Category Archives: Water and Shore

Did You Know? Bread Is Bad For Me!

close shot of ducks by David Tomic via Flickr Creative Commons license

6 February 2025

It sure is fun to feed the birds but not all food is good for them. Did you know that bread is junk food for birds? Just like us, ducks love junk food but it is bad as a steady diet.

Bread, crackers and our own junk food snacks have no nutritional value for ducks and geese. These foods are especially bad for ducklings because their little bodies are still growing and have special nutritional needs.

If a duckling depends on bread instead of a varied normal diet its wing bones will grow in a deformed manner called angel wing, a condition similar to rickets in humans. Both are permanent deformities caused by malnutrition.

Because this bird has angel wing it will never fly.

Duck with angel wing deformity from malnutrition (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Since ducks don’t control their own junk food intake, and since we don’t know how much bread they ate before we got there, don’t feed bread to birds. Maine Audubon suggests what to feed them instead.

Some great options are lettuce or cabbage … Other things you can give them are: corn (not popcorn), rice, peas, broccoli, tomatoes, and most fruits (not citrus).

Maine Audubon: Do’s and Don’ts of Duck Feeding
“Hey, Duck, no more! Didn’t you hear that bread is bad for you?”

Give this duck some lettuce.

Hey, no more! (photo by Andy Ihnatko via Flickr Creative Commons license)

Read more about bread and ducks in this vintage article from 2018.

Seen in Past Week: Gulls, Owls and Bonus Birds

Immature herring gull on ice shouts at his friends, Duck Hollow, 28 Jan 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

3 February 2025

In the past week I’ve been lucky to see gulls on ice, an owl on the nest, and three Bonus Birds.

Tiny icebergs were floating down the Monongahela River when Charity Kheshgi and I visited Duck Hollow on 28 January.

Ring-billed gulls on ice at Duck Hollow, 28 Jan 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Ring-billed gulls outnumbered every other species. A few immature herring gulls made a ruckus in the middle of the river. And a Bonus Bird: A peregrine falcon flew over. I wonder who it is!

Peregrine falcon flyover, Duck Hollow, 28 Jan 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

On 1 February I visited Schenley golf course to take a photo of my shadow and decided to drive down Circuit Road on the way home. The sun was so bright that it illuminated the great horned owl’s nest under the Panther Hollow Bridge. From the road I digiscoped a photo of the female and cropped it for a closer look.

Digiscoped photo of nesting great horned owl at Schenley, 1 Feb 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Heavily cropped digiscoped photo of nesting great horned owl, 1 Feb 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

Yesterday I went back with Charity Kheshgi to see the owls. The captions on her video and photos tell the story.

video of great horned owl on nest, Schenley, 2 Feb 2025, by Charity Kheshgi

We were able to see both the male on the left and the female on the nest from a trail on the same level as the nest (the “Lower Trail”).

Great horned owl pair male roosting (left), female on nest, 2 Feb 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Below the bridge we couldn’t see the nest but the male was visible, roosting in the shadows.

Great horned owl male roosting near his mate, 2 Feb 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

And later, two Bonus Birds: A golden-crowned kinglet who flashed his crown, yellow and red …

Golden-crowned kinglet, Schenley Park, 2 Feb 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

… and a brown creeper

Brown creeper, Schenley Park, 2 Feb 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

World’s Largest Iceberg is Heading Toward Penguins

King penguins at St. Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia Island (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

27 January 2025

The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is heading for South Georgia Island, the home of millions of penguins including king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) shown above, and macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) listed as Vulnerable and pictured below. If the iceberg gets trapped near the island while it melts, it may block their access to food.

Macaroni penguins, Cooper Bay, South Georgia Island (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

A23a iceberg broke off of Antarctica in 1986 but it didn’t move for about 30 years while it was hung up on the bottom of the Weddell Sea. When it floated free it was captured by a spinning current called a Taylor column. Finally in 2024 it broke free again and started to move.

Iceberg A23a in Weddell Sea, 30 Nov 2023 (photo from Sentinel-2 satellite via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s hard to imagine the size of this iceberg without comparisons. Right now it’s nearly the same size as Rhode Island.

Map of Rhode Island within the US (from Wikimedia Commons)

And its ice is 920 feet thick, which is taller than Pittsburgh’s US Steel Tower at 841 feet. I’ve added a yellow arrow to this photo to approximate the additional height.

Though it is huge, A23a is following the typical iceberg path to the South Atlantic. It floated in the Weddell Sea gyre, skirted the Antarctic Peninsula that points at South America, then was captured by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that sends it toward South Georgia Island.

