In Presque Isle ‘general’ news, happy to report the completion of the new information kiosk at the Gull Point Trail trailhead at Budny Beach (Beach 10) parking. Here’s the ‘best available’ picture of said kiosk from the BirdingPI.com field team:
Too much black coffee? Too much Diet Coke? Distracted by passing birds? Whatever the case, by way of written explanation, the kiosk helpfully includes a standard trail map + information about great Gull Point bird species like Common Tern and Piping Plover.
More importantly/significantly, in Presque Isle nature news, there was a significant fish die-off in outer Lake Erie this week. Warning: content after the pretty Yellow-rumped Warbler includes pictures of dead fish.
As of Friday, there were thousands of dead perch, freshwater drum (a.k.a. sheepshead fish), etc. washed up on Budny Beach and elsewhere at Presque Isle:
Preliminarily, this was attributed to hypoxic upwelling, where weather conditions (e.g., recent very windy weather) force de-oxygenated water up to the lake surface and fish closer to shore, where they suffer from hypoxia, leading to death by lack of oxygen.
Unfortunately, the Presque Isle Triathlon is this morning (Saturday), including a swim portion just up the beach in the shot above. Crews were spotted doing beach cleanup, as above/below.
Per local news speculation, this was not expected to significantly impact the overall Lake Erie fish population. However, some sources indicated the frequency of such occurrences has increased in recent years due to warmer seasonal temperatures.
Yummy. Fish fries will be plentiful at the pub tomorrow!!!
By Sunday PM, the fish were starting to rot = a noticeable fish smell permeating the air @ Budny Beach. Kudos to the beachgoers who were sticking it out regardless!