Well, don’t say you weren’t warned.
Wondering if the Lone Star Tick has made its way to Presque Isle? Wonder no longer! Collected recently from near the Pine Tree Trail.
Reiterating the previous PSA to be on the lookout.
Nikon Z5 with MC/50 2.8 lens. Shown larger than actual size.
[Editor’s note: “Collected” means the ticks find you.]
Dateline: 21-22 May 2022
Besides being the Gull Point trailhead, the Budny Beach (Beach No. 10) east parking lot is pretty good for birding – partial grass field, surrounded by trees and brush, swamp on one side and the beach on the other. Go early and/or avoid the summer rush days. (“Summer” at Presque Isle = any day over 80 deg F and sunny.)
Some recent shots, starting with lovely male and female American Goldfinch. Happy to finally get a couple ok pictures this season of this lovely bird.
Surprised to see Eastern Bluebird, on both Saturday and Sunday at this location:
Rather confused by this bird at first, which has been sighted several times now in the area. (This bird or others like it.) Based on the yellow-orange chest markings and yellow-orange side tail color, with a black/gray head, thinking this is an immature American Redstart:
No question on this one – not a great shot (due to the shade), but always happy to see the lovely Black-throated Blue Warbler:
Another non-mystery, a male Magnolia Warbler:
And back where it started, not enough lemon-yellow birds in the world:
Dateline: 29 May 2022
Humid, moderate-to-warm temps, and mostly sunny on Sunday. Beautiful day. Lots of folks out at Presque Isle State Park for bicycling, fishing, and driving around. A few folks on the beach and out to Gull Point, but very quiet on the trails overall.
Before Gull Point, some shots from a couple weeks ago of Caspian Tern, on the back bay. Fun pictures, but germane to today’s ‘mystery bird.’
Note the black legs in the picture above.
Again, note the black legs.
Now out to Gull Point. First, not a mystery, but a lovely Northern Mockingbird:
From the observation platform, a Semipalmated Plover off in the distance. Again, not a mystery.
Looking east, there’s some gulls, and what’s clearly a tern. Hmmm. That tern seems to have orange legs.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Though the miracle of color enhancement and extreme cropping, this bird clearly has orange legs:
This is significant because all Caspian Terns (see examples above) have black legs. Obviously, therefore, not a Caspian Tern, but a mystery tern!
What else is interesting about this bird? As shown in all these shots, note the black extends down the nape of its neck. Another ‘not Caspian Tern’ feature.
Time to consult Sibley Birds East. Wrong coloration for Black Tern. Wrong leg coloration for Caspian and Royal Tern. The two terns that overlap both in orange leg coloration and migration range are Common Tern and Forster’s Tern. Both (adult breeding) have black-tipped orange beaks, orange legs, and a black cap that extends down the nape.
However, per Sibley, Common Tern “tail usually shorter than wingtips,” whereas Forster’s Tern “tail often projects beyond wingtips.”
Ah ha! See this annotated version of the picture above:
So, a tern with an orange/yellow beak with black tip, orange legs, black down the nape of the neck, and an at-rest tail that projects beyond the wingtips! All this considered, calling it as a Forster’s Tern! Wow.
Another successful Gull Point mission!
Dateline: 28 May 2022
After that awful-but-necessary ‘tick warning’ post, time to get back to something more enjoyable. Saturday, 28 May 2022 – cloudy and rainy in the morning, cool and mostly sunny in the afternoon. Lovely day for a stroll along the Pine Tree Trail at Presque Isle State Park. (Pine Tree Trail was freshly mowed and in pristine condition.)
Transient bird population has plummeted precipitously. Along with the population of folks out birding. Fine on both fronts, but still plenty of birds and other nature to enjoy.
Spotted a few mammals, including this one here, which might be a feral cat:
A lovely Brown Thrasher:
Chipmunks are hard to get on film due to mostly sticking to the underbrush, so lucky to see a couple on this outing.
The big news, and a cause for celebration at BirdingPI.com (first time sighting ever) was a lovely female Canada Warbler! Wow.
These pictures are awful, but good enough for ID purposes. Note the gray head, yellow throat and underside, distinctive eye ring, and slight/abbreviated necklace.
Closing out this post with an ‘artsy’ shot of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female) with honeysuckle, off the Pine Tree Trail. More photographs of this lovely hummingbird to follow!
[Editor’s note: ‘feral cat’ – ha ha.]
Dateline: 28 May 2022
Reminding folks visiting Presque Isle State Park to be on the lookout for ticks. That is, ticks on you after walking through grass or brush. Anecdotally, Presque Isle doesn’t have as high a tick density as many other areas in the Northeast (hello, Connecticut). However, still relatively common especially in the grassy areas that border the beach, e.g., around and to the east of Presque Isle Lighthouse.
The Dog Tick above was collected recently in the field across the road from the west end of the Pine Tree Trail.
