Category Archives: Water and Shore

In Case You Missed It: The Whale

July 26, 2024Mammals, Water and ShoreKate St. John

Humpback whale, lunge feeding (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

26 July 2024

On Tuesday off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire, small fish called menhaden or pogies (Brevoortia tyrannus) were running in big schools. Pogies are a favorite food of all the larger fish and those fish, plus a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia), were out there to eat them. This attracted lots of human fisherman, too.

Suddenly the whale leapt out of the water to catch a mouthful of pogies and accidentally capsized a boat. No one was hurt and, amazingly, it was all captured on video.

video embedded from CBS Boston on YouTube

USA Today explains why the whale jumped out of the water.

In the Tuesday morning incident in the ocean off Rye, the whale appeared to be lunging in a classic humpback fishing tactic, said Linnea Mayfield, a natural manager at Boston City Cruises, affiliated with the New England Aquarium, after viewing the video.

The whales blow large frothy bubbles in the water to help corral fish, then they lunge up through the bubbles to scoop up the fish, Mayfield said. The incident was almost certainly accidental, she said. Humpbacks have a blind spot, and it’s “very possible the vessel was in the animal’s blind spot as it came up to lunge and feed.”
— USA Today: A whale flipped a fishing boat with people on board. Experts think they know why.

Whale experts at NOAA and elsewhere think this was probably the young whale that’s been hanging out from nearby Maine to New Hampshire since early July and they’re working to identify it using photographs.

As the video explains this was a very unusual incident. The whale was probably as surprised as everyone else. I’m sure he learned a valuable lesson from the adventure.

Second Step in Seagrass Restoration: Add Guano

July 21, 2024Water and ShoreKate St. John

Sea birds perch on stakes intentionally placed to attract them to this area (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

21 July 2024

How do you restore a damaged seagrass bed? Get birds to come to the party! Biologists in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary place T-shaped PVC stakes in seagrass beds that have been scarred by boat propellers. These stakes serve as perches to attract terns, gulls, and other birds, which produce guano droppings that are rich in nutrients — which in turn help speed regrowth of seagrass in the barren area!
— description of the photo on Wikimedia

In Florida’s shallow waters, the seagrass meadows that host abundant wildlife are damaged when boat propellers pass through them. Propellers leave a permanent scar that cannot regrow on its own. (See scars in two embedded photos below).

Seagrass bed scarred by boat propeller in Florida; snorkeler nearby (photo embedded from Florida DEP)

Seagrass bed scarred by boat propeller in Florida (photo embedded from Florida DEP)

When the seagrass declines, so do fish and wildlife. This problem is so important to Florida that the state imposes fines on boaters who damage it and has tasked the Office of Resilience and Coastal Protections (RCP) to restore the seagrass beds.

RCP takes a two-pronged approach to restoration. The first step is to raise awareness among boaters and post signs so that they stay away from the seagrass beds.

The second step is to restore the propeller scars so the grass can regrow within the cuts. At St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve:

RCP has partnered with the UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station to stabilize and restore prop scars with sediment tubes. Sediment tubes accomplish this by returning the scarred areas to ambient elevations, preventing additional erosion and scouring by water currents, and protecting rhizomes from excessive sunlight exposure. The technique involves installing biodegradable fabric tubes filled with sediment into scarred areas that biodegrade in about 12 months.

Seagrass beds can be fertilized passively to encourage regrowth through the placement of bird roosting stakes and has been shown to be quite successful, as can be seen in Big Lagoon in Pensacola in Fort Pickens Aquatic Preserve.
— RCP: Florida seagrass Restoration Efforts

Add soil, then add guano.

Read more about propeller scarring in the Tampa Bay Times at: In Tampa Bay, boat propellers have killed seagrass. A new mapping project may help.

In 2009, the Florida Legislature created a rule to further protect seagrass by imposing fines to boaters who damage seagrass with their boat propellers (Section 253.04(3)(a), Florida Statutes). …

RCP [The Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection] has employed a variety of seagrass restoration methods throughout the state. These projects have been conducted in Charlotte Harbor, Indian River Lagoon, Biscayne Bay, the Big Bend, the Florida Keys, St. Joseph Bay, St. Andrews Bay and Pensacola Bay. Results have been mixed, and RCP is continuing to monitor these projects and work with other researchers to find more effective ways to revegetate the bottom.

Getting Ready to Fledge at Midway Atoll

July 19, 2024Bird Behavior, Water and ShoreKate St. John

Two Laysan albatross chicks at Midway Atoll, mid-June 2008 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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.

