Outside My Window | A Blog of Birds Nature with Kate St. John

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Outside My Window A Blog of Birds Nature with Kate St. John

Butterflies on Broom October 30, 2021Insects, Fish, Frogs, Plants Fungi, TravelKate St. John

30 October 2021

While visiting Arizona I noticed that one plant in particular attracted lots of butterflies. The plant above was covered in snouts (Libytheana carinenta) though only one shows up in my photo.

Eventually I learned that the plant is desert broom (Baccharis sarothroides), a dioecious shrub with very different male and female flowers (male on left, female on right below). The male flowers get all the attention from butterflies.

Its hard to imagine how the female flowers become pollinated when nothing seems to visit them.

Next month after the flowers are fertilized the seeds will be ready to disperse. Im sorry Ill miss the period when the brooms look fluffy.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Three Bird Masks October 29, 2021Bird Behavior, Crows RavensKate St. John

29 October 2021

Three kinds of bird masks just in time for Halloween.

Wear a festive bird mask that you make at home. It helps to be as skilled as the person in this video. (I am not.)

Wear a mask to attract attention and inspire others to wear masks. (August 2020 at UNC Chapel Hill.)

Or wear a mask to disguise yourself so that crows dont recognize your face. The video in this vintage article Wear A Mask explains why crows react to the full head mask John Marzluff is putting on below.

(screenshots are from the embedded videos)

Common Depends On Where You Are October 28, 2021TravelKate St. John

28 October 2021

After a week in Arizona Im on my way home and musing about the common birds I will never see in Pittsburgh. Here are just a few.

Gambels quail are very common backyard birds in Arizona. Quails of any kind are uncommon in Pennsylvania.

Gila woodpeckers are the desert version of our red-bellied woodpeckers.

The verdin is a tiny active desert bird. (Dont be fooled by the shadow in this photo; his head is all yellow.)

Cactus wrens are as common in Arizona as the Carolina wren is at home.

Common here, rare there. Common depends on where you are.

p.s. This disparity is why we ask for a photos location before trying to identify the bird in the picture.

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

How Birds Chew October 27, 2021Bird AnatomyKate St. John

28 October 2021

Have you ever noticed that birds gulp their food? Of course they dont chew they dont have teeth but much of what they eat still has to be chewed before they can digest it.

Thats where grit comes in.

Birds chew with their gizzards, a specialized stomach with thick muscular walls that grind up food, often aided by particles of stone or grit.

Birds regularly eat grit to aid their digestion, as Ecco is doing in the photo below.

So when you see birds swallowing things whole rest assured theyre chewing inside in the gizzard.

p.s. Other animals have gizzards too including crocodiles, alligators, mullet (a fish) and earthworms.

(photos from Steve Gosser, Wikimedia Commons, and the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Mallards Are Courting Now October 26, 2021Bird Behavior, Musings NewsKate St. John

26 October 2021

In October male mallards challenge each other and pair with females. This seems odd since it isnt the breeding season but it is! Mallards pick their springtime mates in the fall.

The majority of pairs form on wintering grounds, far in advance of breeding. Mallard pairs form earlier (September–November) than do most Northern Hemisphere Anas species. At Ithaca, New York, courtship begins in September; 90% of females are paired by November. In coastal Louisiana, approximately 55% of migratory females arrived in November already paired; 95% paired by late December.

Mallard Pair Formation: Cornell Labs Birds of the World

Courtship is easy to observe because the males show off in groups.

Social courtship [among mallards] occurs on open water. Several males gather around one female and perform displays directed at her. … Especially characteristic of Mallards are synchronized bursts of male displays (Grunt-Whistle, Head-Up-Tail-Up, or Down-Up) involving up to 5 males performing one of these displays each per bout.

Mallard behavior: Cornell Labs Birds Of The World

The male at top is performing the Head-Up-Tail-Up display. There are more courtship moves in this All About Birds video.

Listen for the high whistle of the males that are arching their backs and necks in the Grunt-Whistle display.

Competition is fierce and the ladies can afford to be choosy. In North America there are always more male mallards than females, averaging 1.33 to 1. When desperate a male may choose a female of another species. No wonder these ducks hybridize!

p.s. Maybe well see courtship behavior at Duck Hollow next Sunday.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

Duck Hollow Outing, Sun Oct 31 October 25, 2021Books Events, Water and ShoreKate St. John

25 October 2021

Join me next Sunday for an outing at Duck Hollow by the Monongahela River. Well look for waterfowl and walk the nearby Lower Nine Mile Run Trail. Every week is colder now so this is my last scheduled outing for 2021.

When: Sunday 31 October 2021, 8:30a-10:30a.

Where: Meet at the Duck Hollow parking lot at the end of Old Browns Hill Road.

Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars, field guides and a birding scope — if you have them.

Visit the Events page before you come in case of changes or cancellations.

This outing is on Halloween. Will the ducks be in costume? Will they be wearing hats?

(mallard photo by Steve Gosser, crested pekin duck from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

Watching A Volcano October 24, 2021Musings News, TravelKate St. John

24 October 2021

Is there a safe way to watch this volcano?

