PODCAST

Outside My Window

A Blog of Birds & Nature with Kate St. John

All Episodes

Identify Bird Photos With Merlin

Outside My Window ·

2024/12/03

3 December 2024 Did you know you can identify bird photos on your cellphone? Merlin Bird ID’s Photo ID function was updated last month with thousands of images from Macaulay Library, the home of eBird checklist photos, providing more real life photos of birds in context. Here’s how it works: If you want to identify … Continue reading Identify Bird Photos With Merlin →

en-US

Always Turn Right

Outside My Window ·

2024/12/02

2 December 2024 How do birds avoid midair collisions? In 2016 scientists learned that budgerigars flying head on toward each other avoid crashes by always turning right. Researchers in Australia trained 14 male budgies to fly in a narrow well lit tunnel, one at a time. After the birds were acclimated they positioned one bird … Continue reading Always Turn Right →

en-US

Nuthatch Says: I’m Warning You!

Outside My Window ·

2024/12/01

1 December 2024 White-breasted nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) are small but spunky. When they have a good spot at the feeder they defend it by puffing up. Sometimes it’s just a mild warning like this tail-fanning to a house sparrow. Sometimes it’s an open wing display like this one to a tufted titmouse. And if it’s … Continue reading Nuthatch Says: I’m Warning You! →

en-US

Seen This Week: Confused Flowers

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/30

30 November 2024 Even though it’s November and getting colder and darker by the day, I found some confused flowers this week. Imported trees and plants that should be dormant were in bloom. A rose, above, and an ornamental cherry tree were beautiful in the rain. Moth mullein was battered but blooming on an almost … Continue reading Seen This Week: Confused Flowers →

en-US

Turkey Owns the Road

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/29

29 November 2024 Now that Thanksgiving is over turkeys can own the road again. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a wild turkey cross the road in the City of Pittsburgh. Six years ago they were very common in Pittsburgh’s East End but there are gone now, perhaps because the City’s huge deer … Continue reading Turkey Owns the Road →

en-US

Let’s Eat Pie Today

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/28

28 November 2024 Forget the Thanksgiving turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cornbread, and cranberry sauce. Let’s cut to the chase and eat pie today! So many fruits! Pumpkin, apple, berries, key lime, raisin-apple. Mmmmm, good. Happy Thanksgiving! photos from Wikimedia Commons, linked in the list of fruits. p.s. … A pumpkin, from a … Continue reading Let’s Eat Pie Today →

en-US

Opal Inside

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/27

27 November 2024 November is a good time of year to look for hackberry trees in Pittsburgh and examine their fallen fruit. By now the pulp has worn off the pits, but unlike wooden cherry pits hackberries’ are like white seashells with a microscopic lattice of opal inside. Learn about these amazing structures in this … Continue reading Opal Inside →

en-US

This Can’t Be Good for Our Eagles

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/26

26 November 2024 On 14 November The Allegheny Front described oil pollution on the Monongahela River that’s been happening for more than two years. Monitored by Three Rivers Waterkeeper since May 2022, an oil sheen sometimes covers the water from bank to bank for three miles, all the way to McKeesport. This can’t be good … Continue reading This Can’t Be Good for Our Eagles →

en-US

Some Ducks at Duck

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/25

25 November 2024 Charity Kheshgi and Jon Woon joined me yesterday at Duck Hollow where we looked for birds under extremely overcast skies. Unfortunately the ducks were so far away and the light was so poor that we have no photos to show for it. Instead I’ve embedded look-alike photos from Macaulay Library. Best birds … Continue reading Some Ducks at Duck →

en-US

Dead Birds and The Price of Eggs

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/24

24 November 2024 You may have noticed that the price of eggs went up … or is going up again. The rise is directly related to dead birds. It’s been only three years since the highly contagious avian influenza H5N1 arrived in North America on the wings of migratory waterfowl in autumn 2021. Though not … Continue reading Dead Birds and The Price of Eggs →