Laysan albatrosses incubating eggs at Midway Atoll in December 2016 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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 …

Laysan Albatross chicks at Northwest Central Eastern Island, Midway Atoll, late June 2017 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

… near buildings …

Albatross chicks at sunrise near Charlie Barracks, Midway Atoll, late June 2017 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

… under trees and on the roads.

Laysan Albatross chicks at Town Sand Island, Midway Atoll, mid June 2017 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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

Young Laysan albatross, or m?l?, on Midway Atoll

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.

Their “Kids” Will Return to the Wild

July 10, 2024Musings & News, Water and ShoreKate St. John

Female and male parents, Sihek (Guam kingfishers) at the National Aviary (photos by Mike Faix)

10 July 2024

Endemic to Guam, where their indigenous name is “Sihek,” the Guam kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus) has been extinct in the wild for almost 40 years. Though they nest in trees they were no match for the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) which was accidentally introduced from its native range into Guam in 1946. Thanks to the Sihek Recovery Program the offspring of this pair at the National Aviary will be among the first to return to the wild.

Since their near extinction in the 1980s the Guam kingfisher has existed only in captivity with fewer than 200 individuals on Earth in 2017. The captive breeding program is increasing their population.

Guam kingfisher chick on his journey to Palmyra Atoll (photo by Jessica LaHurd via the National Aviary)

Yesterday two Guam kingfisher chicks hatched at the National Aviary began their journey back to the wild.

When the youngsters are ready for release they won’t be returning to Guam. Unfortunately the brown tree snake is such a successful predator that it overran the island in only 30 years and caused the extinction of 12 native bird species.

Brown tree snake in Guam (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

On Guam these snakes are so pervasive and so good at hiding that there is a real possibility they could hitchhike on outbound equipment and invade other islands. USDA has trained sniffer dogs to check everything for snakes before it leaves Guam including cargo and the airplane landing gear!

USDA sniffer dog on his way to detect brown tree snakes on outbound plane (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

USDA Sniffer dog checking outbound landing gear and cargo for brown tree snakes in Guam (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

Guam is still infested with snakes so where will the young birds go?

When they’re ready to live in the wild they will be released at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, one thousand miles south of Hawaii and equidistant from New Zealand and the continental US. The refuge is mostly water with only 4.6 square miles of land. Research scientists spend short stints onsite but no one lives there permanently. Guam and Palmyra Atoll are marked on the map below.

screenshot of Google map locating Guam and Palmyra Atoll

Aerial view of Palmyra Atoll (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The birds will be truly wild.

Follow their journey on the National Aviary’s Facebook page. Read about the National Aviary’s Guam kingfisher recovery program here:

Guam Kingfishers

Unusual Visitor at Harrison Hills Park

July 7, 2024Migration, Water and ShoreKate St. John

7 July 2024

Yesterday morning Mike Fialkovich found a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron at Harrison Hills County Park. The bird was easy to find in a shallow creek by the Creekside Trail head at Overlook parking lot. By the end of the day 11 eBirders had stopped by to see this unusual visitor. Here’s the bird at dusk.

Yellow-crowned night herons (Nyctanassa violacea) specialize in eating crabs and crayfish, especially at night. They are usually found in salt marshes, forested wetlands, swamps and on coastal islands but they’re not worried about people and will show up on lawns in Florida.

As you can see from their range map, their stronghold is in Central and South America where they live year round. From there this southern visitor is expanding north.

Yellow-crowned night heron range map embedded from All About Birds

Adults explore out of range in the spring.

Yellow-crowned night heron, Cuba (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Juveniles wander widely, especially in August and September. It seems too early for a youngster to wander up the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys as far as Harrison Hills but yellow-crowned night herons retain juvenile plumage for three years so this bird might not be as young as we think.

And he’s not the first unusual visitor. This yellow-crowned visited in Duquesne in August 2019 and stayed for a week. Maybe this year’s bird will stick around for a while.

Yellow-crowned night heron in Duquesne, PA, 18 Aug 2019 (photo by Amy Henrici)

What Happens When A Dam Is Removed?

July 3, 2024Water and ShoreKate St. John

Elizabeth Lock and Dam on Monongahela River, July 2023 (photo by USACE)

3 July 2024

What happens when a dam is removed from a river? We’re about to find out on the Monongahela River at Elizabeth, PA. On 10 July, weather and river permitting, the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) will begin removing Locks and Dam 3, also known as the Elizabeth Locks and Dam. Built in 1907 is one of the oldest such structures in the U.S.

This animation from USACE shows how it will be done.

