Birding Pittsburgh, PA.

     I made a rip out to Wheeling, WV last week for the chance to develop professionally for work. It was a whirlwind of a week, but I rewarded myself with a little extension to visit and meet with folks at some facilities in Pittsburgh and I found a place to go birding.
     Staying in the downtown area, I was able to locate a park that by uber was about a $10-15 ride. The park, Schenley Park, like most of the area, has trails cut into the hillside that run next to small creeks, trickling with water. And spanning the park, were lots of bridges. Pittsburgh has a very interesting topography and everything is hills, bridges, and rivers. Just on the edge of the park are the Carnegie (which I learned pronounce it very differently from the natives) Museum of Natural History and the Phipps Conservatory (which I visited for a warm up and for a little bit of vibrancy).
     My target species was the Pileated woodpecker as I saw them reported here on ebird and bonus would be a Carolina Chickadee (which I did see and hear -- the hearing confirmed it). Thankfully, the unseasonably warm weather helped me out and I had a nice few hours in the park.

This place must be a dream during migration, with paths up high, you can be eye level with the budding tree tops and see all the warblers without getting a case of "warbler neck."
This park was really big, I was told safe, although I still often felt alone until an occasional runner came by. The hills surrounded you, and while there were quite a number of people in the park, you didn't really see them until you rounded a bend.

Birding was tough here. Some spots were barren and others productive. There were railroad tracks through part of the park and thats where I saw the most, in the shrubs and thicket right at the edge of the fairly mature forest.
But, since it's winter, nothing has leaves and looking for brown birds in brown, twiggy thickets on an over cast grey day-- you have to follow sounds and ID a lot by ear, which I did.
Song sparrows were singing stop perches, making it feel like spring is on the horizon.

A nice large (I presume) female red tail hawk. She was perched in the trees next to a soccer field and then flew over to the next hill.

Th epark was busy with nuthatches and woodpeckers, heard them more than saw. Caught one look at a white-breasted nuthatch, otherwise I mostly listened to them.

My bigfoot-esque capture of the pileated. At first I was only hearing it, they have a very distinct call, almost little loud and obnoxious. And when I saw a low flying large bird with that flash of red, I was pretty happy to know I got one.

Camouflage!

I took a break from the grey, monotone scenery - overcast days are beat - visited the conservancy and then took another hour to just see if anything else was around. The bird activity at that point was low or mostly song sparrows.
And then the wildlife started watching me.

Two of the three pairs of white-tailed deer eyes on me. It was also super creepy as they all came up to the edge and walked toward me. To myself I though, oh, I wonder if someone feeds them and they think I have food OR these deer are going to eviscerate me with their cloven hooves and no one will know and this is how it will end.

Thankfully, we both just kinda observed each other and made funny faces.

I like finding deer, to most they are nothing special, or something you shoot at. As someone who doesn't see deer often, I appreciate an urban deer (you can find deer in NYC too!) and having the chance to watch them and be watched too.

This was a nifty little park, according to ebird it is hotspot #13 with 148 species on ebird record. If you have no car and are visiting, this would be a good pick to grab a cab and check out- plus it has other attractions nearby as well, allowing for a nice day trip.
I also bet that this park is more productive during other parts of the year - the bar charts on ebird show spring and fall to be good to see warblers, sparrows, and flycatchers, etc- to be expected.
A pretty decent urban birding experience, I hope this helps anyone plan some birding on their next visit to Pittsburgh.