Chuck Tague

   What can a nature observer expect for the next two weeks?  Sap will flow and waterfowl numbers grow.  Anticipate the first songbird’s arrival.  Look for subtle changes, evidence of revival and the miracle of survival.

    Take a walk in the woods.  Search for the first green among the roadside gravel.  There might be buds on Asiatic Bittercress.  Look for Skunk Cabbage poking through the ice in forested lowlands.  Enjoy the energy of the songbirds, especially the Golden-crowned Kinglets.  Drive from the top of Laurel Ridge to the river valley.  Note the difference in the snow depth and composition of the vegetation as your elevation decreases.

    Although commuters in Pittsburgh will still be stuck in traffic, they will no longer be in the dark.   Read more about the climate and sky in the weekly Nature Observer’s Almanac.

  Maple Watch:  Check along the rivers for the year’s first flowers, the short-stalked, petal-less, reddish blossoms of the Silver Maple.  Note a change in the color of the leafless forest.  The maroon and gray bands of Red Maple trees are more obvious.  Drive through the sugar bush, the syrup producing country in northwest and south central Pennsylvania.  Maple tappers are already at work.  Small collectors and some of the traditional farmers use galvanized buckets.  They suspend the buckets on stiles - tubes inserted low in the trunk.  Modern sugar camps use tubing systems, or networks of plastic pipes that connect their trees to large vats.  The sap flows best on warm days after a night below freezing.  Pennsylvania is the seventh leading maple syrup producing state, but folks in Somerset County will tell you their sugar bush produces the sweetest syrup anywhere.

    Look for lichens.  These are mutualistic associations of fungus and algae. There are four arbitrary forms of lichen:

crustose lichens are crusty, flat and securely attached to rocks or soil.

foliose lichens have leaf-like lobes.

fruticose lichens have stem-like, branching projections.

squamulose lichens have overlapping scales.

    There are many species of lichens.  As the snow and ice melts look for foliose lichens in south-facing patches of crushed shale.  You may find British Soldiers, a red-topped fruticose lichen on rotting wood, possibly on the tops of fence posts.  These are easily spotted and identified by clusters of red spheres held erect on small stems.  They resemble squads of His Majesties troops in the American Revolution.  The red balls produce spores.

    Food is getting scarce for fruit-eating birds.  The high-quality fruits full of fats and sugars are long gone.  The fruit that remains is low in nutrients and the ratio of pulp to indigestible seeds and skin is low.  Who are the fruit-eaters?

    Some winter frugivores in western Pennsylvania are Cedar Waxwings, American Robins, Eastern Bluebirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Northern Flickers, Red-bellied, Pileated, and other Woodpeckers.  Seedeaters like cardinals and sparrows will supplement their diet with late winter fruit.  Insectivores -- chickadees, nuthatches and such -- will also snack on fruit in winter.

   Note what trees, shrubs and vines still hold fruit.  Staghorn Sumac, Poison Ivy, Highbush Cranberry (a viburnum) and barberries often have the last available berries.

    It’s also interesting to note what plants still attract seed gleaners like goldfinch.

        Watch for physical changes in the birds.  European Starlings look glossier and the tips of their beaks show more yellow as the nesting nears.  The Ring-billed Gulls in Florida already have bright red rings around their eyes and a cherry lining in the corner of their mouths.  Horned Grebes are still black and gray but keep an eye on them.  When will they start to show their orange crests and rusty necks?

    Check the male goldfinches at your feeder for their first sulfur-yellow feathers.  Goldfinches are the only songbirds in eastern North America that have a pre-breeding molt in spring.  Goldfinches are the last songbirds to nest each year.  They wait until thistles bloom and seed after the summer solstice.  In spring goldfinches have both time and energy to spare on growing fresh feathers.  Other birds must devote all their resources to reproduction. The change in starlings, from winter dull to spring glossy, is the result of feather wear, not feather replacement.

   Hawk watchers will soon gather along the Allegheny Front.  Northbound Golden Eagles start their journey in February.  The first Red-shouldered Hawks arrive in western Pennsylvania before March.  Listen for their squeals as they establish territories.  Many Red-tails have paired up.  Enjoy the Rough-legged Hawks.  They will soon head north.

    Common Ravens are building nests, and Bald Eagles will soon be on eggs.  Peregrine Falcons are gearing up for the breeding season.  Follow Kate St. John’s great blog for the latest on the Pittsburgh Peregrines.

    Look for courting Horned Larks in the reclaimed strip mines around Imperial, as well as in Clarion and Indiana Counties.  Great Blues are already claiming nests in heronries.

    Male Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds will be on the move in the next week or two.  I usually spot a few in the last week of February.  Around March 1, the first grackles in my neighborhood have settled in.  Along I-79 between Pittsburgh and Slippery Rock, there’s suddenly a male red-wing perched on every bush and fence post. 

      Ice out -- ducks in.  According to NOAA’s Ice Mapping System, the ice cover on Lake Erie has diminished considerably in the last two weeks. Around Pittsburgh, the rivers are mostly ice-free.  Watch the large impoundments for holes in the ice.  Ducks like Canvasbacks, scaup, Ring-necks and Redheads

have an uncanny way of finding

the first open pools.  Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park is a great place to monitor early waterfowl migration. Migration is well underway in Erie Bay and around Presque Isle State Park in Erie County, PA.

    It’s almost time for Tundra Swans to move north.  Will the earliest flocks pass Pittsburgh before March?

    A few Turkey Vultures arrive in southwestern Pennsylvania in late February.

    You cannot hurry spring but you can force spring flowers.  If you’d like a glimpse, or sniff, of what’s to come, you can force cut twigs of many shrubs and trees to flower.  Forsythia is a favorite subject.  Click here for instructions on forcing Forsythia.

    Here’s a list of other twigs you can force to flower: Redbud, Flowering Quince, Flowering Dogwood, Hawthorn, Honeysuckle, Apple, Crabapple, Cherry, Plum, Pussy Willow and Viburnums.

   Another tree that you might try is Spicebush.

    Look for the next Nature Observer Phenology around March 1. 

Will coltsfoot bloom by then?