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.
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.
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)
Peregrine carrying prey at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 8 Feb 2024 (photo by Malcolm Kurtz)
20 March 2024
Back in early February, Malcolm Kurtz stopped by East Liberty Presbyterian Church to photograph the resident peregrines. He found them carrying prey, perching on the steeple and hanging out together.
Malcolm first noticed the birds in December when “[he] saw an adult perched on the steeple from an overlook on Chatham’s main campus.” Good thing he followed up on it. The red aircraft hazard lights, which don’t look red from a distance, had fooled me so often that I stopped looking for raptors on the steeple. Malcolm’s photos show that a perched peregrine is about the same size as the lights but the bird is hard to see. If you’re near the steeple look carefully. How do peregrines manage to match every building they perch on?
Peregrine perched on East Liberty Presbyterian steeple, 8 Feb 2024 (photos by Malcolm Kurtz)
While on site on 8 February Malcolm saw the female (at right) bring prey back to the church and eat it while the male looked on (at left). Notice that she is peachy compared to him.
Peregrine pair at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 8 Feb 2024 (photo by Malcolm Kurtz)
Meanwhile Adam Knoerzer checks on the peregrines every day and has noticed they’ve changed their area of focus. On 14 March he recorded the male flying in with prey and, later, the pair flying together.
Male peregrine brings food to the steeple, 14 March 2024 video by Adam Knoerzer
Pair of peregrines flying at E. Liberty Presby, 14 March 2024 video by Adam Knoerzer
The peregrines have been spending a lot more time on the east face of the steeple.
This is the side of the steeple facing Highland Avenue. Around a month ago, I primarily spotted them on the opposite side of the steeple and south face, but they have tended to perch over on this face in the past week or two.
— email from Adam Knoerzer, 14 March 2024
Green = floodlight where female likes to perch.
Red = plucking perch where male prepares food for female.
Blue = possible peregrine nest zone. Shows sticks leftover from old red-tailed hawk nest. Female often perches here at sundown. In first video below, male drops off food at this location.
Their change of venue probably reflects the lack of substrate anywhere else on the structure. This location is probably the only place that has an obstruction to prevent their eggs from rolling off the building.
If you want to see the East Liberty Presbyterian peregrines look from the Highland Avenue side first.
This morning Carla laid her third egg of the 2024 season at 2:01am. Because her nest is visible on a timestamped camera, I can tell you she laid the 3rd egg 52.87 hours after Egg#2. (Egg#2 was 53.14 hours after Egg#1.)
Here’s a video of the egg-laying moment, sped up to double-time, which happens to make it obvious.
video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh
By 6:29am Carla had been off the eggs for 90 minutes (standing up). That’s a very long time to be off the eggs if she had already started incubation because they would cool dangerously in this morning’s freezing weather.
Carla off the 3 eggs for 90 mins, 19 March 2024, 6:29am (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Peregrine incubation begins when the female has laid her next-to-last egg but it is always hard to tell when it truly starts if the weather is cold because the adults cover the eggs to keep them from freezing. When incubation truly begins, the parent exposes the brood patch and lays its bare skin against the eggs. Peregrines can vary how much skin is exposed thus delaying the actual start of incubation until the clutch is nearly complete.
Meet at Duck Hollow parking lot at the end of Old Browns Hill Road. We’ll check the river for migrating waterfowl and walk the beginning of lower Nine Mile Run Trail watching for birds and the many signs of Spring.
Duck Hollow can be excellent or just ho-hum. In early November we saw purple finches and a red-shouldered hawk. Yesterday in a five minute stop at 8am I found a large flock of gadwall and six lesser scaup.
What will it be next Sunday? I’m counting on a kingfisher.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars, birding scopes and field guides if you have them.
Hope to see you there!
Sunday’s weather looks good so far but always check the Events Page before you come in case of cancellation.
Carla laid her second egg last night at the Pitt peregrine nest, 16 March 2024 at 9:08pm.
In this video clip from the National Aviary falconcam we see the actual laying occurred quietly at timestamp 21:08:38. (This is 53.14 hours after her previous egg.)
Carla then raised her tail and remained in a standing position as she waited for the new egg to dry. Though the eggs are actually reddish in daylight, they look white under infrared night light.
Carla lays her second egg, 16 March 2024, 9:08pm (video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
After the egg dried Carla roosted on the green perch in front of the nest.
Mother peregrines are the ones who stay at the nest overnight with eggs and chicks while their mates roost nearby. Ecco was apparently roosting within earshot but not very close. I believe he knew she had laid a second egg; he probably watched (off camera) when she laid it.
Carla was still asleep on the perch when it rained at 4:00am. When Ecco woke up at 4:30am he started to wail. Wailing means “I want something to change.” Perhaps Ecco wanted Carla to cover the eggs or maybe he meant, “I want to change places with you.”
Carla woke up and responded with unusual squeaky chirps. She jumped to the nestbox roof and Ecco arrived to cover the eggs. Listen for his voice and the sound of robins singing in the dark at the beginning of this video.
Overnight nest exchange at the Pitt peregrine nest, 17 March 2024, 4:35am
An overnight nest exchange is very unusual but I’ve seen it once before. When Dori was a new mother at the Gulf Tower in 2010, Louie took over incubation in the middle of the night a couple of times (*). Louie had experience raising a family and Dori did not. Perhaps he was getting the eggs through a critical period, waiting until he felt confident that Dori had caught on.
Peregrines are quick studies at being parents but it’s always nice when one of them already knows what’s going on, as Ecco does.
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.
Note: Near the end of the video you will see white lines (not cracks) on the egg. DO NOT WORRY. THE EGG IS FINE.
Carla is a first-time mom so she moved the egg around a lot before it was dry. The reddish color is the last thing applied to the white eggshell before it is laid. While the egg is still wet the color can be smudged by the bird’s feathers or scratched by being moved on the gravel.
Have you seen coils or fluttering tags on power lines? Not related to power transmission, these accessories are visual cues that alert birds to the presence of wires.
Bird diverters come in many shapes and have changed over the years as new products come to market and are approved by government agencies. California commissioned a 2008 study to evaluate the orange and fluorescent swinging tag below for use in the Sacramento Valley where hundreds of thousands of waterfowl spend the winter.
Red ball markers make power lines visible to airplane and helicopter pilots and are usually installed near airports and on long lines over rivers and canyons.
I know from personal experience (my career in Information Technology) that there is really no good time to do a server migration and it always takes longer than users want it to. Cornell Lab says they’re migrating 1.6 billion bird observations and that if it goes really well some services may be up late on 20 March.
During the outage eBird will still work on your mobile phone in offline mode. This feature was built into the app long ago because the best birds are far away from cell towers.
The eBird app works in offline mode
So hang tight while Cornell Lab data goes into hiding for two days.