After eight days of earthquakes in mid-September the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma (Canary Islands) began erupting on 19 September 2021. At first people watched nearby but the eruption intensified. Lava started flowing to the Atlantic Ocean.

By the end of September the lava flow was building a delta, as seen by satellites.

On 17 October 2021 Reuters reported the volcano is showing no signs of subsiding anytime soon.

Streams of lava have laid waste to more than 742 hectares (1,833 acres) of land and destroyed almost 2,000 buildings on La Palma since the volcano started erupting on Sept. 19.

About 7,000 people have beenevacuated from their homeson the island, which has about 83,000 inhabitants and forms part of the Canary Islands archipelago off northwestern Africa.

All of the 38 flights which were scheduled to arrive or take off from La Palma airport on Sunday [17 Oct] were cancelled because of ash from the volcano.

Reuters: No end in sight to volcanic eruption on Spains La Palma, 17 Oct 2021

The Reuters video at this link shows how the eruption has affected the islands. Click here for an aerial flyover of the lava flow. It is sobering.

By now the eruption is far too dangerous to watch in the vicinity but we can view it Live on YouTube at: Live La Palma volcano eruption.

For best viewing watch the volcano after dark. Since the Canary Islands are off the coast of Africa, they are 5 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. In the eastern U.S. begin watching in late afternoon to see lava flowing at night.

p.s. The Cumbre Vieja (Old Summit) volcano is located on La Palma, the upper left island below.

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

This Weeks Adventure October 23, 2021Musings NewsKate St. John

23 October 2021

Before COVID I used to travel about ten times a year but stopped abruptly in March 2020. This week saw our first air travel in nearly two years when my husband and I flew to Phoenix for a nephews wedding. Id forgotten that air travel involves surprises, however minor, and that its tiring to pack and carry and rush and wait for hours on end.

Hello, Arizona. Its been a long time since I was in the desert where the plants and birds are so different. In Phoenix the mosquitos are the same.

Heres a selection of what Ive seen so far. Normally I would identify everything but I am out of my element. Can you help?

Saguaro cacti usually grow straight-tipped branching arms but sometimes, rarely, the top of a saguaro grows a fan called a crested saguaro. Notice the woodpecker holes!

Yesterday a flock of Life Birds flew by at sunrise and two of them rosy-faced lovebirds stopped to check out a woodpecker hole in a saguaro.

Rosy-faced lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis) are native to the African desert and popular in the pet trade. In the late 1980s escaped pets established a feral population in Phoenix and are countable in eBird. Heres what they look like in their home country of Namibia, Africa. (This photo is from Wikimedia Commons).

Awesome to see wild parrots in the desert.

p.s. Im 3 hours behind Eastern time. My home world is so early!

(photos from Kate St. John except the rosy-faced lovebirds from Wikimedia Commons)

Hello, Morela! October 22, 2021PeregrinesKate St. John

22 October 2021

Last years work-from-home COVID restrictions kept most University of Pittsburgh faculty, staff and students away from campus. The peregrines could perch anywhere on the Cathedral of Learning with no one to see. Now everyone is back and the peregrines are observing people inside the building. On Tuesday morning Morela looked into Dr. Alan Juffs window from a favorite dining ledge where he first saw her back in 2019.

Hello, Morela!

The peregrines eat at this perch but also cache food for future meals. When Morela left the ledge, Juffs photographed some cached prey.

Mike Fialkovich helped me identify the two birds in this pile. On the left an American woodcock, on the right an eastern meadowlark.

Neither of these prey species lands on campus because both require wilder habitats. American woodcocks live in young forests and shrubby fields, meadowlarks require grasslands. However both are migrating over the Cathedral of Learning this month. They migrate at night.

Peregrines capture their prey in flight so to catch these birds they would have been hunting at night in the glow of the city lights.

By Thursday morning the meadowlark had been eaten, the woodcock was still cached.

(photos by Dr. Alan Juffs, University of Pittsburgh)

The Quaking Giant October 21, 2021TreesKate St. John

21 October 2021

As the trees lose their leaves this autumn, consider this. Theres a tree in Utah that has lost its leaves at least 14,000 times.

Nicknamed Pando, its a quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) thats 14,000(*) years old and the largest known aspen clone. All its trunks come from a single root covering 106 acres. At 6,600 tons its theheaviest known organism on Earth.

How did Pando do this? Learn more in this vintage blog: A 14,000 Year-Old Tree.

(*) Pandos age is in dispute among scientists. It may be anywhere from 10,000 to 80,000 years old.

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

Archives Archives Select Month October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 Resources All About Birds, Cornell LabCCs Ohio Peregrine PageCrows: FAQs About CrowsEAGLECAMs in PittsburghFALCONCAM Cathedral of Learning (CL)FALCONCAM CL SnapshotsFALCONCAM GulfTower SnapshotNational AviaryPA Game Commission, wildlifePABIRDS: Bird sightings in PAThree Rivers Birding Club, PittsburghXeno Canto: bird song Categories

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