Powdermill Nature Reserve

Looking for a family-friendly activity this weekend? Stop by the front desk at Powdermill Nature Reserve to pick up your noisy cicada craft worksheet! We would love to hear about the fun you had at the desk, or in the comments below. Stay tuned for another activity soon!

Putting the "bee" in beetle!

Wildflower Wednesday! Jack-In-The-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) This wildflower easily blends into the forest scenery but is anything but ordinary! The flower’s pitcher-like spathe is green with a striped maroon interior, sheltering a spadix within; however, some individuals are green inside as well. Jack-in-the-pulpit leaves are comprised of three leaflets that rise above the flower on their own stem. Flies are the usual pollinators and visit the tiny floral structures on the... spadix. Once the plant is pollenated, it produces bright red berries that attract wildlife such as birds and rodents. Armed with some chemical defenses, all parts of this plant contain calcium oxalate crystals which can irritate skin; however, Native Americans have historically used the roots as a food source by removing the chemicals through a drying and boiling process. Have you seen any Jack-in-the-pulpit? We would love to see your photos in the comments!

Did you miss our ladybug life cycle activity last weekend? Well, you're in luck because we are bringing it back this weekend! Stop by the front desk at Powdermill Nature Reserve to pick up your ladybug life cycle activity worksheet! We would love to hear about the fun you had at the desk, or in the comments below. Stay tuned for another activity soon!

Bird Banding Report - May 1-10, 2021 This period saw cool, even frosty, temperatures and despite curtailed effort due to rain and wind, we did catch plenty of first-of-year species! We operated the station for 8 days, banded 422 new birds, and recaptured 264 individuals, for a total of 686 birds of 61 species.... We continue to see the colorful progression of songbirds migrating to and through southwestern Pennsylvania, and were delighted to catch three Orchard Orioles. In this area, Orchard Orioles are less common than the bright orange-and-black Baltimore Oriole, preferring more open habitats like pastures and other areas with scattered trees, but recently they seem to have increased here at Powdermill, and they may even be breeding nearby! This species has an interesting molt story: males in their first breeding (or what we call second-year males) season look quite different than older males. These younger males are lemony-greenish with a black patch on their face and throat and a variable amount of scattered warm brown body feathers whereas older males have the diagnostic black and brown plumage (see the birds pictured here!). Females look more like second-year males, but lack any black markings. Here’s a list of what new birds we banded in this period: Ruby-throated Hummingbird 34 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Downy Woodpecker 6 Northern Flicker 2 Least Flycatcher 11 Eastern Phoebe 1 Eastern Kingbird 2 White-eyed Vireo 2 Philadelphia Vireo 1 Warbling Vireo 1 Blue Jay 1 Black-capped Chickadee 1 Tree Swallow 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 35 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 House Wren 4 Gray Catbird 26 Brown Thrasher 1 Veery 8 Gray-cheeked Thrush 1 Swainson’s Thrush 5 Wood Thrush 15 Cedar Waxwing 1 Purple Finch 1 American Goldfinch 49 Chipping Sparrow 1 White-crowned Sparrow 3 White-throated Sparrow 10 Lincoln’s Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 3 Eastern Towhee 1 Orchard Oriole 3 Baltimore Oriole 4 Red-winged Blackbird 15 Ovenbird 2 Louisiana Waterthrush 3 Northern Waterthrush 3 Blue-winged Warbler 6 Black-and-White Warbler 8 Nashville Warbler 25 Kentucky Warbler 3 Common Yellowthroat 10 Hooded Warbler 12 American Redstart 9 Northern Parula 3 Magnolia Warbler 16 Yellow Warbler - 16 Chestnut-sided Warbler 5 Black-throated Blue Warbler 5 Palm Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Myrtle Warbler 7 Prairie Warbler 2 Canada Warbler 12 Mourning Warbler 1 Northern Cardinal 7 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 6 Indigo Bunting 5 Other species that were only recaps this period were Sharp-shinned Hawk, Eastern Bluebird, and Song Sparrow.

Wildflower Wednesday! Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) Rising like a delicate puff of foam, each raceme is adorned with wispy white flowers with long stamens which lend to this plant’s common name foamflower. The heart-shaped, toothed leaves are found at the base of the stem. The genus name Tiarella refers to the tiny, crown-shaped fruits borne in the summer. This lovely native plant prefers shady woodlands, slowly spreading across the forest floor. While it is clump-form...ing, it does not aggressively spread, and usually takes a while for the plant to form a colony. Small bees and butterflies are frequent visitors, making this plant a wonderful addition to a shady native garden with space to spread out over time. Have you seen this plant? We would love to see your photos in the comments!

