Crows swirling above and landing on the old County Jail, Downtown Pittsburgh, 13 January 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
18 January 2026
If you’ve noticed that Pittsburgh’s winter crows are no longer roosting at the Univ. of Pittsburgh in Oakland you might be wondering where they went. Though it’s hard to hide more than 18,000 crows and impossible not to notice the gooey mess they leave behind, it took a while to find out. So where are they?
Crow Patrol member Carol Steytler saw the crows bypass Oakland in early January so she spent several evenings tracking them down.
On 13 January she hit the jackpot! The crows were Downtown, swirling and roosting at the old County Jail.
Thousands of crows overhead, Downtown Pittsburgh (photo by Carol Steytler)
Crows swirling above the old County Jail, Pittsburgh, 13 January 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
on the roof
In trees near the old jail, Pittsburgh, 13 Jan 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
uh oh. They left a mess, Pittsburgh, 13 Jan 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
Carol captured video of their activity on the night of the 17th. Snow swirled with the crows as they settled in at the jail and nearby buildings and trees.
The crows are Downtown. They went to jail.
videos by Carol Steytler, Downtown Pittsburgh 17 January 2026
Starlings browse leftover fruits in a street tree, 17 January 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
17 January 2026
This week I was so busy indoors that I have no photos for “Seen This Week” except for the high point that I’ve already described: Falconcams Cleaned For The Nesting Season. So here’s a look back at what I saw This Week during the last 6 years.
2021: Starlings swarm a street tree to pick off its last fruit
2026: Light snow hides the distance this morning before dawn.
Merlin on a snag at Schenley Park golf course, 25 Jan 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Sun Pillar during the Gleam at Sunset, 14 Jan 2023, 5:07pm (photo by Kate St. John)Sun pillar at sunrise, 11 Jan 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Halo with two sundogs, seen at Schenley Park on 16 Jan 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Light snow hides the distance before dawn, 17 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
As NASA satellites continued to track A23a, it wandered and spun its way around South Georgia Island, then struck bottom west of the island in March 2025 where it has been melting in place ever since.
NASA sometimes describes this area of the South Atlantic as the “iceberg graveyard.”
Water at this latitude—about 54 degrees South—is generally warmer than the Southern Ocean [that surrounds Antarctica] and is deadly for icebergs. When Southern Hemisphere winter ends in late September / early October the return of abundant sunlight further warms the water. The lack of sea ice in the vicinity of an iceberg implies that the water is above the freezing point.
This month it was obvious, even from satellite, that A23a is disintegrating. Meltwater is ponding on the surface — visible as blue water — and trickling through the cracks in the ice, further weakening it.
Pitt peregrine Falconcam cleaning in progress, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
15 January 2026
Yesterday the annual falconcam cleaning crew prepared for this year’s nesting season by cleaning the peregrine nestbox and falconcams.
Gracie Jane Gollinger from Univ of Pittsburgh and Bob Mulvihill of the National Aviary had a warmer time of it this year. Yesterday’s temperature was around 40°F — not like last year’s 10°F nor today’s 8°F wind chill.
Gracie Jane Gollinger heads for the falconcams
Bob Mulvihill heads toward the cams
examining the site
reaching the cams
cleaning supplies
preparing
cleaning the streaming cam
all done
Camera cleaning went well and the nestbox had no weeds to pull. However, just like last year we found prey remains that were pretty easy to identify: yellow-billed cuckoo, northern flicker, American woodcock.
Dessicated yellow-billed cuckoo carcass near Pitt peregrine nest, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Northern flicker feather near Pitt peregrine nest, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Wing of American woodcock that fell prey to Pitt pererines, upper side, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Wing of American woodcock that fell prey to Pitt pererines, upper side, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bob also found regurgitated pellets.
Peregrine pellets near Pitt peregrine nest, 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Job well done.
Falconcam cleanup crew on 14 Jan 2026 (photo by Gracie Jane Gollinger)
One week from today we will celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day … or rather, “some of us” will celebrate. My husband has heard people complain about squirrels and asked, “How many members in the squirrel fan club? Three?”
