Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Powdermill Nature Reserve is Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center. Located 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Rector, Pennsylvania, Powdermill is a field station and laboratory where researchers do long-term studies of natural populations in western Pennsylvania. In addition to being positioned for Appalachian-specific studies in ornithology, ecology, invertebrate zoology, and botany, Powdermill is a great place to spend a fun-filled day outdoors with the family.
Join us at Powdermill Nature Reserve to hear the tale of the Jolly Opossum! This story will delve into what the creatures of the forest are up to during the holidays. Meet Dr. Skunk, Mx. Chickadee, Mr. Bear, and, of course, the Jolly Opossum. We will also make festive holiday ornaments/decorations. Children of all ages are welcome.
Nestled between the Chestnut and Laurel Ridges near the town of Rector, Pennsylvania lies Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental field research station, where ornithologists have been operating a long-term bird banding station since June 1961. In 62 years of banding birds year-round, we’ve gathered more than 830,000 banding records of nearly 200 species. Some, like the Cedar Waxwing, have tens of thousands of records in our dataset, whereas single individuals are the only representatives of other species, like Kirtland’s Warbler.
At Powdermill, we band birds all year, varying our effort seasonally, which gives us a picture of what species we expect to see at any given time of year and the relative abundance of those species. Each season brings something new. By March we are eagerly awaiting the earliest spring migrants and as spring progresses, we revel in the flood of colorful songbirds in their breeding plumage. Summer brings breeding birds and our anticipation of which individuals will return year after year. As summer fades into fall, we enjoy the subtle beauty of birds in their non-breeding plumage as they migrate south to their wintering grounds. By mid-November, almost all migrating songbirds have passed through and we are in our winter banding season, dominated by cold-hardy birds that are often recaptured between years.
In 2023, we banded 9,095 new birds and recaptured 5,074 individuals of 123 species (plus one hybrid). The most abundant species was Swainson’s Thrush with 631 new birds banded this year, followed by Ruby-crowned Kinglet (596), Gray Catbird (484), and Cedar Waxwing (447). The year saw slightly lower numbers than average overall, but several species had notably high captures and some even set spring or fall season records. In spring, 11 Black-billed Cuckoos edged out last year’s ten to claim that season’s record, and in the fall nine Louisiana Waterthrushes (a species that is a very early migrant and generally scarce during our fall months), 158 Ovenbirds, and two Bicknell’s Thrushes set fall high records.
We can use these numbers to compare 2023 to previous years and to totals from other banding stations, but the stories about the year’s highlights are most compelling. Each year when we analyze our data, we eagerly look for species that set new record high totals, individuals that represent early or late banding dates, or recaptures that are particularly old birds, and await reports that our banded birds have been recaptured at another station.
This year, as in recent years, many of the species that had above average totals are species that have been increasing in southwestern Pennsylvania, which is a trend that is reflected in Christmas Bird Count data. The core of these species’ ranges has historically been a bit farther south, but they seem to have recently been expanding northward. For example, Carolina Wrens and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are year-round residents in southwestern Pennsylvania and are encountered far more often now than they were a few decades ago. Similarly, Yellow-throated Warbler is a species that tends not to breed much farther north than non-Appalachian Pennsylvania, but is a species that we’ve seen in spring attempting to establish territories and even breeding.
This year’s exciting captures began with a Swainson’s Warbler that was caught on May 11, only the eighth individual of that species in Powdermill’s banding dataset. Swainson’s Warblers breed significantly south of Pennsylvania in the very southern part of West Virginia, but since 2020, birders have spotted several nearby in the spring and summer and the first breeding record in the state was confirmed in summer 2023. This unexpected capture, affectionately nicknamed “Sword-billed Warbler” by the banding crew, was certainly a favorite.
This fall, something happened that is rare for a 62-year-old banding station: we added a new species to our dataset. Bicknell’s Thrush was considered a subspecies of the more common Gray-cheeked Thrush until 1995 when there was enough evidence (based on morphology, vocalizations, habitat, and migration patterns) to elevate Bicknell’s to full species status. Over the years, a few possible Bicknell’s Thrushes were banded at Powdermill, but it wasn’t until this year that two were definitively identified here, one on September 14 and one on October 8.