Cedar Waxwings can be found in southwestern Pennsylvania year round, although they tend to be less common in the winter when they form nomadic flocks and roam the countryside in search of berries. But a winter capture of a Cedar Waxwing at the banding station is usually a rare treat. Even more interesting is how late this bird is molting. We usually see these birds undergoing their annual molt at the end of summer and into the fall, so this bird’s molt is quite late! At this... time of year, we can age birds as either having hatched this year or in a year previous to this year, but this individual can be microaged as a bird that hatched in 2019, or what we call a second year bird. In the photos of the wing and tail, there are brown, worn feathers (underlined in red on the wing picture) that contrast with the newer, grayer feathers next to them. The brown feathers are juvenal (grown in the nest) but the wing molt means they are not this year’s juvenal feathers, hence this bird hatched in 2019 and is in its second calendar year! Molt is a beautiful thing

Bird Feature Friday! More tails! This week, let’s take a close-up look at the tail of an adult male Baltimore Oriole in breeding plumage. Baltimore Orioles commonly breed in southwestern Pennsylvania, although sometimes they’re hard to spot because they tend to stay high in trees where they build pendulum-shaped nests. Baltimore Orioles will readily come to feeders with fresh orange halves, especially during migration or after the young have fledged.

You bring the movie and snacks, we'll bring the science! Starring Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson, The Big Year hilariously and heartwarmingly documents three birders’ big years. Powdermill Nature Reserve and Black Swamp Bird Observatory bird researchers will be available to discuss the movie, and answer your bird-, birding-, and listing-related questions. They’ll be joined by Greg Miller, the real-life birder who Jack Black’s character in the movie is based on! Don...’t miss this evening! Register here to join these cool birding pals: https://carnegiemnh.org/event/the-big-year-watch-party/ *You'll need two devices to join the watch party: one to stream the movie from the platform of your choice (e.g., DVD player, rent the movie from a movie streaming service, etc.) and one to join the panelists

Brown Creepers are small, well-camouflaged birds that you might see during the winter months in southwest Pennsylvania. They’re often easier to hear than to see: you might hear their high pitched call notes or their beautiful song ringing through the still forest, and if you look hard enough, you might see them ascending or descending a tree truck as they search for insects in bark crevices. Check out those stiff tail feathers- those help stabilize the bird as it moves along a tree trunk!

Whatsit Wednesday ANSWER! The image is a close-up of a berry from a kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) tree located in the Nature Center courtyard! Kousa dogwoods, native to Asia, are popular landscape trees noted for their beautiful flowers, interesting berries, and overall hardiness. The cherry-sized berries have a thick, rough exterior that is slightly prickly to the touch; however, the interior is quite creamy except for a few large seeds. Birds are attracted to these big be...rries. Pictured left to right: kousa dogwood berries on branches; the featured berry; the entire kousa dogwood tree. Thank you for playing and stay tuned for the next Whatsit Wednesday!

Join us as we hit the trails for a guided nature walk! We’ll meet in the atrium of the Powdermill Nature Center at 2pm before heading outside to explore the beauty of fall. This family-friendly experience is open to participants of all ages, and pre-registration is required. To register, follow the link at https://carnegiemnh.org/visit-powdermill/.

Whatsit Wednesday ANSWER! You were looking closely at the seed pod of a cucumber-tree (Magnolia acuminata)! Cucumber-trees (or cucumber magnolia) are hardy deciduous trees with a species range that extends up to Canada. That’s impressive for a magnolia tree! The trees produce yellow-green flowers near the canopy, often too high up for us to enjoy. The flowers give way to lumpy, green seed pods that later turn reddish pink and split open to reveal bright red or orange seeds. Sometimes you can find them lying on the forest floor as you walk the trails here at Powdermill. They have been referred to as forest pickles due to their pickle-like resemblance. Once the seed pods are on the ground, they are often snatched up by local wildlife. Thank you for playing! Stay tuned for the next Whatsit Wednesday.

