Rivers Run Through This

About 40 new birdhouses line the Allegheny River trail between the Roberto Clemente and Fort Duquesne bridges downtown as part of a new public art installation, Invisible Ecologies. Concrete, glass, plastic and other often discarded human-made materials comprise the habitats to demonstrate the intersection of the natural and urban environments.

Signs display QR codes near the structures to direct passerby to the bird songs of the native Western Pennsylvania species. Black-capped chickadees, wrens, bluebirds, martins and tree swallows are all anticipated to settle in the birdhouses.

In the 13 years since Allegheny Land Trust acquired Sycamore Island near Blawnox, the property has transformed from neglected to nurtured.

Plopped in the middle of the Allegheny River between Blawnox and Verona, the land is healthier, life-sustaining and more visitor-friendly than ever, said Lindsay Dill, ALT’s marketing and communications director.

Photographers on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail and watchers of a live webcam report that the three young Pittsburgh Hays bald eagles successfully took some of their first flights this weekend.

The first young eagle fledged on June 6 and returned to the nest the following day. The other two eagles left the nest over the weekend, according to PixCams, a Murrysville company that sponsors the webcam with the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
 

The Great Allegheny Passage Trail is one of the most popular multipurpose trails in the Pittsburgh area. It starts downtown Pittsburgh, continues along the Monongahela River to McKeesport, and through the Laurel Highlands to Cumberland, Maryland.

The trail is praised by local leaders, but there are some communities that are unreachable. Currently, Allegheny County officials are considering creating a new trail in the Turtle Creek Valley, hoping to spur it from the GAP trail and extend it east to Trafford.