Shows / Outside My Window
Episodes
- Outside My Window
Birds Wearing Masks
Gambel’s quail pair (photo from Wikimedia) 29 October 2026 With Halloween around the corner, some birds are already wearing masks even though they…
- Outside My Window
Armchair Life Birds in Progress
Eastern Marsh wren doing a split, October 2023 (photo by Steve Gosser) 28 October 2026 eBird’s 2026 taxonomy update is currently in progress for perhaps…
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Ginkgos Survived the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima
Ginkgo survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima, registry number E13a25-01 (photo from Wikimedia) 27 October 2026 In less than two weeks…
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Seen This Week: Colorful Leaves, a White Cocoon and Pine Siskins
Red sweetgum leaves in Oakland neighborhood, 20 October 2026 (photo by Kate St. John) 26 October 2026 Fall leaf color has been weak this month. The maples…
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The Crows Are Back in Town!
Crows in flight (photo by Mary Bailey via Creative Commons license on Flickr) 25 October 2026 Pittsburgh’s winter crow flock is back in town and…
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El Niño Brings a Flood
Aerial view of Iguazu Falls (Foz de Iguaçu), normal flow, Nov 2005 (photo from Wikimedia) 25 October 2026 Very warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific…
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Bad Air Week in Pittsburgh
Strong inversion in the Mon Valley at Clairton Coke Works, 23 Oct 2026, 7:09am (screenshot from BreatheCam Project) 23 October 2026 If you live in…
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A Very Good Flight of Northern Saw-whet Owls
Northern saw-whet owl banded at Sewickley Heights Park, 17 Oct 2026 (photo from Bob Mulvihill on Facebook) 22 October 2026 When Bob Mulvihill announced the…
- Outside My Window
The Ocean is Unforgiving: Part 2
House collapsed in the ocean at Rodanthe, May 2024 (photo from Wikimedia) 21 October 2026: Part 2 of The Ocean is Unforgiving When You Build Your House on Sand…
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Pitt Peregrines Having a Quiet October
Ecco visits the nest at 6:30pm 19 Oct 2026 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh) 20 October 2026 Three weeks into October the…
- Outside My Window
Woolly Aphids That Won’t Dance
19 October 2026 Until the first killing frost woolly alder aphids (Prociphilus tessellatus) actively coat alder branches like fluffy white socks. I found some…
- Outside My Window
88s, Stoplights and a Confusing Sister in Veracruz
18 October 2026 As we walked the road from Santa Rosa to Cascada de Texolo on 5 October, we were impressed by the butterflies as well as the birds. I had been…
- Outside My Window
Seen This Week: Fall Foliage, Nuts and a Turkey
17 October 2026 Leaves are changing color in Schenley Park. A lot of trees are still green because the oaks change later this month. Yellow is the main color…
- Outside My Window
Niagara River Lake to Lake: It’s Much More Than Falls
16 October 2026 When we think of the Niagara River most of us think of Niagara Falls without realizing that the river is a whole lot more. In case you missed…
- Outside My Window
Massive Mullet Migration Attracts Fish, Birds and People
15 October 2026 Striped mullet, also called flathead grey mullet, (Mugil cephalus) are coastal fish with a worldwide distribution. Adult mullet spend the…
- Outside My Window
Birds So Loud They Hurt Your Ears
14 October 2026 Which birds are the loudest on Earth? For many years the white bellbird (Procnias albus) of South America held that title as the only bird…
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Tick Bombs! Exploding Population of Asian Longhorned Ticks
13 October 2026 This morning the Post-Gazette highlighted a story by Mary Ann Thomas about a new tick in town whose method of reproduction explodes like a…
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Cooperation Beats Selfishness
12 October 2026 Next to humans, leaf cutter ants form some of the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth. — Wikipedia Last week on the WINGS…
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A Few Flowers From Veracruz
11 October 2026 Though birds were our focus on the WINGS birding tour in Veracruz, Mexico I found some flowers to catch my interest. I can only vaguely…
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Not Olive and Not a Warbler
10 October 2026 On the WINGS birding trip to Veracruz, Mexico I was happy to see this colorful Life Bird, the olive warbler (Peucedramus taeniatus). I had…
- Outside My Window
Hummingbirds Pause for a Sip While Migrating Across the Gulf
9 October 2026 One of the easiest hummingbirds to see on last week’s birding tour in Mexico were migrating ruby-throated hummingbirds. Right now they are…
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Scenic Mountains, Flash Floods and Rivers of Raptors
8 October 2026 The mountains in Veracruz are very beautiful. On the morning of 4 October, fog shrouded the valley so that Volcán la Malinche(*) was literally a…
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Flying Home
7 October 2026 Today I leave Veracruz, Mexico to fly home to Pittsburgh. I came for the River of Raptors and found so much more. I first became hooked on the…
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From the Highlands to the Sea
6 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 7, traveling from Xalapa to Veracruz (city) Today we travel from the highlands at Xalapa…
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Birding Above 5,000 Feet
5 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 6, the highlands around Xalapa and Cofre de Perote In the lowlands we saw many familiar…
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20 Hummingbirds
20 hummingbirds on the WINGS Veracruz checklist, displayed in taxonomic order. All photos from Wikimedia Commons 4 October 2026, WINGS at Veracruz: Day 6, in…
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88 Butterflies
3 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 5, the highlands near Xalapa “88” is not the count of butterflies we’ve…
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Volcanoes and Waterfalls
2 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 4, Travel from Veracruz to the highlands at Xalapa After birding in the lowlands this…
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Birding the Veracruz Lowlands
1 October 2026, WINGS at Veracruz: Day 3, quiet beach roads, lowland areas, and savannah hotspots Today and tomorrow morning we’re visiting hotspots in…
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The River of Raptors!
