Wingstem from bud to seed, Schenley Park, 3 August 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
6 August 2022
By early August many flowers have already produced seeds. Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) above displays every step in the process: buds, new flowers, fading flowers and seed packets.
The three-flanged seed pods of American wild yamroot (Dioscorea villosa) are as distinctive as its pleated leaves.
American wild yamroot leaves and seeds, Jennings 29 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) now has both seed pods and flowers (seeds in shadow at left). This alien plant is easy to find in Schenley Park because it is toxic to deer.
Greater celandine with seeds in the background, Schenley Park, 3 August 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
GG looks up from a meal (photo by Chad+Chris Saldin)
30 November 2021
We humans assume that what we see is what everyone else sees, including other species. But this isn’t so.
Peregrines see much finer details at a greater distance that we do. The details don’t blur for them in a 200 mph dive. (Click the link to learn more.)
Tellus in a stoop (photo by Chad+Chris Saldin)
Cats cannot see red-green nor distant details, but they see much better in the dark. Who needs distance vision while looking for a nearby mouse at night? Click here to see photos of our vision versus cats’. Notice the normal vs. red-green-color-blind examples below.
White-tailed deer see regular blaze orange as gray but if the orange has fluorescence it stands out for them. Their vision is best in the blue range so that they see well in twilight.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic scientists wondered if other species could catch the virus and transmit it back to humans. Fortunately, so far no COVID-infected animals have transmitted the virus back to us. However white-tailed deer easily catch COVID from humans and spread it deer-to-deer.
NPR reports that a study of deer in Iowa last year found that deer are very susceptible to COVID. During most of the year 30% of tested deer had COVID, but during hunting season with more human contact 80% of deer showed signs of infection. Deer also spread it easily among themselves so that the prevalence of COVID in deer is now 50 times that of humans.
Deer are lucky. COVID doesn’t make them sick and it doesn’t kill them. But the fact that the virus that causes COVID, SARS-COV-2, circulates so widely among a common North American mammal may come back to bite us.
If deer become a reservoir for SARS-COV-2 and eventually transmit it back to us or to our livestock or companion animals (dogs and cats), then it has a good chance of mutating into something more unpleasant. At the very least it will never disappear.
The fact that deer catch COVID should not surprise us. SARS-COV-2 jumped from bats to humans and then spread easily from human-to-human. Here are some other viruses that cross species.
Influenza originates in aquatic birds (ducks), jumps from birds to domestic pigs, from pigs to humans, then human-to-human. Because the virus evolves so fast a new flu vaccine is needed every year.
Measles evolved from rinderpest, a virus that infects cattle, which began infecting humans between 400 BC and 500 AD. Eventually the virus diverged from rinderpest in the 11th or 12th centuries.
If you spend time outdoors in Pennsylvania you know that November is prime hunting season, especially for deer. What you may not know is that Sunday hunting, banned since 1682, has been allowed since 2020 on Sundays designated by the PA Game Commission.
Pennsylvania hunting seasons are regulated by the PA Game Commission and vary by species, region, date, firearm methods and antlers/antlerless deer. No hunting is allowed on Sundays except for foxes, crows, coyotes and the three dates summarized below. The rules are complicated so click here if you want to know the details.
Sunday Hunting in Pennsylvania in 2021
November 14: Small Game + Bear Archery + Deer Archery
November 21: Small Game + Bear Archery + Bear Rifle + Deer Archery
NOTE! If you visit any State Game Lands from 15 November to 15 December you must wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent orange-colored material on the head, chest and back combined — whether you are hunting or not.
(deer photo from Wikimedia Commons, basic calendar from 123calendars.com, orange sign from PGC, orange vest from Amazon; click on the captions to see the originals)
Wingstem in bloom shows double-looped pistils, 1 August 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
7 August 2021
When wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) blooms in August, its mop-like flowers reach as high as 8 feet tall. Wingstem often grows in clumps because it spreads by seeds and rhizomes. From a distance it looks ragged (below) but its double-looped pistils and insect pollinators (at top) are worth a closer look.
The flower disc resembles a pin cushion topped with brown anthers and yellow double-loop pistils. So far I have not found a floret whose anthers and pistils are protruding simultaneously, but I’ll have to look again.
Wingstem pistils and anthers on central disc flowers (photo by Kate St. John)
The disc florets are so deep that long-tongued insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies sip the nectar.
Wingstem is attractive to bees and other long-tongued insects (photo by Kate St. John)
Aphids feasting on wingstem stems (photo by Kate St. John)
Wingstem is easy to find in southwestern Pennsylvania because its leaves are bitter — deer don’t eat it. There are lots of opportunities this month to give wingstem a closer look.
Outing in Frick Park, 25 July 2021 (photp by Kate St. John)
25 July 2021
Nine of us gathered this morning at the Nine Mile Trail parking lot to walk Frick Park’s Boardwalk and the upper Nine Mile Run valley. At the beginning it was very cloudy but it didn’t rain.
