Outside My Window

Now it’s really winter and the birds who lingered up north are coming here to escape the cold, dark and lack of food.  Chuck Tague has published his latest phenology to let you know who these newcomers will be through early January. 

Here’s a summary of his list and a few suggestions of my own.  Click here for Chuck’s complete list.

• Get close to the moon on December 12th, the closest and largest full moon of 2008.  Chuck gives suggestions on where to observe it.
• As the lakes freeze up north check the rivers for newly arrived ducks, geese and gulls.  Check the creeks for great-blue herons and belted kingfishers.
• Snow cover forces tundra birds our way.  Search manured fields for horned larks, snow buntings and lapland longspurs.  Watch for rough-legged hawks hunting over the snow.
• White-crowned sparrows are becoming more common here in winter.  I hope I see one of them (pictured above) on the Christmas Bird Count.
• The 109th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will be held across North America from Sunday December 14 through Sunday January 5th.  Go to page 7 here to see the list of CBCs with contact information should you wish to participate.  I’ll be counting on two of them:  Buffalo Creek on December 14 and the Pittsburgh count on December 27. 
• Winter begins on December 21, the winter solstice.  The days will start getting longer after the solstice but you probably won’t notice for a few weeks.
• After winter’s silence, song sparrows will sing on the first sunny day in January.

What species will be the first bird you see in 2009?   It’s something to look forward to!

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Nature is slowing down as winter settles in. 

In every other season, nature changes so rapidly that two weeks of “what to look for” is a very long list.  But now a month of sightings will do, so Chuck Tague describes late November through early December in his latest phenology for western Pennsylvania.   

Here’s a peek at Chuck’s list, plus a few suggestions of my own. 

• We’ve entered the time of frost, snow, ice and rime.  I remember rime last year at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch.
• Waterfowl are still on the move.  As lakes freeze up north more birds come our way:  tundra swans, loons, scaup, ring-necks, buffleheads, mergansers, goldeneye and ruddy ducks.
• Gulls will come to the rivers. 
• Northern shrikes will show up at rural thickets. 
• Check manured fields for horned larks, lapland longspurs and snow buntings (pictured here).  They all look dull in winter to match the ground.
• Be prepared for irruptive migrants.  In November 2000 a snow owl showed up at Duquesne University, a life bird for me!
• Today in Pittsburgh, there will be 9 hours and 45 minutes of daylight.  A month from now - nearly the solstice - we’ll have only 9 hours and 16 minutes.  The half hour we lose will be subtracted from the morning.

Click here for Chuck’s complete phenology.

(photo of a Snow Bunting by Chuck Tague)

Another installment - a little early - of November phenology for southwestern Pennsylvania.   Here are some of Chuck Tague’s suggestions on what to look for in the next few weeks, plus a few of my own.  

• We have lots of cloud cover in November.  The sun shines only 37% of the time.
• With the trees bare - around Nov 11 in the city - you’ll be able to see bird and squirrel nests.
• Migration continues overhead.  Watch for tundra swans.  They won’t stop on Pittsburgh’s rivers unless the weather is terrible but you can find them resting at Yellow Creek State Park.
• Ducks, geese, and loons will pass overhead and pause on our rivers and lakes, especially at Moraine and Yellow Creek State Parks. 
• Expect:  Canada geese, common loons, mergansers, ring-necked, ruddy and wood ducks.  There will be so many kinds of ducks there’s no room to list them all.
• Watch for the unexpected:  A brant (the small geese pictured here) sometimes stops briefly at Yellow Creek.  You might find a red-throated loon or a few snow geese.
• Fox sparrows should be here soon.
• Chipmunks and squirrels are caching food.   Will you notice when the chipmunks have gone underground for the winter?  It’s difficult to notice an absence, isn’t it?

Chuck’s complete phenology can be found here.

(photo of Brant by Chuck Tague)

Phenology: The study of biological activity patterns through the seasons … or … (my definition) a list of what nature is doing at a particular time of year.

Chuck Tague, who supplies me with beautiful pictures like this one, used to write a newsletter called The Nature Observer News.  The other day I was reminiscing about the list of “What to Look For” that he published every other week.  With Chuck’s list, I’d be fired up and eager to go outdoors to find the birds and plants he told me about.

Last week I asked Chuck if he’d consider sending me an abbreviated phenology for southwestern Pennsylvania so I could put it in the BirdBlog every month. Happily, he was thinking of reviving it on his own and said I could piggyback. 

Chuck just launched his complete list for late October on his new blog, The Nature Observer’s Journal.  I’ll do a tease once or twice a month.  This is the first - a hint of the treasures Chuck promises in southwestern Pennsylvania in late October:

• Fall colors reach their peak, especially red and sugar maples.
• First frost around October 20.  First hard frost around Halloween.
• It’s hunting season! Wear blaze orange and be aware of PA’s hunting seasons.  Remember: Though Sunday is generally safer, some game can be hunted on Sundays.
• The first wave of ducks and geese migrate through our area.
• Hawk watches see lots of sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks.
• Golden eagle migration peaks at the Allegheny Front in the third week of October.
• White-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos and American tree sparrows arrive to stay through the winter.
• Big flocks begin to form at dusk and dawn: grackles, robins, starlings and (my favorite) crows.
• Pitt’s peregrines stay active on migration days as food (small birds) and threats (other hawks) fly by.
• Most flowers have gone to seed but watch for blooming witch hazel, closed gentian, hardy goldenrods and asters.
• New moon on October 28.  No moonlight on Halloween.
• By October 31 in Pittsburgh, sunrise will be at 7:52am, sunset at 6:13pm.
• We’ll change the clocks back to Standard Time on November 2. Then sunrise will be at 6:55am, sunset at 5:11pm. Evening rush hour in the dark!

For Chuck’s complete phenology for late October, click here.

(photo of Flowering Dogwood by Chuck Tague.)