9 March 2024

The climate doesn’t know what to do with itself in Pittsburgh. Some days it rains all day (immediately as an example). Some days it’s scorching and sunny. Some days it’s chilly and overcast. This week we noticed all of it.

On Monday and Tuesday scorching sunny climate (74-75°F) inspired everybody to get outdoor. I waited some time to get a photograph, above, with out lots of people in it. Simply across the bend the solar was so low within the sky at 4:40pm that it made lengthy shadows.

That stunning day got here after a foggy wet weekend, seen at Duck Hole beneath. The Monongahela River was operating excessive due to all of the rain.

Every kind of critters had been busy this week together with a striped pink ant on a path in Schenley Park. What ant is that this? Are you able to inform me its identify?

On Monday I additionally discovered two refugees from water-logged soil on a sidewalk in Oakland. Not earthworms, these are invasive Asian leaping worms. Not good! Click on right here to see a quick clip of them squirming.

On Thursday 7 March I discovered new leaves of (perhaps) corydalis at Todd Nature Reserve.

And on the way in which dwelling I finished on the Tarentum Bridge to verify on the peregrines. The male was perched close by whereas the feminine incubated eggs within the nest. This (awful) digiscope photograph exhibits the feminine’s wingtips seen within the nest field as she incubates together with her tail towards us. That is early for many peregrines in southwestern PA however not for this chook. She’s at all times early.

p.s. Don’t overlook to show your clocks AHEAD tonight. (egads! I mounted that terrible typo. Thanks, everybody, for pointing it out.)

(images by Kate St. John)