One of the questions we are frequently asked is how long birds live. While it’s difficult to know how long each species lives on average, recapturing birds between seasons tells us something about how long they can live. In general, smaller birds are shorter-lived and larger birds are longer-lived. Catching a bird with a band and looking back through the data to see how long ago it was initially banded and how many times it’s been captured over the years is a highlight for the banding crew. Several notable standouts in 2023 include:
There were many more old birds captured in 2023, each one delighting the crew with its history.
PARC is back to the winter banding schedule and we’re looking forward to what 2024 will bring us!
To learn more about bird banding, please see the post “What is bird banding?”
Annie Lindsay is the Banding Program Manager at Powdermill Nature Reserve.
2023 Rector Christmas Bird Count Results
For a few hours before dawn on the chilly morning of December 16, several intrepid birders scoured the Rector Christmas Bird Count circle for owls, and with a bit of luck, counted four species. Eastern Screech-Owl is a common, year-round resident and a respectable 14 individuals were heard calling that morning, in addition to one encounter each of Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, and Northern Saw-whet Owl.
Once the sun rose that morning, the owlers were joined by many other birders to spend the day systematically searching for and tallying all the birds they could see and hear throughout the day. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is an annual citizen science tradition that began in 1900 with the goal of counting all the birds that participants encounter within an established 15-mile diameter circle on a selected day between December 14 and January 5. The Rector count, centered just northwest of Powdermill Nature Reserve, covers a variety of habitats and elevations spanning from the Chestnut Ridge to the Laurel Ridge, and has been going strong since 1974. Because of the diversity of habitats and the dedication of participants, Rector CBCers have totaled 132 species within the circle, including a new species added this year.
The Rector count circle is divided into sectors, and this year’s 43 participants fanned out to cover as much territory as they could within their assigned sectors, some opting to hike trails in the state parks and forest, some traveling the roads by car, stopping periodically to listen and watch, and eight birders counted the species they saw visiting their feeders and yards. At the end of the day, everyone gathered at Powdermill for the tally dinner, an evening to chat about the day’s events, share a delicious meal, and to add up the birds each group counted. This year’s total was above average with 6,131 individuals of 76 species tallied, surpassed in recent years only by 2021, a year with unseasonably warm temperatures extending quite late into the fall that garnered several species not normally expected to persist into December. Many species set new high-count records this year, including Canada Goose, Black Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Woodcock, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, and Red-winged Blackbird. Although some of these high counts likely can be attributed to increased effort and number of participants, almost all of these species seem to be expanding their ranges northward, or are occurring in southwestern Pennsylvania in greater numbers, often year-round, a trend ornithologists have been noticing in recent years.
Excitement is always high at the tally, and this year was no exception. Highlights of the count were plentiful as participants shared photos and stories about their birds-of-the-day. One group found two Ruby-crowned Kinglets (nearly matching the count’s high total of three set in 2021) and a massive flock of 915 Canada Geese, which was the bulk of the day’s record-setting total. Another group found an Eastern Phoebe, a species recorded only twice before on the Rector CBC, perched in a tree pumping its tail up and down. Three participants photographed a Rough-legged Hawk, a species uncommon enough that they knew they would have to “prove” their identification, soaring over farm fields while driving to get lunch. And another group reported a flock of 150 Red-winged and 20 Rusty Blackbirds, setting a record for Red-wingeds and the highest count of Rusties since the mid-1990s. They also spotted an American Woodcock, a new species for the count, doing its bobbing walk in a wet spot along a road.
One more notable finding of the day was three leucistic Red-tailed Hawks. At least one had been spotted at the edges of fields near Powdermill for much of 2023, but on the day of the count, two different birds, with varying amounts of white, were spotted and photographed in those fields, and a third was spotted many miles to the northwest in a different sector. The word “leucistic” refers to lack of pigment, and these leucistic birds have one or, in the case of these particular hawks, many white feathers. Finding one leucistic bird is uncommon, but three relatively large birds showing this same coloration is quite rare.
