Category Archives: Plants & Fungi

plants & fungi

Seen This Week: Ducks, a Swan and Leaf Out

Deer, Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Trees, Water and Shore
Blue-winged teal, Moraine State Park, 27 March 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

30 March 2024

A Wednesday trip to Moraine State Park was cold and gray but quite worthwhile. We saw 300(!) red-breasted mergansers, many ring-necked ducks, blue-winged teal and a rare bird — a trumpeter swan. Charity Kheshgi’s photos show off the teal and swan.

Trumpeter swan, Moraine State Park, 27 March 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) are “the heaviest living bird native to North America and the largest extant species of waterfowl.” They were nearly extinct in 1933 — only 70 remained in the wild — but several thousand were then found in Alaska. “Careful re-introductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010.” The trumpeter at Moraine is one of their descendants. (quotes from Wikipedia)

Spring is 20 days early in Pittsburgh this year. To prove it the yellow buckeye trees were in near-full-leaf on Thursday 28 March in Schenley Park.

Yellow buckeye leaves open and green, Schenley Park, 28 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

They are 8 days later than the astoundingly early spring of March 2012. Click here to read about that year.

Comparing two springs, yellow buckeyes’ early leaf-out, Schenley, March 2012 and 2024 (photos by Kate St. John)

Early spring is the hungriest time of year for deer in Pennsylvania because they’ve already eaten all the easy-to-reach food. When the deer population is greater than the area’s carrying capacity they seek out food in unusual places. Thus I was amazed but not surprised to see a deer browsing the bushes next to our highrise at 5:30am. There is nothing to eat down there. There is nothing to eat anywhere near here.

A deer browses at a highrise in Pittsburgh, 5:30am 24 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Seen This Week: Flowers and Owls

Birds of Prey, Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Saucer magnolia bud about to bloom, Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

23 March 2024

This week non-native flowering trees put on a show in the city of Pittsburgh. Originally from China and Japan their growing season is earlier than our native trees.

Star magnolia in bloom, Pittsburgh, 15 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

This month’s three-day spurts of highs in the 60s and 70s prompted the red maples to flower and start producing seeds.

Red maple already gone to seed, Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Last Saturday I visited Wolf Creek Narrows, almost an hour north of Pittsburgh, where the growing season is later than at home. There we found an interesting jelly fungi called witches butter (Tremella mesenterica) …

Witches butter fungi, Wolf Creek Narrows, 16 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

… and a decapitated skunk cabbage that allowed us to see the spadix inside. The hood usually covers this structure but something ate the hood. What animal could put up with the odor to eat that hood? And then the animal would vomit because the plant is toxic.

Skunk cabbage spadix revealed, Wolf Creek Narrows, 16 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

I promised you an owl.

Inspired by Steve Gosser‘s photo of an American woodcock at North Park Upper Fields on 4 March, two of us stood out in the cold on Thursday evening waiting for sunset and for American woodcocks to make their twittering courtship flights. The sky was clear and the moon was so bright that we had moon shadows. It was also 5°F colder than at home in the city and I brought the wrong gloves. Brrrr!

Despite the cold it was worth the trip. Half an hour after sunset three American woodcocks put on a show and two flew right past us on their way to the sky.

American woodcock, North Park Upper Fields, 4 March 2024 (photo by Steve Gosser)

But the big surprise of the evening came before the woodcocks. Karyn saw a great-horned owl fly out of the pines and land on top of a brush pile. The owl was hunting while the voice of a youngster begged for food from pines.

Meanwhile a second adult owl flew to a bare tree at the other end of the field where we could see its silhouette against the glowing sky. Though my cellphone is not good at distance photos, you can faintly see the ear tufts that prove that this second bird of prey is a great-horned owl.

Great horned owl, North Park Upper Fields, 21 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Spring is getting interesting.

(credits are in the captions)

Spring Checkup: Where Are We Now?

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Daffodils in Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

21 March 2024

After a slow start to spring in the southern part of the U.S., spring is spreading more quickly now across the central part of the country. Des Moines, IA is 20 days early, Detroit, MI is 23 days early, and Cleveland, OH is 16 days early compared to a long-term average of 1991-2020.

