merganser at Duck Hollow and posted this photo of her stubby wing in the Duck Hollow Facebook group. Her condition prompted a discussion: Since she couldn’t fly did she need to be rescued?
Common mergansers eat fish that they capture by chasing them underwater. They don’t need to fly in order to eat and they don’t need to fly if they can swim to safety.
In September I remarked that this bird has been at Duck Hollow for at least a year, eating well and staying safe, so she didn’t need to be rescued. Today I found proof that she’s been here for seven years, maybe more.
In a blog post from October 2011, I used Tom Moeller’s photo of her with a hooded merganser and pied-billed grebe.
Hooded merganser, common merganser and pied-billed grebe at Duck Hollow, Oct 2011 (photo by Thomas Moeller)
That was seven years ago when she was relatively new to Duck Hollow. Though she can’t fly she’s done well for a very long time.
During migration chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) travel during the day and roost at night in chimneys and hollow trees. Because they eat insects on the wing, they have to leave our area before it’s too cold for flying insects to survive.
This fall was so mild in Pittsburgh that there were still chimney swifts going to roost on Tuesday evening in Squirrel Hill. Steve Tirone filmed them that evening, though he hasn’t seen them since.
Watch Steve’s real time and slow motion video as the swifts dive into a chimney on Wightman Street at dusk on 23 Oct 2018.
Pitt’s Victory Lights on-off for birds (simulated image by Kate St. John)
Good news for birds today!
On October 8th I reported how migrating birds are fatally attracted to artificial lights and how Pitt’s new Victory Lights trapped birds in its blue beams. Within 24 hours the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania (ASWP) and the University of Pittsburgh began collaborating on a solution. Here’s the good news from Pitt this week:
Just want you to know that we’ve worked on the Victory Lights issue in conjunction with the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. During migration season, the light — which is only on after Pitt football victories and championship victories by other Panthers teams — will be cycled on for 45 minutes and off for 15 every hour. We’re really glad to have been made aware of this situation. Thank you.
— Joe Miksch, Dir. of Media Relations, Univ of Pittsburgh, 22 Oct 2018
The photos above simulate the effect: Left side is 45 minutes on, right is 15 minutes off.
The solution is based on studies done at the 9/11 Tribute of Light in New York where 88 beams light the sky once a year.
Every September New York Audubon mobilizes volunteers to watch the 9/11 Tribute for trapped birds. When volunteers count 1,000 birds circling in the beams or if a bird is found dead, the lights are turned off for 20 minutes. Radar shows that after only 10 minutes of darkness trapped birds have left the 9/11 Tribute and are flying south toward Governor’s Island. The Tribute is kept dark for 20 minutes for good measure.
The “45 minutes on, 15 minutes off” solution takes advantage of Pitt’s computerized light system and the unscheduled nature of the Victory Lights display. Every hour during migration — whether birds are trapped or not — the blue beams will cycle. After 15 minutes of darkness, any birds that are trapped at Pitt will probably be flying over Schenley Park, headed for Hays Woods.
This solution is just the beginning. Pitt and ASWP will continue to monitor the situation during migration and tweak the timing if necessary.
Kudos to the University of Pittsburgh and Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania for collaborating and handling the issue so quickly. Special thanks to Pitt for setting such a great example for building owners. Thank you, Pitt and ASWP!
If Pitt beats Duke this Saturday, October 27, the blue lights will cycle every hour. Go Pitt!
(*) Special thanks to Jim Bonner Executive Director of ASWP and Chancellor Gallagher at the University of Pittsburgh and to everyone behind the scenes who made this good news possible. Thank you!
Bright specks in the beam, migrating birds swirl in Pitt’s Victory Lights as seen from 0.4 mile away, 7 Oct 2018, 11:05pm (photo by Kate St. John)
Last night at 11pm I looked at Pittsburgh’s weather radar for isolated thunderstorms. Instead I found intense songbird migration in progress. The colors in this radar print show them flying over western Pennsylvania.
Some of these birds would be fatally attracted to Pittsburgh’s city lights — that was nothing new — but last night there was an additional deadly attraction. Pitt won their football game on Saturday and the new Victory Lights were on. Would birds be stuck in the beams?
