Spittlebugs made this, 28 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

29 June 2026

Sunday morning started foggy so there were only five of us for the Schenley Park outing. Four are pictured below with Charity Kheshgi holding the camera. By the time we started walking the fog was gone at ground level.

Schenley Park outing, 28 June 2026 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

As expected we saw several robin fledglings but Best Bird was a pair of pileated woodpeckers foraging and shouting to keep in touch with each other. They probably had nestlings nearby but we didn’t see the nest. This photo from the same area a month ago is probably one of the pair. See our checklist at the end.

Pileated woodpecker at Schenley Park 25 May 2026 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Yesterday’s big attraction were the insects.

We found white foam patches on plant stems (photo at top). Hiding inside the foam are spittlebugs, nymphal froghoppers that suck the juice out of plants and excrete it as a sticky foam to protect themselves from temperature extremes, dessication and predators.

I took a photo of an interesting orange fungus, then noticed several millipedes next to the fungus. Why 3 instead of the usual one? It’s Millipede Mating Season, a subject so fascinating that I’m saving it for tomorrow.

Millipedes on a tree stump among fungi, 28 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

We found a dead butterfly, “one of those punctuation butterflies,” so I took a lot of photos — it wasn’t going anywhere. It’s a Question Mark butterfly named for the white marks on its cryptic ventral side. The question mark is inside the pink circle that I’ve drawn on the cryptic photo. (Ignore the white five-armed vegetation on top of the dead butterfly.)

Max found a bee tree off the trail. Charity took a video.

All told we saw 23 species of birds and many more plants and insect. Our eBird checklist is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S364814673 and copied below.

Schenley Park–Lower Hollow Run Trail, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
Jun 28, 2026 11:10AM – 1:10PM, 23 species, 5 participants

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 6 Mother duck with 5 young
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 6
Cooper’s Hawk (Astur cooperii) 1 Heard it, then blue jays went nuts
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 1
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) 2
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 3
Acadian Flycatcher (Empidonax virescens) 1 Heard
Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) 2
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 3 Agitated by a hawk
Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) 6
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 1
Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) 1
Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 4
Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) 3 Heard
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 10
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 2
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 4
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 11
Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) 1 Heard song
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 3

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S364814673