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23 March 2024
This week non-native flowering bushes placed on a present within the metropolis of Pittsburgh. Initially from China and Japan their rising season is sooner than our native bushes.
This month’s three-day spurts of highs within the 60s and 70s prompted the crimson maples to flower and begin producing seeds.
Final Saturday I visited Wolf Creek Narrows, virtually an hour north of Pittsburgh, the place the rising season is later than at house. There we discovered an fascinating jelly fungi referred to as witches butter (Tremella mesenterica) …
… and a decapitated skunk cabbage that allowed us to see the spadix inside. The hood often covers this construction however one thing ate the hood. What animal might put up with the odor to eat that hood? After which the animal would vomit as a result of the plant is poisonous.
I promised you an owl.
Impressed by Steve Gosser‘s picture of an American woodcock at North Park Higher Fields on 4 March, two of us stood out within the chilly on Thursday night ready for sundown and for American woodcocks to make their twittering courtship flights. The sky was clear and the moon was so vibrant that we had moon shadows. It was additionally 5°F colder than at house within the metropolis and I introduced the mistaken gloves. Brrrr!
Regardless of the chilly it was definitely worth the journey. Half an hour after sundown three American woodcocks placed on a present and two flew proper previous us on their method to the sky.
However the massive shock of the night got here earlier than the woodcocks. Karyn noticed a great-horned owl fly out of the pines and land on prime of a brush pile. The owl was looking whereas the voice of a teen begged for meals from pines.
In the meantime a second grownup owl flew to a naked tree on the different finish of the sphere the place we might see its silhouette towards the glowing sky. Although my cellphone is just not good at distance photographs, you possibly can faintly see the ear tufts that show that this second fowl of prey is a great-horned owl.
Spring is getting fascinating.
(credit are within the captions)
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