Support Evening Grosbeak Conservation this Winter! https://waterlandlife.org/buygrosbeakshirts/ Shirts by @code5design support our project tracking Evening Grosbeak winter movements via the Motus Wildlife Tracking System and nanotag technology. This is a collaboration of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s PA Natural Heritage Program, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill Avian Research Center, and the Finch Research Network. All sales support this project an...d Evening Grosbeak conservation! We can't guarantee they'll arrive before Christmas but if you place your order before Monday the 14th we'll do our best. Read more about this project here: https://finchnetwork.org/wintering-evening-grosbeak-movemen @waterlandlife @carnegiemnh

Introducing Whatsit Wednesday! Now that most flowers have finished blooming until spring, each Wednesday we’ll bring you a close-up photo something you might find at Powdermill. You can submit your guesses in the comments under the post. We’ll post the answer on Thursday. Here is a close-up photo of something we found at Powdermill. Can you guess what it is? The answer will be posted tomorrow!... Here’s a clue: This is from a non-native ornamental plant.

One of the more recognizable and most-loved winter feeder birds is the Dark-eyed Junco. You’ll often see them hopping on the ground under bird feeders cleaning up spilled millet and other seeds. Juncos are sparrows, but unlike most sparrows we see in southwest PA, juncos are sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females look different! Although there is some overlap in plumage variation, here is a good example of female and male plumage: the female (left) has browner feathers overall and a slightly shorter wing length, the male (right) has dark gray plumage and a slightly longer wing. Note that there are lots of subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos (we primarily have Slate-colored Juncos at Powdermill), and this trick might not work with all of them!

Join us for the Rector Christmas Bird Count on December 20, 2020! Count for as long as you want to between midnight and 11:59pm, or do a feeder/yard count. Owlers welcome!

Happy Owl-o-ween to all, and to all a good night!

...and just like that, with a beautiful frosty morning, the 2020 fall migration season is over at Powdermill. Although we’ll continue to band at reduced effort throughout the winter, today we said goodbye to our seasonal field techs. Things were a bit different with our covid safety precautions, but this crew assimilated quickly into the Powdermill culture and did some fantastic work. There were some remarkable captures this fall, from the highest number of fall Red-eyed Vire...os ever at Powdermill (966!), great diversity of species, more raptors than is typical, to the first ever record of a Brewer’s Sparrow in Pennsylvania, and the now-famous bilateral gynandromorph Rose-breasted Grosbeak. It was an exceptional season and one for the record books! We owe a huge thank you to the crew. Without your help, we would not have been able to accomplish these milestones this fall. Safe travels, Catherine, Aaron, Kyleigh, and Kevin, and please come visit us again soon!

Occasionally the banding crew will decide to stay up late to try to catch owls. This fall has been exceptional for Pennsylvania’s tiniest owl visitor, Northern Saw-whet Owl. Owl banders often use a black light to help locate molt limits (differences in feather generations, or feathers of different ages)- in the case of this individual, there was just one generation of feathers which allowed us to age this bird as a hatching-year. Have you ever seen a cuter owl?

Did you miss the mapping activity? You're in luck because we're bringing it back this weekend! Be sure to stop by the front desk of the Nature Center to pick up your activity sheet. We would love to hear about the fun you had at the desk or in the comments below. Stay tuned for another activity next weekend!

Wildflower Wednesday! White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata) Another composite flower lumped in under the general term aster, White wood aster (Eurybia divaricata) can be found along just about any hiking trail here at Powdermill Nature Reserve. To help separate it from the sea of all the other asters, look for toothed, heart-shaped leaves and roughly quarter-sized flowerheads with white ray petals and yellow disk flowers. A common native to the Eastern U.S., it is an a...utumnal food source for insects and other small animals. Deer and rabbits are not fond of this plant’s foliage and the plant itself is hardy, being able to withstand drought and shade. Look for this plant mid-late fall. Have you seen any white wood aster? We would love to see your photos in the comment section. This is the final Wildflower Wednesday post for this season, and we loved everyone’s participation by sharing their wildflower finds. Wildflower Wednesday will resume in the spring of 2021. In the meantime, keep an eye out for a new series starting next week!

Two of our smallest and most vibrantly-colored late-season birds are Golden-crowned Kinglet (left) and Ruby-crowned Kinglet (right). Despite their tiny size, they are hardy birds, spending the winter much farther north than other migratory songbirds. While many head to the tropics to find abundant food resources, kinglets can be found in the snowy north, picking insects from nooks and tiny spaces in bark and other vegetation. Pictured here are males of both species.