Map of South Georgia and South Sandwich Island British territories (circled in red). Approximate path of A23a iceberg is drawn in yellow (map from Wikimedia, yellow path drawn by Kate St. John)

As it approaches South Georgia on 12 December 2024 you can see how huge it is compared to the island. Yow!

Satellite image of A23a and South Georgia Island, 12 Dec 2024 (photo from Wikimedia Commons;  Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024)

If A23a clogs the shore of South Georgia while it disintegrates, adult penguins and seals with young on the island will have to travel farther to get to food, which could cause their young to starve. This video explains what the iceberg is up to and how it could affect wildlife.

video embedded from France24 English on YouTube

For an interactive view of the iceberg and its path, see the BBC article –> A23a: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg as it drifts towards oblivion.

Seen This Week: Man O’War and Ice

Portuguese man o’war jellyfish, Spanish River Park, Boca Raton, FL, 21 Jan 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

25 January 2025

This week was cold and drizzly during our family visit to Boca Raton. My brother said it was like Seattle weather. Yes.

We went to the beach on Tuesday where I saw many Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) washed up on the sand. They are named for the topside bubble that resembles the sail on a Portuguese Man O’War ship. Not technically jellyfish they are actually hydrozoa, small colonial predatory animals that sting powerfully enough to kill their prey. Do Not Touch, especially while swimming!

Best Birds were seven magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) soaring in the cold north wind near their northernmost point on the Atlantic coast. (This Wikimedia photo is from Colombia.)

Magnificent frigatebirds at Colombia (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Flying into Pittsburgh on Thursday I saw ice on all three rivers, especially on the Allegheny so I stopped at Duck Hollow yesterday on my way the grocery store. You can see that a lot of the river is ice free but the mud bar is surrounded.

Ice on the Monongahela at Duck Hollow, 24 Jan 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

Listen as floating ice scrapes past the dark green channel marker (in the center of this video) while 125 ring-billed gulls lounge on the ice.

Ice scrapes past the channel marker in the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 24 Jan 2025 (video by Kate St. John)

Ice, Anyone?

Crew members from icebreaker USS Bristol Bay take a dip in icy Lake Erie after freeing Algoma Hansa (ship closest to them) 8 March 2015 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

22 January 2025

While it snowed in Florida yesterday (click here for video!) the deep freeze up north is making the Great Lakes ice up.

As of yesterday Lake Erie was iced over on its western and all along the shore to Buffalo. Erie freezes before the other lakes because it’s so shallow.

Great Lakes surface Temperature and ice cover as of 21 Jan 2025 (map from Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab)

With the western end frozen solid it’s hard to keep shipping channels open. Ten years ago during the very cold winter of 2015 ships got stuck in Lake Erie’s ice. This one is stuck near Ashtabula, Ohio that February. Coast Guard icebreakers came out to rescue it.

Ship stuck in ice near Ashtabula, OH, 19 Feb 2015 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

When the job is done the crew gets “ice liberty” to jump in the water. In the photo at top they are gazing at the ship they freed. Below you can see they are wear waterproof ice suits when they do it.

Crew of USS Bristol Bay on “ice liberty,” (photo )

This is their a reward for a job well done.

Ice, anyone?

p.s. The day after I wrote this article, the USS Bristol Bay was called out to Buffalo, NY to free a ship stuck in the ice. Here’s news on 23 January 2025 before the icebreaker showed up.

Instead of Snow, Snowy Egrets

Snowy egret in flight at Wakodahatchee, Florida (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

21 January 2025

It’s Crazy Cold in the U.S. right now. While half the continent is unusually cold a winter storm is sweeping through the deep South. You know it’s wild when there’s a Blizzard Warning in coastal Louisiana today!

National Weather Service Blizzard Warning for the Lake Charles, Louisiana forecast area, 21 Jan 2025, 4:36am CST

Fortunately there’s not much snow in Pittsburgh but it’s cold with a low tonight of -8°F.

Ecco looks at the snow, 20 Jan 2025 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

But I woke up in South Florida this morning and I feel mighty lucky. My husband and I started planning this trip two months ago and just happened to pick the same week as a continental cold snap.

South Florida is not particularly warm right now and it’s going to rain shower every day but I can’t complain. Instead of snow I’m in the land of snowy egrets. And they don’t care if they get wet.

video embedded from Geoffrey Smith on YouTube

By the time we get back to Pittsburgh the 4-day cold snap will be over. I have no regrets about missing it!