As we wrap up the 124th Christmas Bird Count season and submit the Rector count’s data to the National Audubon Society, we thank all participants for their commitment to the birds and look forward to next year’s count!
For more information about the Christmas Bird Count and to see how the data are used, please visit: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count
Final 2023 Tally:
*Canada Goose – 1009
Mute Swan – 4
Tundra Swan – 1
Wood Duck – 1
American Black Duck – 13
Mallard – 74
Bufflehead – 2
Hooded Merganser – 11
Common Merganser – 3
Ruddy Duck – 6
Ring-necked Pheasant – 7
Wild Turkey – 14
Pied Billed Grebe – 6
*Black Vulture – 55
Turkey Vulture – 80
Northern Harrier – 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1
Cooper’s Hawk – 2
Black Eagle – 2
Red-shouldered Hawk – 9
*Red-tailed Hawk – 66
Rough-legged Hawk – 1
Killdeer – 3
*American Woodcock – 1
Rock Pigeon – 37
Mourning Dove – 90
Eastern Screech-Owl – 14
Great Horned Owl – 1
Barred Owl – 1
Northern Saw-whet Owl – 1
Belted Kingfisher – 8
Red-headed Woodpecker – 6
*Red-bellied Woodpecker – 102
*Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 16
Downy Woodpecker – 66
*Hairy Woodpecker – 28
Northern Flicker – 17
*Pileated Woodpecker – 38
American Kestrel – 2
Eastern Phoebe – 1
Blue Jay – 287
American Crow – 764
Common Raven – 25
Carolina Chickadee – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 311
Tufted Titmouse – 212
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 7
White-breasted Nuthatch – 144
Brown Creeper – 8
Winter Wren – 3
*Carolina Wren – 86
Golden-crowned Kinglet – 60
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 2
*Eastern Bluebird – 191
Hermit Thrush – 5
American Robin – 85
*Northern Mockingbird – 19
European Starling – 794
Cedar Waxwing – 45
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 7
American Tree Sparrow – 7
Field Sparrow – 5
Fox Sparrow – 1
Dark-eyed Junco – 411
White-throated Sparrow – 105
Song Sparrow – 117
Swamp Sparrow – 12
Eastern Towhee – 3
Northern Cardinal – 168
*Red-winged Blackbird – 151
Rusty Blackbird – 20
House Finch – 110
Purple Finch – 1
American Goldfinch – 90
House Sparrow – 61
Total Species: 76
Total Individuals: 6,131
*asterisk indicates high total for count
Annie Lindsay is Banding Program Manager at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center.
A Year in Review: Bird Banding 2023
Bird Banding with a Crew of One
Since 2013, field technicians at Powdermill Avian Research Center have gathered data about breeding birds on the 2200-acre Powdermill Nature Reserve through point counts. This wildlife survey term denotes tallies of every bird detected by sight and sound by a single observer located at fixed, predetermined positions for specified time periods, along with rough estimates of each bird’s distance from the surveyor. On many days this summer I was the surveyor, and the experience was enriching.
Powdermill is divided into ten sectors containing eight to eleven points, and during June and early July, I visited a different sector each day to conduct ten-minute point counts. I surveyed each sector twice, for a total of 190 different counts. Point counts can tell us about densities of birds in the immediate area, trends in the regional populations, species proclivity for a certain habitat, and more. Because Powdermill’s point count locations overlay plots from a vegetation survey that was completed at Powdermill in the mid-2000s, the paired data give us valuable information about the forest ecology on the reserve.
On the first day of point counts, the Porcupine Ridge trail acted as the main access corridor for many of the points in the sector. While walking along the trail to the last point of the day, I heard an unfamiliar noise. It sounded like several incessant hollow bark-like calls, and in the far distance I could hear Pileated Woodpeckers. Knowing that these woodpeckers primarily nest in dead trees, I began to search for nestlings. At the very top of an old, dead chestnut oak tree with almost no bark, I saw three heads poke out of a cavity, calling to the parents who were now close by and began acting defensively. While I had heard Pileated Woodpeckers in almost every sector this summer, this was the only nest that I observed, and it was the first of many incredible sightings.