The birds were quiet. Many have stopped singing for the year and gray skies made the rest of them subdued. Nonetheless we saw northern rough-winged swallows feeding young in flight and heard the warning calls of wood thrushes, robins and tufted titmice in a spot where a barred owl often roosts. Alas, we never found the owl.
It’s hard to pick a Best Bird but easy to pick the worst smell. We had to walk (as far away as possible!) past a decomposing deer near Commercial Street. Where are the turkey vultures when you need them? We didn’t see any today. Our list has 24 species.
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 2 Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 4 Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 3 Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) 1 Acadian Flycatcher (Empidonax virescens) 1 Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) 1 Heard Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) 7 Pair chasing and harassing a blue jay Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 1 Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 2 Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) 10 Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) 10 Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 7 European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 5 Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 1 Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) 4 American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 20 Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 2 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 4 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 5 Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) 2 Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) 2 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 10 Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) 1
Yellow-bellied sapsucker, 2011 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) leave behind evidence of their visit when they pass through Pittsburgh on migration. In their search for food sapsuckers drill horizontal rows of holes on tree trunks and large branches, then lick the leaking sap and eat the insects attracted to it.
The trees cope as best they can with this unusual damage. Shagbark hickories (Carya ovata) grow puckered bark around the holes.
Shagbark hickory in Frick Park, horizontal rows are holes drilled by yellow-bellied sapsuckers (photo by Kate St. John)
This spring for the first time I’ve noticed trees bleeding orange sap after sapsuckers visit.
My best guess is that these are sweet birch (Betula lenta), also called black birch or cherry birch. Nothing says their sap turns orange, but a few facts tip the species scales for me.
New sweet birch leaves resemble cherry leaves. (I saw this yesterday)
The bark of older trees is dark and looks like plates.
Sap rises in sweet birch trees later and faster than it does in maples. (true)
We tap sweet birch trees and collect the sap to make birch beer. (Why is birch beer red?)
Deer don’t eat sweet birches so they’re more common now in Pennsylvania’s forests.
Have you seen any trees that bleed orange sap?
Do you happen to know if these are sweet birches?
(sapsucker photo by Steve Gosser, tree photos by Kate St. John)
Icicles lean inward, deformed by the wind, 18 December 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
27 December 2020, Pittsburgh
Nestled between two bouts of winter on Dec 16 and 25 the snow melted and the birds fed frantically before snow and bitter cold returned.
The melting began right after heavy snow stopped on Dec 17. The wind that day was so steady that dripping icicles leaned away from it. Then the wind dropped and new icicles formed straight down. (photo above)
While the deep snow lasted I found many tracks in Schenley Park including evidence of humans and …
Evidence of humans in the snow, Schenley Park, 19 December 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
… evidence of white-tailed deer, below. With the rut still in progress it looks as if the deer are leaving “calling cards” on the snow. (Can you tell me more about this brownish (maybe) urine? I found it in several locations.)
Evidence of deer, footprints and dark urine, Schenley Park, 19 Dec 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
On 22 December the snow was mostly gone when I found a pumpkin graveyard on Aloe Street in Bloomfield.
Pumpkin graveyard, Aloe St. Bloomfield, 22 Dec 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
The next day’s “red sky at morn” presaged Christmas Eve’s all-day rain.
Red skies forewarn a winter storm, 23 December 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
On 24 December cherry trees started to bloom on Craig Street. It was 57oF.
Cherry trees start to bloom in Oakland, 57 degrees F and rain on 24 Dec 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
And then it turned cold.
A white Christmas, overcast sky, 25 Dec 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
The only thing city deer are afraid of are dogs off-leash.
Deer cross the road in Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)
Last weekend I found a target-practice deer taking refuge in the city. Poking his head out of a pink dumpster on Bigelow Boulevard, he knew he was safe near the Cathedral of Learning (at top).
Stay safe out there.
(photos by Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons, PA Game Commission and Amazon. Click on the captions to see the originals)
Pittsburgh’s weather has been down-and-up from 30 degrees F + snow on Monday to 70 degrees F + sun today. By the end of the week it was fun to spend time outdoors.
On Friday I noted that most trees in the City of Pittsburgh still have leaves but few were as colorful as the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), above, in Scheney Park. American goldfinches moved among the leaves searching for seeds in the sweetgum balls.
The return of warm weather reactivated insects who were hiding from the cold. On Thursday a leaf-footed bug walked up our living room window.
Leaf-footed bug, 5 Nov 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
White-tailed deer seem to be everywhere, especially in the city parks. The rut is in progress so the deer are less wary of people and cars. Meanwhile small trees in Schenley Park show new damage after bucks rub the velvet off their antlers.
Buck rub on an understory tree, 6 Nov 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
Some trees have the perfect defense against such assaults. Large thorns adorn the trunks of honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos). No buck rubs here!
Honey locust thorns, Schenley Park, 6 Nov 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
The warm weather will continue next week. It’s (still!) time to get outdoors.