Wild Bird Flu Outbreak in PA & Delaware

Snow geese landing in a field in Central PA, Jan 2023 (photo by fishhawk via Flickr Creative Commons license)

3 January 2025

On New Year’s Day Paul Nale reported hundreds of dead and dying snow geese in Northampton County on the PA Birders Facebook group.

screenshot of PA Birders Facebook post by Paul Nale on 1 Jan 2025

There were over 100 dead and dying snow geese at the limestone quarry in Nazareth PA [Northampton County] this afternoon. We have a possible avian influenza outbreak on our hands. I have contacted the PA Game Commission.

PA Birders Facebook Post, 1 January 2025 by Paul Nale

Yesterday the PA Game Commission said there were also dead snow geese at Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County, both with a “strong suspicion of avian influenza.”

UPDATE as of 8:50 AM 1/2/25: The PA Game Commission has had specialists in the quarry at Nazareth to collect the dead snow geese. There are reportedly hundreds now. There are too many to even try to collect them all. The birds are reportedly on their way to or at the lab for autopsy. In my post last evening, I used the word POSSIBLE … This morning the staffer calling me used the words “strong suspicion of avian influenza.” Tests will confirm or reject that hypothesis.

PA Birders Facebook Post, 2 January 2025 by Paul Nale

The Pennsylvania outbreak follows quickly on the heels of a similar outbreak in Delaware just five days earlier.

On 27 December dead and dying snow geese were discovered at Prime Hook and other sites in Surrey County, DE. On 28 December the State of Delaware confirmed avian influenza and warned poultry farmers and the public to take precautions.

It is not surprising that bird flu is spreading in the wild from state to state. Birds fly and Prime Hook, Delaware is only 130 miles from Nazareth, PA, well within the snow goose range of up to a thousand miles per day in migration.

Meanwhile, the state of Pennsylvania urges everyone to take these precautions:

from PA Press Release, 2 Jan 2025, INFLUENZA SUSPECTED IN SNOW GOOSE MORTALITIES

  • Those encountering sick or dead wild birds can report them to the Pennsylvania Game Commission by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453), by emailing pgc-wildlifehealth@pa.gov or by using the online Wildlife Health Survey tool.
  • Any sick or dead domestic birds should be reported to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture at 717-772-2852. If you have had contact with sick or dead birds and are not feeling well, contact your primary care physician or the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 877-724-3258.
  • Always observe wildlife from a safe distance. Avoid contacting surfaces that may be contaminated with feces from wild or domestic birds. Do not handle wildlife unless you are hunting, trapping, or otherwise authorized to do so.
  • Waterfowl hunters are encouraged to continue participating in the remaining season, but should take precautions while handling and dressing birds. These include wearing nitrile gloves, protective eye wear, and a mask. Following any hunt make a point to practice good hygiene, including washing hands and any clothing used in the process of dressing game that may contain blood or feces. Finally, never handle wildlife that is sick or displaying signs of sickness. Instead, report it to the Game Commission.

At this moment bird flu can only be caught by human contact with infected birds or animals but we should take care not catch it. Why? Because the more people who catch it, the more likely it will mutate within humans to something we can spread directly to each other. When that happens, all bets are off. Read more about bird flu transmission and humans at the BBC.

UPDATE on 24 JANUARY 2025: Bird flu deaths have increased in Northampton County PA since first reported on New Years Day. See this 24 Jan Post-Gazette article: Bird flu kills 5,000 snow geese in Northampton and snowy owl in NW Pa. Pa. Game Commission asks for the public’s help to report dead and dying birds

p.s. This December 2024 map of recent HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreaks in the wild is current to 18 Dec 2024. It is maintained by USDA but does not yet include this week’s news from PA and Delaware which I’ve added in pink. Watch here for a USDA update this month!

States detecting HPAI (bird flu) in wild birds in last 30 days as of 18 Dec 2024 (map from USDA) — updated in pink with PA & DE outbreaks 27 Dec to 1 Jan 2025

Just a Few Rare Geese

Greater white-fronted geese (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

23 December 2024

It seems that Pittsburgh missed waterfowl migration this fall with only a handful of the expected migrants landing on our rivers and lakes. Except for long distance migrants, waterfowl haven’t come at all.

Some ducks, geese and gulls only move south when ice overtakes their location. If they’re hanging out at Lake Erie near Presque Isle, the map of yesterday’s water temperature indicates they have no reason to leave. The water there is more than 40°F and the only ice is in small bays (black color on the map).

Great Lakes surface Temperature and ice cover as of 22 Dec 2024 (map from Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab)

There are a few rare geese, though, photographed and posted to eBird and embedded below.

There’s currently a Ross’s goose (Anser rossii) at North Park, noticeably small than the Canada geese it’s hanging out with.

Yesterday there was a brant (Branta bernicla) at Duck Hollow without any Canada geese to keep it company. So it hung out with ring-billed gulls.