Ideally the removal of a dam would restore the river to a more natural state but Pittsburgh’s three rivers are a series of pools — like lakes — created for navigation by numerous locks and dams.

schematic map of Locks and Dams on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers near Pittsburgh, PA (original map from PA Fish & Boat Commission, markup by Kate St. John)

The dam at Elizabeth is 12.6 miles upstream from Locks and Dam 2 at Braddock and 23.8 miles downstream from Locks and Dam 4 at Charleroi. When the first gap is made in the Elizabeth dam it will take 3 days for the water level to stabilize into a pool 36.4 miles long stretching from Braddock to Charleroi. No, the Monongahela River will not revert to a natural state but there will be other effects.

As demolition continues on the rest of the dam, its removal will release sediments such as silt, clay, sand and gravel that have built up behind the dam for more than 100 years. Considering Pittsburgh’s industrial past, the sediments may contain toxins such as heavy metals and PCBs. My guess is that this will mostly affect the pool down to Braddock.

Eventually the turbidity will settle down and the Monongahela River will reach a new normal.

How much will the dam removal affect the Mon at Duck Hollow? We’ll have to watch and see.

Location of Locks and Dam 3 is on the Google map below. Read more about the project at The Waterways Journal.

Close Encounters With Puffins

June 14, 2024Bird Behavior, Travel, Water and ShoreKate St. John

Puffin carrying fish to its nest burrow, June 2021, Skomer Island, Wales (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

14 June 2024

Six years ago when I traveled to Newfoundland to see Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) we watched from a boat as puffins flew over us, dove next to us, and landed near their burrows at Witless Bay. I knew they were not large birds but I was not close enough to judge their size.

Carl Bovis filmed one at Skomer Island, Wales where there are over 42,000 nesting pairs from April to July: “To cheer everyone up, here’s a little Puffin going for a little walk.”

(embedded video by Carl Bovis on YouTube)

Imagine a puffin at your feet …

… or even closer.

embedded from RM Videos on YouTube

I wish I knew where this RM Video it was filmed!

Next on the Agenda: Molting

June 13, 2024Bird Anatomy, Peregrines, Water and ShoreKate St. John

Canada goose molting in late June (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

13 June 2024

As soon as the breeding season is over adult birds molt to change out their old feathers. During this period many birds look ragged. We’ll see a few bald cardinals and blue jays who’ve molted all their head feathers at once. Peregrines will seem lazy while they molt in July and August. Canada geese won’t be able to fly.

This week at Duck Hollow I noticed that Canada geese are already molting. Their white rumps are showing, which indicates they’ve lost all their flight feathers.

Not-molting vs. molting appearance in Canada geese (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

At the end of this month Pitt’s peregrines will be molting too. We might see a peregrine feather on the falconcam.

Peregrine falcon tail feather (photo from Shutterstock in 2013)

Learn more about molting in this vintage article.

Feathers Wear Out

Have You Seen Any Female Mallards Lately?

May 14, 2024Nesting & Courtship, Water and ShoreKate St. John

14 May 2024

When I visit Duck Hollow I expect to see a lot of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) but that hasn’t been the case lately. Over the winter their numbers were high — anywhere from 10 to 30 — but since late March the count has dropped to 4-7 and all but one is male. Where are the female mallards?

Mallards pair up in autumn in Pennsylvania but don’t begin nesting until mid-April or early May. The burden of nesting rests on the female. She chooses the site, makes the nest, lays the eggs, does all the incubation and is the only parent that cares for the chicks.

As she searches for a nest site she engages in Persistent Quacking. (Did you know that only females make the Quack sound?) Scientists believe she’s very vocal in order to attract nearby predators. If a predator shows up at a potential site, she knows that place is unsafe and moves on.

Birds of the World notes that “Urban Mallards use a variety of additional cover types, including evergreens, ornamental shrubs, vines, gardens, woodpiles, and artificial structures such as docks, boats and buildings.”

Having chosen a densely covered site on the ground near water, she scrapes a depression and pulls in nearby material for the nest. Then she lays one egg per day, as many as 13. She adds her own down or breast feathers to cover the eggs when she takes a break. You can see feathers surrounding her on the nest below.

After 28 days the eggs hatch.

The first egg laid is first to hatch and others usually follow within 6–10 hours. Most of the eggs hatch during the day (as per Birds of the World). The next morning their mother leads the chicks to water. It’s the safest place to be until they can fly.

This month the males at Duck Hollow are hanging around near the females but won’t take an active role. They look like bachelor groups but they aren’t bachelors.

Have you seen any female mallards lately?

(photos embedded from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the original)

Seen This Week: Ducks, a Swan and Leaf Out

March 30, 2024Deer, Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Trees, Water and ShoreKate St. John

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.

Outside My Window

A Blog of Birds & Nature with Kate St. John