Nikon Z5 with MC/50 2.8 lens. Shown larger than actual size.
Dateline: 15 May 2022, etc.
The BirdingPI.com team’s been lucky enough to see male Common Yellowthroat out in the open a couple times recently.
First was the other Sunday, along the Gull Point outer old trail.
Frequently hard to see in the underbrush, it was a good chance to dash off some quick snapshots.
Later, on another day, spotted this lovely male at the edge of the swamp (technically Niagara Pond) off the Dead Pond Trail Extension:
Birds love bugs, and BirdingPI.com loves bugs, too. At least aesthetically-pleasing bugs. Next up, from birds to bugs!
[Editor’s note: The Dead Pond Trail Extension is the red portion encircled in the map excerpt here:
Dateline: 21 May 2022
A rainy Friday morning aside, great conditions now for hiking out to Gull Point. You’ve got the beach, the ‘inland’ old trail, the back bay, the mud flats/point/dunes, etc. Hoping the holiday weekend weather cooperates to dispatch another BirdingPI.com expedition or two.
In the meantime, some ‘there and back again’ pics from last weekend.
First up, a lovely Warbling Vireo. Always happy to see any vireo, this one being no exception.
On the lookout for House Wrens? If so, there’s a pair nested in this dead tree off the back bay beach where the outer old trail makes a relatively sharp turn from generally N/S to more SW/NE. Note the male and female (presumably) at the two corners of each shot.
Spotted Sandpiper coming in for a landing on the mud flat:
Lots of Barn Swallow and Tree Swallow activity out by the observation deck. Here, the former:
Back of a Yellow Warbler with wild grape vines:
Last up, more mysterious birds with yellow-orange/yellow chest patches and yellow/yellow-orange side tail feathers. Not to bury the lede, these are probably American Redstart. First a juvenile, and then three shots of what appear to be a female:
Next time, getting back to warblers! Lots of warblers.
Dateline: Spring 2022
Of note is a recently-sighted Northern Flicker with an overly elongate, crossed, malformed beak. #Nature #Science.
This was along the old outer Gull Point trail at Presque Isle State Park, almost to the point/mud flat itself, at the end of the tree line.
Still hoping to secure a genetic sample for testing, but safely capturing a Northern Flicker has a low probability of success.
Despite this unusual feature, the Flicker in question had a friend, and seemed fully mature and healthy.
Apparently engaging in normal mating behavior.
Please e-mail any information of additional sightings of this bird to BirdingPI.com via “Contact Us” at https://birdingpi.com/privacy-policy/.
Dateline: 21 May 2022
Too much great content from this past weekend to reasonably contain in one, or even two, posts. Keeping things going here with Red-winged Blackbird from Saturday, at Gull Point.
Saw Osprey, gulls, swallows, Killdeer, sparrows, Spotted Sandpiper, Dunlin, Caspian Tern, and Least Sandpiper, among others. Great lineup, but no exotic shorebirds this weekend.
Spent most of the time enjoying the numerous Red-winged Blackbirds.
The true meaning of pain: Nikon D850 autofocus. Truly awful for quickly and accurately focusing on moving birds. Good thing for luck and near limitless digital exposures.
While the hit rate’s maybe 10%, only need a couple decent shots for a post to come together.
Next up, a very unusual Northern Flicker sighted near the point! Stay tuned.
Dateline: 22 May 2022
As a quick update, looks like the Spring 2022 migration season has peaked, with things at Presque Isle State Park having returned, more-or-less, to normal. The extended week of Mother’s Day (7-15 May 2022) goes down as an “A+”/excellent in terms of bird volume, bird variety, good weather, and viewing conditions (e.g., low treetop foliage levels). Plenty more photography content to come!
Meanwhile, let’s enjoy nature. From Sunday before the rain/fog landed.
A few Spotted Sandpiper seen along the beach and in the dunes across the road from the Pine Tree Trail west trailhead. Example of one individual:
Just like flying Bald Eagles, Rule 27(a) of the Bird Photography Manual (4th ed. 2017, Knopf) states “You can never have too many ‘duck takeoff’ pictures.” This appears to be a male Mallard. From the swamp/pond on the north side of the Pine Tree Trail.
Happy to see a small flock of Cedar Waxwing:
Off Budny Beach, quite an exchange between two Eastern Kingbird and one very robust dragonfly (species unknown). Despite the aerial acrobatics, couldn’t see that either bird was successful in snatching up this lower member of the food pyramid.
Lots of Green Heron this year so far. This one off the Sidewalk Trail (east end):
And finally, a lovely Red-eyed Vireo, off Misery Bay. Eye color is not easy to see in this shot, but note the strong, dark eyeline:
[Editor’s note: clearly a Mallard.]
[Editor’s note: ‘food chain,’ not ‘food pyramid.’]