Excessive heat from the western U.S. is now in the East and the next two days promise to be brutal.
Right now I’m in Tidewater Virginia where today’s high temperature will be 97°F and “feel like” 107°F. Just after dawn the turkey vultures warmed their wings in my sister’s backyard. I’m sure they know where and how to stay cool later today.
Turkey vultures wake up in Virginia before it’s hot (photo by Kate St. John)
We humans, however, are not always in control of our time and some humans are not as smart as turkey vultures so every newscast reminds us to be careful and stay cool.
Yes, today will be hot but tomorrow will be worse. There will be Extreme Heat even in the mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Sunset in Pittsburgh, 10 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
13 July 2024, Pittsburgh
Hot. Sultry. This week’s oppressive heat and humidity was curiously exhausting. Where have I experienced this weather before? Ah, yes. Florida in July. For the most part I stayed indoors so there’s not much “Seen This Week.”
On a brief foray around the Cathedral of Learning I did not find the peregrines but did see a beautiful flowerbed of black-eyed susans.
Flowers at Cathedral of Learning, 9 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The peregrines cope with the heat by perching in the shade. Carla looks sleepy an hour before sunset on 9 July.
Carla resting on the green perch, 9 July 2024, 7:25pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
I’m not looking forward to next week’s heat wave, though it won’t be as bad in Pittsburgh as further east.
We complain about staying indoors during winter but now we’re staying indoors in the summer, too.
Sunrise on the last day of Excessive Heat Warning in Pittsburgh, 22 June 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
22 June 2024
Most of us didn’t see much of the outdoors this week. It was just too hot. Fortunately today is the last day of Pittsburgh’s Excessive Heat Warning. Tomorrow we’ll have rain, thunderstorms and wind, though it will reach 90°F. Certainly hot. Not “Excessive.”
Yesterday while it was 93°F, one of the Pitt peregrine youngsters (“Blue”) tried to beat the heat by resting in the shade at the front of the nest. She opened her wings and gular fluttered (like panting) to cool herself off.
Blue is “panting” at the nest, 21 June 2024, 5:15pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Two days earlier her father, Ecco, was sunbathing at noon! The sun’s heat kills feather lice and forces the live bugs off the bird’s back to places where it’s easier to preen them away. After roasting a bit, Ecco spent time preening in the shade.
Ecco sunbathing, 20 June 2024, 12:09pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Some day soon (I hope!) it will be pleasant enough to take a walk in the sun as I did on 12 June at Aspinwall Riverfront Park. Every time I go there I look for peregrines but have not found any.
Common mullein at Aspinwall Riverfront Park, 12 June 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
A high pressure system that was overheating the Southwest moved in on Monday and put a cap over us that’s circulating hot air and trapping heat at the surface.
Meanwhile there are very few clouds to block the sun. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter. Climate Central says the metro areas of Indianapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston are experiencing:
Record high temperatures from 94°F to 99°F
High humidity that makes it feels hotter when heat index values reach 105°F
Nighttime temperatures never cool below the 70-76°F range.
Last evening severe thunderstorms knocked out power to more than 100,000 electric customers in southwestern PA. I’m fortunate to have both electricity and air conditioning so I’m staying indoors.
I can hardly wait for it to end.
p.s. US weather maps never show Canada. Did the heat just cease at the border? Nope. It’s hot in Canada, too!
On a woodcock walk at Hillman State Park on the night of 13 April, we paused to look at a beaver pond when someone pointed to a strange row of lights moving silently across the sky. There were more than 20 of them, obviously man-made and kind of creepy. None of us knew what they were. The next morning I figured out they were Starlink satellites.
This week Pittsburghers will have five opportunities to see this eerie phenomenon. Here’s what they look like, even without binoculars.
Starlink Satellites train seen in the sky Elon Musk SpaceX 2024 (embedded from ViralVideoLab on YouTube)
Note: This group contains about 60 satellites. Nowadays SpaceX launches about 20 per batch.
A Starlink satellite string can be seen only in the few days following a Starlink Falcon rocket launch. You must be in the right location (under the flight path), with a clear sky and within two hours of sunset or sunrise.