30 September 2026, WINGS at Veracruz: Day 2, Veracruz River of Raptors hawk watch plus shore and marsh hotspots On migration from North to South America…
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Gone Birding in Veracruz Mexico
29 September 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 1, Fly to Veracruz, tour begins at dinner. ==> I’ll be too busy to blog…
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Seen Last Week: Tales of Two Things
28 September 2026 Same but different. Last week I photographed whatever caught my fancy. Today I found three pairs of photos connected by their similarities…
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Eerie Shrieking that Prevents a Fight
27 September 2026 In September and October elk (Cervus canadensis) are in the rut in Pennsylvania. The dominant bulls follow groups of cows and warn other…
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600 Crows … so far
26 September 2026 Even though it’s September Pittsburgh’s winter crow flock is building in the East End. I don’t know where they spend the…
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The Ocean is Unforgiving When You Build Your House On Sand
25 September 2026 The road to Rodanthe, North Carolina on the Outer Banks is closed today because storm waves have breached it near the Pea Island Visitors…
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Trees Holes: An Excellent Climate Refuge
24 September 2026 While studying bat roosts in the eastern U.S., Joy O’Keefe found that natural roosting sites provide better protection from temperature…
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The First Armadillo Has Made It to Ohio!
23 September 2026 Three years ago, in April 2023, I wrote that Armadillos Are On Their Way to Pennsylvania. Since arriving in Texas in 1849 they’ve…
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The Glacier is Gone
22 September 2026 St. Mary’s Glacier in Clear Creek County, Colorado is gone. The photo at top showed what it looked like nine years ago as seen from the…
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Wild Kittens at Play
21 September 2026 Another rainy day in Pittsburgh with yesterday’s Flood Watch lasting until noon today(*). So to take our minds off the rain ……
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Yellow Flowers With Annoying Seeds
20 September 2026 This flower is a closeup from the field of yellow flowers at Sewickley Heights Park. Tickseed beggarticks or bearded beggarticks (Bidens…
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Seen This Week: Various
19 September 2026 “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” — Robert Louis Stevenson…
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Sad News About Pitt Peregrine “Red”
18 September 2026 Unfortunately I have some bad news to share. Red (Black/Green 09/Z), the juvenile male from this year’s Pitt peregrine nest, passed away at…
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European Arctic Fox Walks to Canada
17 September 2026 We think nothing of birds flying from one continent to another but the idea of a mammal walking from Europe to North America boggles the…
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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Swarm at the Gulf Coast
14 September 2026 Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are heading south now to their winter homes in Central America. This week they are still…
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Ospreys in the Chesapeake are in Trouble. Here’s How to Help Them
15 September 2026 Just over a year ago I wrote about the collapse of the osprey (Pandion haliaetus) population on the sea side of Virginia’s Eastern…
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Peregrines at Sea
14 September 2026 On Sunday Malcolm Kurtz alerted me to a most unusual eBird checklist of four peregrine falcons that joined a ship in the open ocean at the…
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Inchworm, Spanworm
13 September 2026 Earlier this month I saw a caterpillar dangling from a silken thread as he descended from a tree in Schenley Park. The wind moved him gently…
- Outside My Window
Coyote Between Two Walls
12 September 2026 Coyotes have been in the City of Pittsburgh for at least 10 years but we usually don’t see them until autumn when the youngsters…
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Soothing Hummingbirds
11 September 2026 The number of hummingbirds is dwindling in Pittsburgh and soon all our ruby-throats will be gone for points south. If you miss them at your…
- Outside My Window
Working Birds Work Together
10 September 2026 Most raptors are solo hunters though mated pairs of peregrines, aplomado falcons and golden eagles will sometimes hunt cooperatively when…
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Our Very Own Stink Bug
9 September 2026 Two weeks ago I found this small ornate bug on a jewelweed leaf in Schenley Park. I knew I’d seen one before but it had been several…
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Who Pollinates Flowers That Never Open?
8 September 2026 Last week I was happy to see one of my favorite September flowers blooming at Sewickley Heights Park: Bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) a…
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Seen Last Week: Storms & the Aftermath
Storm clouds before the rain, 3 Sept 2026 at 6pm (photos by Kate St. John) 7 September 2026 On Thursday 3 September severe thunderstorms hit the Pittsburgh…
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At Last, Good Weather for Peregrines
6 September 2026 After a string of violent weather, yesterday was delightful. Not too hot. Not too windy. Not pouring. The Pitt peregrines took advantage of…
- Outside My Window
Stunning Bird
5 September 2026 The sunbittern (Eurypyga helias), native to Central and South America, is a cryptically marked wader that lurks in the shadows and behaves…
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The Link to Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms
4 September 2026 Harmful algal blooms have become a regular feature of western Lake Erie’s summer water quality. Though they can occur as early as June…
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Popping Seeds!
26 August 2026 It’s seed-popping time in Schenley Park. On Friday my friend Andrea and I found a large stand of yellow jewelweed (Impatiens pallida)…
- Outside My Window
Where Were You Last Summer, Mrs. Blue?
25 August 2026 Last week at the Hays Woods banding station, Bird Lab captured a female indigo bunting who was banded almost a year ago, 9/6/2025, on the…
- Outside My Window
Fairy Fingers
24 August 2026 Sometimes fungi catch my eye. In Frick Park on Saturday we found small ghostly, upright fingers emerging from the leaf litter. These are fairy…
- Outside My Window
Seen This Week: The Duckweed Flood
23 August 2026 On Thursday 20 August, in 45 minutes from 8:10 and 8:55am, it rained 1.55″ at the Allegheny County Airport. For almost 15 minutes it came…