Shortly after completing surveys at every point in all ten sectors, I restarted from the beginning. The particular sector I surveyed on June 11 has about a one-mile-long hike uphill to get to the first point. Three quarters of a mile in, I saw some movement to my right and redirected my attention. A yearling black bear was running up and down a fallen tree, stopping only briefly to scratch himself. I could tell the bear was a yearling by the shape of the head, along with the long and slender legs making the bear look tall. The bear ran across the fallen tree two or three times before he noticed my presence. He very slowly turned himself to look in my direction, paused for a few seconds at most, and took off into the forest.
Pennsylvania is also home to the Timber Rattlesnake, which brings me to my next animal encounter. I was walking through a mountainous, hilly second growth forest. The understory was filled with green briar and stinging nettles, so I had my eyes on the ground to minimize the chances of being stuck or stung by these plants. The walk from one point to the next was about 250 meters, or 0.16 miles. There are often obstacles like fallen trees, some of which are easy to step over, but others I had to go around. As I approached a fallen tree, I heard an unfamiliar noise. Though unfamiliar, the rattling sound was unmistakable. A few meters down the fallen tree was a large, perfectly coiled dark phase Timber Rattlesnake. I estimated this snake was four to five feet long, and it was clear that there was a meal moving through the snake’s digestive tract. The snake had eight rattles, specialized hollow scales which are added, one layer at a time, each time the reptile sheds its skin. I was lucky to be able to observe the snake from a safe distance for a few minutes before I headed to the next point.
The last day of point counts was also one to remember. About halfway through the final point of the sector, something about 250 meters away made a noise that I can only describe as a woman screaming. Immediately, all birds stopped singing and flew up into the canopy. I knew this animal call. It was a bobcat! This scream is referred to as “caterwauling,” and the sound is produced primarily during the mating season. After hiking back down to the avian research center, I was lucky enough to spot a different bobcat! A relatively small bobcat was hiding next to a structure near the bird banding lab, stalking the eastern cottontails that were foraging in the grasses. After a few minutes of inching closer and closer to the rabbits, the bobcat pounced. The rabbits frantically ran in all different directions, and the bobcat was left empty-handed.
After completing the 190 point counts, I rejoined the banding crew to finish the breeding season and to prepare for fall migration. I will always remember encountering and observing incredible wildlife, seeing my lifer Cerulean Warbler, and all that the Powdermill staff has taught me this summer. I can’t wait to learn more this fall!
Grace Muench is a Field Tech at Powdermill Avian Research Center.
A Summer Internship at Powdermill
Spotted lanternflies are a “true bug,” cousins of the cicada and stink bug. Unlike our native bug species, these invasive bugs feed on a very wide variety of plants and don’t have enough native predators or parasites to keep their population in check. Their favorite food is tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), which is already widespread in our area. This means their population is exploding, and Pittsburghers are looking for ways to get rid of them.
Spotted lanternflies display a unique behavior of climbing up tree trunks (or any other vertical surface), falling to the ground, and climbing up again. This is repeated many times throughout each stage of their life cycle. By using this behavior to our advantage, we can trap spotted lanternflies. The best currently used traps include circle traps and oviposition traps, which corral the lanternflies so they can be contained and destroyed. You can make circle traps as a DIY project, or you can order them premade.
Although sticky traps (tape, sticky sheets, and glue traps) have been suggested in the past for spotted lanternfly control and are currently used by some landowners, these are extremely dangerous for birds. Sticky traps can kill many species of local birds that forage on tree trunks, including woodpeckers, nuthatches, and wrens. After the birds are stuck to the trap it becomes impossible for them to free themselves and they will die a slow and miserable death.
If you find a live bird or mammal stuck to a lanternfly sticky trap, do not try to remove the bird yourself. Cover any remaining sticky areas on the trap with plastic wrap to reduce double sticking the bird (or yourself), remove the entire trap from the tree, and take it to the nearest wildlife rehabilitation center. If you must use a sticky trap, ensure it is covered with a wire mesh (hardware cloth or similar) to prevent anything larger than a lanternfly from touching it. Check sticky traps at least once a day to ensure no birds or mammals have been caught.