This 5-minute video “explainer” by meteorologist Brad Panovich in Charlotte, NC, recorded in September 2023, explains the network of Starlink satellites, how the string is deployed and why you only see them for a couple of days if you’re lucky.
The SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker website predicts when a Starlink train will pass overhead for your selected location. The website cannot predict very far in advance because the calculations must be made after a payload rocket has launched. Though the launches are scheduled, the actual time of liftoff can change.
Will the sky be clear for viewing the transit this week? So far so good according to the Pittsburgh Clear Sky Chart. Check the Starlink schedule above or on the web, then find a patch of dark sky and look up at the right moment in the direction indicated.
Creepy, eh?
And according to Wikipedia, “Astronomers have raised concerns about the effect the constellation may have on ground-based astronomy, and how the satellites will contribute to an already congested orbital environment.”
More information: Starlink is a satellite internet constellation whose purpose is to provide worldwide internet coverage and global mobile broadband [for a fee]. Starlink Services LLC is a subsidiary of SpaceX which is owned by Elon Musk. Since 2019 SpaceX has launched over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites into low Earth orbit. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 34,400.
Late Friday afternoon I saw a very dark cloud outside my window that looked almost flat like a wall. The horizon obscured the bottom edge as the cloud moved away toward Highland Park.
Shortly thereafter the cloud spawned a tornado that touched down at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium. The National Weather Service rated it EF1, the strongest of four tornadoes in the Pittsburgh metro area that afternoon.
Fortunately no people or animals were injured and the most dramatic damage was a car flattened by a tree in the Zoo parking lot. The video below shows local reactions including people waiting in a car on the Highland Park Bridge for the tornado to pass. Glad I was not there!
Those of you who live in severe tornado regions probably think Pittsburghers are wimps to get excited about an EF1 tornado but in fact tornadoes are rare here.
Blackpoll warbler, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
18 May 2024
Best birds this week were seen at Presque Isle State Park on Sunday 12 May while birding with Charity and Kaleem Kheshgi. At Leo’s Landing many of the birds were at eye level including this blackpoll warbler and the barn and bank swallows.
Barn and bank swallows, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Even the treetop birds, like this yellow-throated vireo, cooperated for photographs.
Yellow-throated vireo, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Was this redstart was looking askance at us? Or eyeing a bug?
American redstart, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
I had high hopes for the Bird Banding at Hays Woods on Wednesday 15 May but we were in for a surprise. No birds to band! Bummer. 🙁 This restart, banded earlier in the week, shows what we could have seen.
American redstart at Bird Lab banding (photo by Kate St. John)
After we left the banding station we had good looks at a scarlet tanager and found this Kentucky flat millipede (Apheloria virginiensis). It’s colored black and orange because it’s toxic.
It secretes cyanide compounds as a defense. Don’t touch it!
You might find one perched and dying on top of a twig. That’s because it can host the parasitic fungus Arthrophaga myriapodina which causes infected individuals to climb to an elevated spot before death (per Wikipedia). Eeeew.
Centipede Aphelosia virginiensis, Hays Woods, 15 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
This week there were flowers in the tulip trees (Liriodendron) obscured by thick leaves. This flower came into view when a squirrel bit off the twig and didn’t retrieve the branch.
Tulip tree flower and leaves, 16 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Instead of rain on Wednesday we had a beautiful sunrise.
Sunrise 14 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
To make up for no rain on Wednesday it’s pouring right now on Saturday.
Rainbow just before sunset in Pittsburgh, 11 May 2024, 7:30pm (photo by Kate St. John)
15 May 2024
Last week the sky above Pittsburgh was spectacular over and over again.
Stunning storms on May 8
Beautiful sunrise on the 9th
Northern lights on the 10th
Double rainbow on the 11th.
No storm photos from me (!incredibly close lightning) but I photographed sunrise on the 8th.
Sunrise on 9 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Alas I missed the northern lights on Friday.
But was treated to the double rainbow on Saturday (with raindrops on the window).
