Monthly Archives: November 2010

Most of the Trees Are Bare?

Bare trees at Shenango Lake, 31 Oct 2010 (photo by Kate St. John)

2 November 2010

Western Pennsylvania was a changed landscape last Sunday, 31 Oct 2010, when I drove to Shenango Lake.

Only a week before the trees showed some fall color and many still had leaves, but now most trees are bare except for russet stands of oaks and lone tulip poplars with yellow tops like candle flames.

For many years I kept track of the date when the trees lost their leaves.  It’s a useful marker for scientific studies.  For instance, it’s the first piece of local information you need for doing a deer density count(*).

Once I started tracking the dates when “Most Trees Are Bare” and “Most Trees Have Leaves” (real leaves, not just hints) I realized there are leaves on our trees only six months of the year.  In the City of Pittsburgh, where our growing season is longer because of urban heat, most trees are bare by November 15 and most have leaves by May 5.

You can track this too.  The oaks still had their leaves last weekend so I’ll wager none of you have reached the “Most Trees Are Bare” stage.  But that date is coming very soon.

Keep watching.

(photo by Kate St. John)

(*) To calculate deer density, you walk a transect counting the number of deer scat piles on top of winter’s fallen leaves.  Use the number of scat piles, the number of days since all the leaves fell, and the average number of times a deer drops scat per day to calculate deer per square mile.

Quiz: Not a Thrush?

1 November 2010

Yesterday, 31 Oct 2010, I was happy to see a flock of these birds on the exposed, dry mud at Shenango River Lake.  I know their identity but they’re tricky, so here’s a quiz. 

First clue: He’s not a sparrow because his beak is too thin.  Sparrows have deep seed-cracking beaks, this bird does not.

Perhaps he’s a thrush?  He has a striped breast, short neck, thrush-like stance, almost-thrush-sized bill, and he walks a lot. 

A longer look reveals many “Not Thrush” things about him. 

  • He’s a little smaller than a Swainson’s thrush.  Unfortunately his size is hard to gauge because he’s rarely near anything that gives him scale.
  • He is only found in open tundra-like landscape, never in the forest.
  • He has wing bars.  Our eastern thrushes do not.
  • His outer tail edges are white.  (You can see this when he flies.)
  • When he walks he darts and jabs in a quick manner that’s different from the deliberate walk-and-pause of thrushes.
  • He pumps his tail and almost wags it.  Hermit thrushes raise then slowly lower their tails. The top side of his tail, which you can’t see in this photo, is not rusty like that of a hermit thrush.
  • In flight this bird is bouncier than a goldfinch.
  • And like a goldfinch he always calls when he flies.  His call is a dead giveaway.  He says his name.

Final hint:  This bird is a treat to see because he neither breeds nor winters in Pennsylvania.

Ready for the answer? Check the comments.

(photo by Steve Gosser)