A Gallery of Thanks, Panther Hollow Edition

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Super Bowl

This post is dedicated to Nettie G, whom I owe a birdwalk and a hot fudge sundae.

Last weekend, as I wallowed in the grip of yet another f*cking illness, I received a DM from dear subscriber and fellow Pittsbirder Nettie G about a bird that had recently showed up in Panther Hollow, the wooded 1.5-mile valley running through Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park. It wasn’t so much the bird appearing in Panther Hollow that got my attention, but where it appeared to have taken up residence—not a tree or a rocky cliff, but the historic 360-foot structure spanning the valley, Panther Hollow Bridge.

The following Wednesday, I dropped my wife Alex off to teach at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning (another fun nesting site), and, crummy as I was feeling, drove the extra five minutes to the park. Thank goodness I had come prepared with my camera because the spectacle of color I found perched amid all that cold steel was nothing short of dazzling…