Rainbow just before sunset in Pittsburgh, 11 May 2024, 7:29pm (photo by Kate St. John)
Photographer Dave DiCello takes dramatic photos of Pittsburgh every day from the West End overlook and captured every one of these spectacular sky events.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a more incredible week of photography in #pittsburgh than the last seven days. Epic storms. Multiple rainbows. The friggin’ NORTHERN LIGHTS. So thankful I had the opportunity to capture all of them over our amazing city. pic.twitter.com/W533gj1K5H
Coltsfoot gone to seed, Frick Park, 9 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
16 April 2024
Last week was so full of news, from peregrines to floods, that I had to skip my usual “Seen This Week” report. Meanwhile Spring isn’t holding still. Wildflowers are blooming and the early ones have already gone to seed. Here’s a selection of my best photos from last week, April 8-11.
Above and below, three photos from Frick Park. All of these are alien and some are invasive but they are pretty.
Speedwell’s (Veronica persica) tiny flowers bloom in fields and lawns. A dewdrop dangled above this one from a blade of grass.
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) is abundant along creeks and river banks including Duck Hollow and Nine Mile Run. Very invasive, but pretty, which is why it was imported as a garden plant.
Eyebright, Frick Park, 9 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Lesser Celandine, Frick Park, 8 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last Thursday I visited Barking Slopes for just an hour before the rain chased me away. Even though I didn’t have much time I saw more than 15 species in bloom including:
Large-flowered Trillium, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Spring Beauty, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Trout Lily, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Blue Cohosh flowers, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Large-flowered bellwort, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Star Chickweed, Barking Slopes, 11 April 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Spring is here! Get outdoors so you don’t miss it.
Total solar eclipse, Berea, Ohio, 8 April 2024 (photo by Jeff Cieslak)
9 April 2024
For three minutes yesterday afternoon, people in a wide swath of the U.S. from Texas to Maine were wowed by the total solar eclipse. Jeff Cieslak was in the totality zone in Berea, Ohio and captured the photo at top. Look closely at the dark edge and you’ll see solar prominences (flares).
Pittsburgh and Dubois, PA, just east of the totality zone, were both close enough to experience a 97% eclipse. Our light level was like dusk and the temperature got cooler. Charity Kheshgi captured the partial eclipse in Pittsburgh at 3:17 to 3:20pm.
View of the 97% eclipse in Pittsburgh, 8 April 2024 at 3:19pm ET (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Meanwhile Marianne Atkinson noticed a change in honeybee behavior at her home in Dubois, PA. She’s providing a honeybee feeder this spring, filled with sugar water, to feed hungry bees in the early days before the flowers bloom. Yesterday morning her feeder was mobbed with honeybees and was running dry.
Honeybees at the feeder, Dubois, PA, 7 April 2024 (video by Marianne Atkinson)
There were too many bees for her to safely refill the feeder so she put out a second one (white rim). It was mobbed, too.
Honeybees at two feeders in Dubois, PA, 8 April 2024 before the partial eclipse (photo by Marianne Atkinson)
And then the eclipse began. Marianne describes what happened.
I had just added a second honey bee feeder this afternoon, not long before the eclipse started. But, during the eclipse at 97%, there were very few bees on either feeder! The yellow feeder only had two bees and the gravel feeder had 3 bees. I took this opportunity to add more nectar to the yellow feeder, since it was empty.
[Meanwhile] The many American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins were chattering away in the trees nearby during the whole eclipse. The sky had gotten a little darker, but not dark like a solar eclipse in totality. There were clouds during most of the eclipse, with occasional peaks of sun or seeing it through thin clouds. I was able to view it off and on.
— email from Marianne Atkinson, Dubois, PA, 8 April 2024
Honeybees are diurnal and they return to their hive at dusk to spend the night indoors. Apparently the light level during a 97% eclipse is low enough to prompt bees to go home. After the eclipse the honeybees came back quickly to both feeders. Marianne said, “They had just recently discovered the pea gravel feeder, but did not waste any time in utilizing it!”
Did you notice any special animal or insect behavior during the eclipse? Leave a comment with your observations.