Jonathan Rice is Urban Bird Conservation Coordinator at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center.
Tracking Migratory Flight in the Northeast
A Summer Internship at Powdermill
Can’t Choose Just One: Asking an Entomologist to Name Their Favorite Native Species
Before my science-focused internship at Powdermill Nature Reserve, I was a virtual stranger to the forests of Appalachia. Although I’ve lived in western Pennsylvania my entire life, and frequently enjoyed exploring the woods in my hometown, often, I was simply not tuned in to the diversity and intricacies of the world all around me. My short tenure at Powdermill abruptly changed that perspective. During my internship I had the pleasure of participating in a wide variety of projects and studies, each one an eye-opening learning experience.
The internship began with a crash course in tree identification from my mentor and fieldwork partner, Andrea Kautz. Vegetation surveys were the bulk of the work performed this summer in terms of both the physical labor required and the amount of information we collected. Trees, saplings, shrubs, logs; notations about the location, size, and abundance of each instance contributed to a years-long study of the forest.
One of the major changes that we have been able to track over the years is the cataclysmic effects of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive beetle from northeast Asia that lays its eggs in the bark of ash trees. The eggs develop into larvae that eat the cambium of the ash, destroying the tree from the inside out. Where once swathes of Powdermill land were defined by their large white ash trees, you would be hard-pressed to find a single one in today’s forest. The dead ash trees leave a hole in the canopy in their wake and, to the endless consternation of those attempting to survey the area, invasive thorny species move in.
The greatest love of my life is animals, and I got to get very up-close and personal with them when Dr. Walter Meshaka visited to perform herpetology studies. One of the studies he conducted was on snake fungal disease in eastern milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum). Data collection in the field involved capturing individual milk snakes from beneath strategically placed metal coverboards where the reptiles had taken shelter, swabbing their skin to obtain the DNA of the skin microbiota, and then releasing them. Walter allowed me to contribute not only to the swabbing process, but to the risky business of capturing the snakes. I quickly discovered that milk snakes have a spectrum of personalities, from the patient, perfect subjects to the ornery and bitey.
While Walter was here, I was also offered the opportunity to aid him in studying another class of herps: salamanders. Strategically placed coverboards were again critical tools in the study, this time wooden, rather than metal, and placed near wetlands and streams instead of near open fields and meadows. The purpose of this study was to describe the species diversity and density of native salamander species. From our data in June and July, it appears the most abundant salamander near Powdermill’s streams is the charismatic Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus).
When working with Andrea, an entomologist, you can be sure that insects will be a large part of your life. We began the summer working with a personal favorite: honey bees! Powdermill maintains two hives on its property. The structures are kept healthy with supplemental food, an electrified exclosure fence (to keep out any sweet-toothed bears), and formic acid treatments to control Varroa mites. At the end of summer there was a sticky compensation for such support: We were able to collect more than eighty pounds of honey, though not without a valiant fight from the winged residents of the more territorial hive.
Andrea also participated in a robust, nationwide study on flying insects earlier this spring. A Malaise trap (what is essentially a vertical corral for flying insects) was set up in Crisp Field, a large meadow on Powdermill property, and throughout the summer my responsibilities included sorting everything collected in this trap. This exercise was a three-month affair. I conducted an up-close and personal survey of the sheer amount of diversity found in each order of insects, an experience mirrored by the periodic aquatic macroinvertebrate surveys we performed together along streams and ponds across the property.
From insects to reptiles to trees, each project I embarked on got me closer to truly understanding the world around us. In many ways, this meant seeing the consequences of climate change and human influence. Situations reveal themselves to be more dire than one could ever hope to understand by just reading about it. But there is hope, because understanding the world around us also means you can see just how much life worth protecting there is, if you just know how to look.
Rosie Spinola is an intern at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center.
An Intern’s Experience Studying the Ecosystem at Powdermill
Encounter with an Orb Weaver Spider: Is It Predator or Prey?
Tracking Migratory Flight in the Northeast
2023 Point Counts at Powdermill Avian Research Center