— USA National Phenology Network: Status of Spring, 18 March 2024

Though it’s only 23°F this morning in Pittsburgh we, too, are having a very early spring. Just three days ago I photographed daffodils and many flowering trees in my neighborhood.

Flowering Callery pear in Pittsburgh, 18 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Today’s low temperature feels like an aberration compared to what we’ve come to expect this “winter” with highs in 60s and 70s. Dark red on the map below shows how early spring is across the continental US. In Pittsburgh it’s 20 days early.

US Spring Leaf Index Anomaly as of 20 March 2024 (map from USA National Phenology Network)

Do you see the reddish dot on Detroit? March has been insanely warm for them (see below). Pull the graph for your zip code at NPN’s Visualization Tools.

Accumulated Growing Degree Days in Detroit, MI for 2024 as of 21 Mar 2024 (graph from USA NPN Visualization Tool)

Watch spring move north faster than 13 miles a day in this animation from the USA National Phenology Network.

Spring Leaf Index Anomaly animation, a synthetic measure of leaf out based on recent temperature conditions from USA NPN

(credits are in the captions)

Seen This Week

Migration, Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Fox sparrow singing at Frick Park, 12 March 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

16 March 2024

Four days this week were unseasonably warm with highs 18 to 20+ degrees above normal. The flowers and birds responded.

On Tuesday, Charity Kheshgi and I heard a fox sparrow at Frick Park but he was elusive. We spent a long time trying to get a good look him until a blue jay’s weird call made us pause. So did the fox sparrow, as shown above in Charity’s photo.

On Wednesday there were few birds at Toms Run Nature Reserve but we saw purple dead nettle (Lamium purpureum) in bloom.

Purple dead nettle, Toms Run, 13 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

On Thursday 14 March I was surprised at the lack of birds at Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, but the flowers on the Jennings Trail cliff face (bordering the creek) were responding to the heat. It’s not Full Blown Spring yet but I found:

Harbinger of Spring, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Spring beauty, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sharp-lobed hepatica, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Round-lobed hepatica, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Virginia bluebell budding flower, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Alder catkins, Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve, 14 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

And in case you missed it Carla, the female peregrine at Pitt, laid her first egg at the Cathedral of Learning on 14 March. Additional eggs are expected approximately 48 hours apart.

Happy 2024 Egg Day! 1st Peregrine Egg at Pitt

(credits are in the captions)

Seen This Week

Fish, Frogs, Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Weather & Sky
Sunny and 75 degrees at Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 at 4pm (photo by Kate St. John)

9 March 2024

The weather doesn’t know what to do with itself in Pittsburgh. Some days it rains all day (today for instance). Some days it’s hot and sunny. Some days it’s chilly and overcast. This week we saw it all.

On Monday and Tuesday hot sunny weather (74-75°F) encouraged everyone to get outdoors. I waited a while to get a photo, above, without a lot of people in it. Just around the bend the sun was so low in the sky at 4:40pm that it made long shadows.

Long shadows and 75 degrees at Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 at 4pm (photo by Kate St. John)

That beautiful day came after a foggy rainy weekend, seen at Duck Hollow below. The Monongahela River was running high because of all the rain.

Duck Hollow, 2 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

All kinds of critters were busy this week including a striped red ant on a trail in Schenley Park. What ant is this? Can you tell me its name?

Striped red ant, Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

On Monday I also found two refugees from water-logged soil on a sidewalk in Oakland. Not earthworms, these are invasive Asian jumping worms. Not good! Click here to see a brief clip of them squirming.

Asian jumping worms on the sidewalk on Craig Street, 4 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

On Thursday 7 March I found new leaves of (maybe) corydalis at Todd Nature Reserve.

New corydalis leaves? Todd Nature Reserve, 7 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

And on the way home I stopped at the Tarentum Bridge to check on the peregrines. The male was perched nearby while the female incubated eggs in the nest. This (lousy) digiscope photo shows the female’s wingtips visible in the nest box as she incubates with her tail toward us. This is early for most peregrines in southwestern PA but not for this bird. She’s always early.

Female peregrine incubating at the Tarentum Bridge nest, 7 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

p.s. Don’t forget to turn your clocks AHEAD tonight. (egads! I fixed that awful typo. Thanks, everyone, for pointing it out.)