If you have bird feeders, squirrels are often the mammal you love to hate.
An acrobatic eastern gray squirrel reaches Marcy Cunkelman’s feeder, Nov 2010 (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
Wild turkeys displaying in an Allegheny County backyard in 2023 (photo by Kathy Saunders)
13 January 2026
Because wild turkeys are hunted in Pennsylvania their population is well studied by the PA Game Commission. Over the years, studies revealed that the population peaked statewide about 25 years ago then declined for a long time and now stabilized at the lower level. To parse out why, PGC added GPS tracking to their annual wild turkey surveys in four Wildlife Management Units starting in 2022. This makes the annual Winter Turkey Sighting Survey a lot more interesting for us in western PA
During the Winter Pennsylvania Wild Turkey Sighting Survey, 31 December through 15 March 2026, PGC asks the public to help find turkey flocks to trap and release on site for their ongoing turkey studies.
Of particular interest to us in southwestern Pennsylvania is this: The Game Commission will attach GPS transmitters to a sample of turkeys in WMUs 2D, 3D, 4D and 5C (circled below), approximately 150 hens and 100 males in total.
WMU 2D is in our region. For detailed boundaries see PGCs ArcGIS map.
The study started with 199 tracked hens of which 193 nested (6 probably died). About 69% of the 2024 nests failed (no eggs; no hatched). From the successful nests 113 poults survived at least four weeks.
It’s clear from this table that — even in a small statewide sample — our turkey population cannot sustain itself in just one breeding season. Turkey hens must participate in multiple breeding seasons to keep the population stable.
The study lays out the case that the domestication process is often wrongly thought of as initiated by humans—with people capturing and selectively breeding wild animals. But the study authors claim that the process begins much earlier, when animals become habituated to human environments.
Did you know that domesticated mammals have physical traits that set them apart from their wild cousins? “Domestication syndrome” includes whiter or brown patched fur, floppy ears, shorter muzzles, smaller teeth. The image below is a partial table of those traits. (Click the image for a larger version. Click on the image caption to see the complete table.)
Raccoons are not listed in the table but they are making physical strides on their own and might be domesticated some day. At the University of Arkansas researchers viewed thousands of raccoon photos from iNaturalist and found …
We use raccoons as a mammalian model system to test whether exposure to human environments triggers a trait of the domestication syndrome. Our data suggests that urban environments produce reductions in snout length, which are consistent with the domestication syndrome phenotype
Black-capped chickadee coming in for a landing, 2025, Cape Cod, MA (photo by Bob Kroeger)
11 January 2026
We could watch backyard birds all day, but when they land it happens so fast we don’t see the steps from head-first flight to feet-first landing. How do they do it?
In March 2025 Bob Kroeger captured stop-action stills of birds approaching his Cape Cod feeder. All the birds use similar steps on the way to landing. Black-capped chickadees are very fast. Larger birds take a little more time.
Here are Bob’s three shots of a female northern flicker coming in to land.
Change body angle to upright position with feet out front.
Use wings to put on the brakes.
Feet first, ready to grab! At this point birds stop looking at the perch.
Yesterday Cornell Lab of Ornithology posted super slow motion video of this very thing. Filmed in Massachusetts, watch these birds as they land: black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, blue jay, mourning dove, northern cardinal.
We have plenty to worry about right now but the people of Juneau, Alaska are probably not thinking about it because they have one big thing to focus on:
SNOW! More than a winter’s worth of snow fell in December alone — 82 inches! — and 49 of those inches fell in just five days. The weight of the snow has sunk boats in the harbor and collapsed roofs. Juneau is running out of places to pile the snow.
RAIN! Today there’s a flood watch and winter weather advisory because it will rain heavily on top of the snow — 1 to 4 inches of rain! — which will cause flooding, landslides and avalanches.
“The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully,” attributed to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the quote is probably altered from what he actually said. Apocrypha: The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page explains: “This is another popular corruption of a famous line of Johnson’s. What Johnson really said, according to Boswell, was, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” A little clunkier in its original form, even when you drop the first sentence, which is probably why the simpler, corrupted form is frequently seen.”