Saturday evening I had emailed PABIRDS asking folks to check the Victory Lights to see if this was happening. Was I going to ignore my own call to action just because it was 11pm? Well, no. I packed up my gear and drove to the Cathedral of Learning.
Before I got there I parked near Phipps Conservatory 0.4 miles away and looked at the beams (photo at top). Indeed there were bright specks circling inside the beams but I was so far away that only the brightest specks were visible.
Birds circling in the Victory Light beams, 7 Oct 2018, 11:17pm (cellphone photo by Kate St. John)
I parked at Schenley Plaza near Forbes and counted about 100 bright specks. No, those aren’t moths in my blurry cellphone photo above (11:17:42pm). Those are trapped birds.
In the marked up photo below (11:18:19pm) the bent arrow points to a bird that’s so fatally trapped that it’s flying into the light where it will die. I saw another bird “ditch” out of the column to the roof.
Circling in the beam. Bent arrow points to a bird that’s totally trapped, approaching the lights. It will die on the roof (photo by Kate St. John)
This morning I predict there will be dead or stunned songbirds on the Cathedral of Learning’s many roofs, especially near the source of the Victory Lights.
As I wrote on September 21, the 9/11 Tribute of Light had this problem and solved it. I hope we can solve it at Pitt, too.
UPDATE, Tues 9 Oct, 11am: I have received hopeful news of collaboration on this issue between Pitt and Audubon Society of Western PA. Stay tuned.
p.s. Click here for my original Deadly Attraction blog post including information on city lights and the 9/11 Tribute’s solution.
(photos by Kate St. John, radar map from the National Weather Service; click on the caption to see the radar)
A discovery made in Antarctica two years ago has me wondering if this large predatory seabird is as smart as a crow.
The Antarctic or brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) breeds on barren ground in Antarctica and spends its life at sea where it uses brute force to harass other seabirds and steal their food.
Brown skuas live so far away from people that, except for a few Antarctic research stations, they almost never encounter humans. Scientists were therefore surprised when brown skuas on King George’s Island (below) began to recognize them as individuals.
It all started when the Korea Polar Research Institute began studying nesting brown skuas by banding their young at the nest. Only a couple of scientists regularly visited the nests but with each successive visit the skuas ramped up their attacks and responded from further away as the men approached.
The skuas didn’t attack everyone. They seemed to ignore people who never came to their nests. Did the birds recognize individual humans? The scientists ran some experiments.
As shown in the video below, two scientists approached the skuas and their nest. One is a nest-intruder, the other has never bothered skua nests. The skua pair flew up to attack the humans, but when the two went separate ways the skuas only pursued the person they hate.
Brown skuas can recognize individual humans that cause them trouble. Crows can do it, too. Are Antarctic skuas as smart as crows?
Downtown Pittsburgh glows at night (at left) while the Pitt Victory beams rise from behind the dark spruce tree, 17 Sept 2018 (photo by Kate St. John in Greenfield)
For migrating songbirds there are two deadly attractions in this photo.
On the left, Downtown Pittsburgh glows in the distance illuminating the night sky. At center-right, Pitt’s blue Victory Lights beam up from the Cathedral of Learning roof. (The building itself is hidden by the dark spruce.)
Downtown Pittsburgh glows every night. Pitt’s Victory Lights glow on Saturday and Sunday nights after Pitt wins a football game. Photographer Dave DiCello tweeted his photo, below, of the Victory Lights on 15 September after Pitt beat Georgia Tech.
The moon shines beside the Cathedral of Learning tonight, as the Victory Lights and spotlights from the roof illuminate the sky over #Pittsburgh in celebration of Pitt’s first ACC win of the season pic.twitter.com/SuTRzRVpl9
City lights are a fatal attraction for songbirds because they migrate at night using celestial lights for navigation. Lured by artificial lights they become confused and circle them. Some crash into buildings. Others land in the city and try to leave after dawn but mistake glass reflections of trees and sky for the real thing. They fly headfirst into glass buildings and windows. Some are stunned, many die. Warblers and wood thrushes are especially vulnerable. Every year nearly half a billion birds die this way in the U.S.