And a flock of 16 greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) who normally migrate west of the Mississippi and winter in Louisiana, southern Texas and Mexico have been hanging out with Canada geese in Butler County since 1 December.

These geese are called “white-fronted” because their foreheads are white.

Wondering why the ducks aren’t here? This 2021 vintage article explains why.

Creatures of the Chilean Deep

Deep-dea glass squid, Chile Margin in Pacific Ocean (screenshot from Schmidt Ocean video below)

20 December 2024

This month Schmidt Ocean posted a beautiful deep sea video from their deep sea rover’s voyage off the Pacific coast of South America.

11 Dec 2024: After 55 days of exploration, the #ChileMargin2024 expedition team is heading home. Researchers have been exploring along a margin where a submerged continental shelf extends from the country’s west coast and drops steeply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean.

video description from Schmidt Ocean on YouTube
video embedded from Schmidt Ocean on YouTube

Did you see the rocks and cliffs in the video? If you could see the entire formation without the ocean in the way, it is actually a very steep mountain range from the bottom of the trench to the top of the Andes, more than 15,000 meters or about 49,300 feet(*) with squids at the bottom and birds at the top.

This area is so deep because the Nazca Plate is subducting under the South American Plate, causing the Andes to rise and the Peru-Chile Trench to plunge deeper.

Nazca Plate is subducting under the South American Plate (map from Wikimedia Commons)

And who is the creature with the big eyes and cockatoo crest? Learn more in this short video from Schmidt Ocean on Instagram.

(*) The Himalayas are 8,849 meters (29,032 feet).

Schmidt Ocean Institute is a 501(c)(3) private non-profit operating foundation established to advance oceanographic research, discovery, and knowledge, and catalyze sharing of information about the oceans. 

About Schmidt Ocean Institute

Great Lakes Water is a One Time Gift

Satellite image of the Great Lakes from space, April 2000 (photo from NASA via Wikimedia)

11 December 2024

While writing about Lake Erie last month I found this amazing fact.

The Great Lakes hold nearly 20% of the world’s fresh surface water. And, more astonishingly, the lakes hold more than 90% of North America’s fresh surface water.

But this water supply is not unlimited. The Great Lakes are a one-time gift from the glaciers that melted in our region thousands of years ago. Less than 1 percent of the lakes’ water is renewed annually through rainfall and snowmelt. That means the Great Lakes can be depleted if we don’t keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes Basin.

Alliance For The Great Lakes: The Great Lakes Compact

The Great Lakes watershed map shows how little of the surrounding land drains into lakes. This is especially true of northern Pennsylvania and Chautauqua County, NY.

Great Lakes watershed map (from Wikimedia Commons via USACE)

As climate change puts enormous strains on fresh water resources, multinational companies look longingly at bottling our rivers and lakes. Fortunately the Great Lakes basin had an early wake up call.

In 1998, an obscure Canadian consulting company, the Nova Group, announced its intention to ship 158 million gallons of Lake Superior water to Asia. Though that specific plan seemed unlikely to materialize, it raised alarms about the vulnerability of the Great Lakes in an increasingly hot and thirsty world.

Alliance For The Great Lakes: The Great Lakes Compact

And so the Great Lakes Compact was born. Signed into law in 2008, it prohibits diversion of water outside the Great Lakes basin with very limited exceptions.

This one-time gift of the Ice Age glaciers won’t be frittered away.


p.s. Prior to 1945 humans diverted Great Lakes water in four locations but these have barely made a dent in the total watershed.

  • Ogoki pulls water from Hudson Bay watershed into Lake Superior. 1943.
  • Long Lac pulls water from Hudson Bay watershed into Lake Superior. 1939.
  • The Chicago River is diverted away from Lake Michigan and into the Mississippi watershed. Beginning in the 1800s.
  • Welland Canal is a navigation channel from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario that bypasses Niagara Falls. Beginning in 1824.
Great Lakes diversions map from International Joint Commission (of the US & Canada)

The combined effects of the Long Lac, Ogoki and Chicago diversions and the Welland Canal have been to permanently raise Lake Superior by an average of 2.1 centimeters (0.8 inches), lower Lakes Michigan-Huron by 0.6 cm (0.2 in), lower Lake Erie by 10 cm (4 in) and raise Lake Ontario by 2.4 cm (1 in), according to the IJC’s 1985 Great Lakes Diversions and Consumptive Uses report. 

international Joint Commission: An Overview of Great Lakes Diversions

2nd p.s. The Colorado River Basin is an extreme example of what happens when water is diverted. See Disappearing Into This Air.