en-US

Seen This Week: Fruits and Seeds

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/23

23 November 2024 Now that the leaves have fallen fruits and seeds are prominent in the landscape. Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) trees have prolific fruit this fall but nothing eats the “monkey balls” so they just lay on the ground to rot. If you crack one open it has sticky latex inside. Who would eat … Continue reading Seen This Week: Fruits and Seeds →

en-US

Watching a Live Stream

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/22

22 November 2024 “Sorry I can’t talk right now. I’m watching a live stream.” So said U.S. Fish and Wildlife with their video of salmon swimming upstream. Stream watching can be very peaceful, as I found at Powdermill Run. “Sorry I can’t talk right now. I’m listening to a live stream.” p.s. Mike Fialkovich watched … Continue reading Watching a Live Stream →

en-US

Some Plants Are Simply Female

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/21

21 November 2024 In the garden we often grow “perfect” flowers such as roses, lilies and tulips with male and female parts in every flower. However, many woody shrubs and trees have single sex flowers. Some species grow both sexes on the same tree, others have only one sex on an entire plant. And so, … Continue reading Some Plants Are Simply Female →

en-US

Making the Sun Set Earlier

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/02

2 November 2024 Spring Forward, Fall Back. Daylight Saving Time ends tonight as our clocks turn back an hour. Tomorrow the sun will set an hour earlier. A lot of us will be grumpy. Some will be depressed. Most Americans agree that changing the clocks is bad. Numerous polls have found that most Americans believe … Continue reading Making the Sun Set Earlier →

en-US

Emerging From The Deep

Outside My Window ·

2024/11/01

1 November 2024 In 1944 the US Army Corp of Engineers completed a flood control dam across the Youghiogheny River that created a lake into Maryland. The project included a new bridge for US Route 40 because the Great Crossings Bridge at Somerfield would be submerged and so would the town’s low lying streets and … Continue reading Emerging From The Deep →

en-US

There Was Once a Bat on Halloween

Outside My Window ·

2024/10/31

31 October 2024 On Halloween 2008 I came across a small bat roosting on a tree in Schenley Park, described in A Bat on Halloween. Every time I pass the tree, especially on Halloween, I look for a bat but the chances of finding one are slim to none. Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) used … Continue reading There Was Once a Bat on Halloween →

en-US

Older Is Wiser On Migration

Outside My Window ·

2024/10/30

30 October 2024 A long term study of white storks (Ciconia ciconia) in Germany and Austria discovered they improve their migration routes year after year as they gain experience. Older is wiser when it comes to migration. Back in 2013 researchers fitted more than 250 juvenile white storks with tracking devices that followed each bird … Continue reading Older Is Wiser On Migration →

en-US

Merlin versus Crow: How to Win a Nest

Outside My Window ·

2024/10/29

29 October 2024 Last spring during the nesting season I was so distracted by peregrines that I neglected to check on a merlins’ nest reported in Highland Park. By the time I got over there the young had fledged, the merlins were gone, and a small group of American crows were inspecting the area and … Continue reading Merlin versus Crow: How to Win a Nest →

en-US

Yesterday at Duck Hollow

Outside My Window ·

2024/10/28

28 October 2024 Six of us went birding yesterday at Duck Hollow and we didn’t just stand around. Here we are on the move to look in the thickets. Before the rest of us arrived, Claire Staples captured this image of sky, sun and fog on the Monongahela River at 7:55am. As 8:36am the sky … Continue reading Yesterday at Duck Hollow →

en-US

Peregrine Caught Him at 10,000 Feet

Outside My Window ·

2024/10/27

27 October 2024 This week the New York Times described A Feathered Murder Mystery at 10,000 Feet which I cannot resist retelling because peregrines are involved. My story will be in photos none of which are from the real episode. See actual photos and the full story at the link above. In early 2023 scientists … Continue reading Peregrine Caught Him at 10,000 Feet →

en-US

509 results