Dateline: 11 October 2025
First up, folks visiting Presque Isle State Park should be forewarned: fall tick season is in full swing. Yesterday along the Pine Tree Trail, 7-8+ small, black ticks (species unknown) were found on BirdingPI.com staff clothing. Tip: avoid entanglements in grass/brush.
After overnight clouds burned off, it was a glorious October Big Day in Erie County, PA; mostly sunny and mild.
Lots and lots of great seasonal bird activity at Presque Isle, with the “everyday bird of the day” being this beautiful Blue Jay along the Pine Tree Trail:
Blue Jays are generally photographically uncooperative (high in trees, deep in brush, fly away immediately), so these were lucky shots. And even as such, there’s always the peril of shooting 600mm in close quarters:
An excellent photo essay about the jay! Loved the tail shot of the last photo! 🙂
Thanks!
Some bird/nature photographers espouse “longer is better,” i.e., you have to shoot 500mm, 600mm, or even 800mm to have enough reach (of distant bird subjects) for best results overall. The downside, however, besides heavier lenses, is a narrower field of view, and subsequently it’s harder to capture birds in flight, for getting things fully in the frame. Hence the example in this post – 600mm is great, but with anything short of lightning-fast reflexes, continuous shooting at high frame rates, and/or events happening far away, there’s a substantial risk of missing a full view of the action.