Upset Clock (photo by Kate St. John)

(photos by Kate St. John)

Seen This Week

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Woodland crocus blooming in the grass on Neville Ave, 1 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

2 March 2024

Despite a few cold snaps, this winter has been quite warm in Pittsburgh and the plants are responding. During the past ten days I’ve found:

  • Woodland crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) blooming in the grass on Neville Avenue and at Schenley Park,
  • Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) at North Park,
  • Flowering cherry trees blooming at Carnegie Museum.
Skunk cabbage at North Park, 23 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Flowering cherry at Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, 29 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Despite these signs of spring the overall look of the land is brown. Last Sunday, 25 Feb, I took a walk with the Botanical Society of Western PA at Hays Woods where I learned a new grass.

Botanical Society walk at Hays Woods, 25 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Grease grass or purpletop (Tridens flavus) is a native bunchgrass whose seeds are oily, hence the grease name. Claire Staples holds it against a dark background so we can see the seeds.

Greasy grass or purpletop, Tridens flavus, held by Mark Bowers and Claire Staples at Hays Woods, 25 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

On Thursday I found several species of honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) leafing out in Schenley Park.

Honeysuckle leaf-out in Schenley Park, 29 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Honeysuckle leafout is an spring indicator on the National Phenology Network (USA NPN) so I wondered about the status of spring elsewhere. On 26 February USA NPN wrote:

How does this spring compare to “normal”?
After a slow start to spring in Florida and parts of the Southern Great Plains, spring is spreading more quickly now across the country. Albuquerque, NM is a week early, St. Louis, MO is 2 weeks early, and parts of Washington, D.C. are 22 days early compared to a long-term average of 1991-2020.

— USA National Phenology Network, Status of Spring on 26 Feb 2024

Yikes! Spring is running more than 3 weeks early in Washington, DC!

Spring is early here, too. Hang onto your hats, Pittsburgh! It’s time to get outdoors.

Seed Swap! March 2

Books & Events, Plants & Fungi
Common milkweed seeds tumbling out of the pod, Oct 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)

22 February 2024

March is right around the corner and gardening season is almost here. Are you itching to get started? Do you want to try new seeds in your garden? Do you have seeds to share with others? Then you won’t want to miss the 12th Annual Seed Swap at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh on Saturday 2 March, 10am – 2pm.

What: 12th Annual Seed Swap: A Celebration of Seeds
Where: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main, at 4400 Forbes Ave in Oakland.
When: Saturday, March 2 | 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Event Partners: Phipps Conservatory, Grow Pittsburgh and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Virgin’s bower a.k.a. Old man’s beard. Gone to seed (photo by Kate St. John)

Now in its 12th year, the Seed Swap is an annual collaboration between Phipps Conservatory, Grow Pittsburgh and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Phipps Conservatory’s website describes the event:

Bring your untreated, non-GMO seeds to share or just pick up seeds donated by local gardeners, farmers and seed companies! Any guest bringing seeds will be eligible to enter a raffle of fun gifts from Phipps and Grow Pittsburgh.

Event Features:

  • Free seeds
    • A new batch of seeds will be released every hour, on the hour!
  • “Ask a master gardener” table
  • Workshops on seed starting, seed saving, and organic gardening 
  • Creative activities for children and teens
  • Historic items on display and conversation with Rare Books Specialist
  • Raffle eligibility for attendees who bring seeds to swap

Show up any time but keep in mind that new seeds will be released every hour on the hour!

The Seed Swap is free. Registration is encouraged but not required. Click here to Register.

photo embedded from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Seed Swap registration page

p.s. Here’s another helpful tip from Phipps’ website: “Interested in purchasing seed? We’ve compiled a list of seed vendors for your reference. Check out Phipps’ Smart Seed Shopping web resource for more information!“

(photos of seeds by Kate St. John, 2018 photo of Seed Swap by Nick Shapiro courtesy Grow Pittsburgh)

Pollution Prevents Night Pollination

Insects, Plants & Fungi
White-lined sphinx moth (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

15 February 2024

Plant pollination has been declining for many reasons including the absence of insects due to pesticides and habitat loss. Now a new reason has surfaced that has nothing to do with the number of flowers and bugs. Research has found that air pollution prevents nighttime pollination by turning off the scent of flowers.