You can help birds survive Pittsburgh’s bright lights, both now and in the future. Jon Rice at BirdSafe Pittsburgh is mobilizing volunteers to help stunned birds now and to collect data on deaths to mitigate the future.
Here’s what you can do:
Report Dead Birds: If you find a dead bird pause to report it. Enter what, where and when in BirdSafe’s I Found A Bird online tool. Your smartphone automatically knows “where.”
Volunteer with BirdSafe: Walk a route for BirdSafe to rescue stunned birds and collect the dead ones(*). See the BirdSafe Volunteer page for more information. Contact BirdSafe here.
After the Tribute began in 2003, people noticed that thousands of birds were lured to the lights and dying there, so in 2005 New York City Audubon mobilized volunteers to monitor the beams. When volunteers count 1,000 birds circling in the beams or if a bird is found dead, the lights are turned off for 20 minutes. That’s all it takes for the “stuck” birds to resume their migration and not become trapped again. Since 2005 only two birds have died during the Tribute of Light!
The article also describes how we can apply this knowledge across the U.S., including in Pittsburgh.
We also discovered that on average, half of the total passage of autumn bird migration density over the continental United States occurs on fewer than 10 nights. With migration forecasts developed by scientists at the Cornell Lab, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Oxford University, these cities and others could determine the optimal nights to dim or extinguish lights so that birds can pass safely.
This easy solution will save migrating birds but we need the data to convince others to make it happen. Please help the birds by helping BirdSafe Pittsburgh.
(photo credits: Downtown Pittsburgh and Pitt Victory Lights by Kate St. John. Cathedral of Learning and Pitt Victory Lights embedded tweet by Dave DiCello. 9/11 Tribute of Light from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)
Birds can sense when bad weather is coming. If it’s going to be dangerous and they have some lead time they get out of the way. Hurricane Florence gave them plenty of time to prepare.
Weather radar shows us where it’s raining by detecting objects in the sky. When masses of birds are on the move they show up on radar, though less intense than steady rain. Flocks of birds look green on radar and are only detected when near radar stations. Since most birds migrate at night, that’s when to watch.
This radar image from 5:08am on Saturday September 15 shows the rain bands of Hurricane Florence swirling over the Carolinas. Notice that there’s no rain for miles surrounding the circle of the storm but there are intense green blobs southwest of Florence over the Florida panhandle.
Thousands of birds! They’ve heard the news and they’re leaving the area. Evacuate!
With highs over 90 degrees and dewpoints at 70 it’s just too hot in Pittsburgh! We’re coping by staying indoors with air conditioning but what do birds do?
This great blue heron in Florida is using at least five techniques for staying cool.
He’s gular fluttering which looks like panting. Herons are one of several kinds of birds that can vibrate the skin, muscles and bones of their throats to increase heat loss. See more here.
He has wet belly feathers. Aaahhhhh!
He’s exposing the skin on his legs to cool them off.
He’s holding his wings slightly open to cool off his “armpits” and
He’s standing in the shade.
He could also try soaring where it’s cooler or sleeking his body feathers to squeeze heat out of his downy undercoat. (Maybe he’s doing the squeeze thing. I can’t tell.)
That’s all that most birds can do to cope with heat, but the ostrich has an additional amazing solution.
When a body is warmer than the surrounding air it loses heat. We know this happens in winter but the ostrich makes it work in summer. He raises his body temperature in a controlled fashion — 4.2o C (7.5o F) during the day — so that his body loses heat to the outdoors.
At a theme park in France trained crows are showing humans not to litter. At least that’s one of the ideas behind teaching crows to pick up cigarette butts at Puy du Fou.
The historical theme park in Les Epresses, France has falconers who conduct live bird shows featuring falcons, owls, vultures and crows. One day one of the crows picked up litter instead of the prop he was cued for. The crowd was impressed.
Management was impressed too so now they have six trained crows who pick up cigarette butts in exchange for a treat.
The crows love their job. Their trainer says they’d do it all day if you let them. Click here or on the image below to watch the crows in action.