The white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata) is an important nighttime pollinator of purslane, primrose and rose. The research team led by J.K.Chan in eastern Washington, teased out the chemical emitted from pale evening primrose (Oenothera pallida) that attracts the hawkmoths.

Pale evening primrose, Oenothera pallida (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The moths were particularly tuned to two different flavors of monoterpenes, a class of chemicals found in plant oils [that] evaporate quickly in the air. Moths, whose antennae are roughly as sensitive as a dog’s nose, can pick up the scent several kilometers away from a flower.

But there is an Achilles heel. When the researchers exposed the monoterpenes to NO3, it reacted with the oils, causing them to degrade by between 67% and 84%.

— Anthropocene Magazine: Nighttime pollination is plummeting. Some clever sleuthing pinpointed a surprising culprit.

Air pollution doesn’t just change the scent of flowers. It erases the scent. The moths can’t find them.

Anthropocene Magazine continues, “While NO3 [a component of NOx] is less of a problem during the day because it breaks down in sunlight, it accumulates at night, when many pollinators, including the hawkmoths, are active.”

NOx causes trouble for humans, too, because it combines easily with VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) to create ground-level ozone (the bad ozone) and fine particulate which is inhaled so deeply into our lungs (PM2.5).

How pollution forms ground-level ozone (diagram from Wikimedia Commons)

If we reduce NOx pollution we help ourselves and plants at the same time.

(photos and diagram from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

Seen This Week + Pittsburgh’s Deer Won This Round

Deer, Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Afternoon light in Schenley Park, 3 Jan 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

6 January 2024

Pittsburgh had a rare moment of sunshine on 3 January. I was happy to be outdoors during the Golden Hour in Schenley Park.

This El Niño winter has been so warm that bulbs sprouted in my neighborhood in December. Here are four of the many I found on New Years Eve. That exposed bulb would never have survived in a normal winter like those we used to have just a decade ago.

Flower shoots emerge on New Year’s Eve, 31 Dec 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Pittsburgh’s deer won this round.

At Carnegie Museum in Oakland this week I discovered that deer damage near the rear parking lot was so severe that gardeners removed all the Japanese yews. It took two years and an ever-burgeoning deer population to reach this stage.

All the yews have been removed at Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, 3 Jan 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)

Last August there were fewer yews than in 2022 because the damaged ones had been removed. Unfortunately the deer were severely browsing the now exposed healthy yews.

Damaged yews at Carnegie Museum in August 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Here’s what they looked like in August 2022. Those in front had been eaten bare and died. The next tier was severely browsed and those in back were still normal because the dead and dying yews protected them.

Deer damage on yews at Carnegie Museum, 16 August 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)

The bank of yews could not survive with so many deer.

Temperature Makes a Difference

Plants & Fungi
Yellow-rumped warbler in myrtle at the coast (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

30 December 2023

Over the past week my husband and I traveled to Virginia to visit family, the same trip we made a year ago just as a massive cold front swept across the eastern US. Last year temperatures dipped to 13 degrees F in Virginia. This year the weather was mild in the upper 40s to low 60s. The temperature made a difference in how many birds I saw on the trip. Believe it or not there were fewer birds in mild weather!

For instance, on both trips I visited Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In 2022 it was well below freezing yet I saw 29 species including thousands of waterfowl: Canada geese, 250-300 tundra swans, gadwall, wigeons, black ducks, ring-necked ducks, scaup, ruddy ducks, and coots (see checklist here).

This year I saw only 18 species and the water birds were reduced to literally a handful each of Canada geese (heard), tundra swans (heard), gadwall and pied-billed grebes (checklist here). Meanwhile the most abundant species was 40-50+ yellow-rumped warblers feasting on myrtle berries.

Abundant myrtle berries attracted yellow-rumped warblers at Back Bay NWR (photo by Kate St. John)

This year’s El Niño is has certainly affected the birds. On the East Coast it is warm enough that many don’t have to come south to find food.

Seasonal temperature and precipitation outlooks for the U.S., Dec 2023-Feb 2024 (maps from NOAA)

Will temperature make a difference during today’s Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count? I suspect precipitation will have a larger affect. There’s a 90% chance of snow showers and then rain. 🙁