Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!
Nothing you have ever witnessed before has prepared you for such sheer stabbing shock!
The Bird is coming!
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Bird!
Sincere thanks (!) to our friends at River Patent Services, LLC in Connecticut for letting us share this original content.
[Editor’s note: no affiliation with the Estate of Alfred Hitchcock and/or Universal Pictures. Above taglines are considered ‘fair use’ under US Copyright Laws, as satire. Etc. etc.]
Continuing with the weekend update, heavy thunderstorms Saturday evening. (Had to evacuate the BirdingPI.com Dead Pond field station due to localized flooding, but everyone is fine.) Sunday, warm, humid, and partially cloudy in the early AM. Turned overcast with fog and light rain/drizzle by 10:30AM; temperature at Presque Isle State park dropped about 15 degrees F in the span of less than an hour.
While waiting to get today’s prints back from the Fotomat, time for a minor flycatcher mystery.
Originally thought the three shots below (plus one above) were Least Flycatcher. However, in further ponderance over a cool glass of sparkly Mountain Dew(R) Code Red(R) soft drink (cherry-burst flavor = yum), this bird seems awfully yellow-olive. Or at least slightly yellow-olive. More yellow-olive than a Least Flycatcher should be, at least. Could it be Yellow-bellied Flycatcher?
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher?
Both are small flycatchers with wing bars and eye rings. However, the head, neck, and eye ring of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher have a definite yellow-olive cast, vs. gray/white of the Least Flycatcher.
Another view
Plus a slightly larger, perhaps orange-edged beak on the Yellow-bellied.
And another
Let’s compare.
First up, from 22 May 2022, something that’s definitely not olive-yellow enough for a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.
Least Flycatcher?
Is it a Least Flycatcher? Note the white eye ring, gray head, and white throat.
Or Eastern Wood-pewee?
Other possibility is an Eastern Wood-pewee. However, as seen in the shot of an Eastern Wood-pewee below (from September 2021 along the Pine Tree Trail), Eastern Wood-pewee have a more obvious dusky ‘vest.’
Definitely Eastern Wood-pewee
In any event, here’s another recent shot of what’s definitely a Least Flycatcher:
Definitely Least Flycatcher
Note the white eye ring, white throat, and gray head.
Crop time! First, from the shot at the top above. Note the yellow-olive back transitioning to a same-color head. Throat appears similar, if somewhat lighter. Eye ring is distinct but tinged. (Tired of typing “yellow-olive…”) Beak appears slightly larger, with the bottom distinctly orange.
Crop ’til you drop
From the Least Flycatcher shot just above, note the white-ish throat, gray head, and white eye ring. Smaller beak.
Crop top
Based on this in-depth scientific analysis, seems like it’s time to call it as a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher!
Whew, way more work than usual around here.
[Editor’s note: Fotomat no longer exists, so someone is obviously making a ‘funny.’]
Lithobates clamitans (Green Frog), Long Pond Trail
Friday, severe thunderstorms in the morning, overcast, warm, humid later. Saturday, partially cloudy, warm, and humid in the morning, thunderstorms with rain by early evening. High around 80 deg F. Nice day Saturday for getting out to Presque Isle State Park for outdoors stuff, with an early start. Sunday: TBD.
With BirdingPI.com teams dispatched to Gull Point, Long Pond Trail, etc., plenty of exciting nature activity to share. Here, getting a start with Long Pond Trail highlights.
The frenetic Mother’s Day week warbler activity at Long Pond has subsided, but still plenty of Yellow Warbler out-and-about:
Properly framed II
The honeysuckle is blooming/starting to bloom, pretty much everywhere. Here’s a bad shot of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird:
H3
Another beautiful Green Heron:
Swamp duty redux redux
Bird of the day is this lovely male Blackpoll Warbler, first BirdingPI.com sighting this season:
Blackpoll I
Note the black cap, white cheeks, and black chest markings. (BirdingPI.com bird ID tip: Black above the eyeline with a white throat. Black-and-white Warbler, in contrast, have white above the eyeline, then a strip of black above that. Black-capped Chickadee have a black throat and a much rounder overall appearance.)
Blackpoll II
Not the best pictures, but you get the idea.
There was a second bird interacting with the male Blackpoll before they both flew off. Can’t see the throat markings in this shot, but it does have the coloring of a female:
Romeo and Juliet
Closing it out with some fun insect activity, because everyone loves insects. Especially birds.
Common Eastern Bumblebee (?)
Next up, more Gull Point! Where the highlight may actually be the Budny Beach parking lot.
[Editor’s note: Meaning activity on or around the parking lot, not the parking lot itself.]
[Photo Editor’s note: Nice shot of that Green Frog!]
Just a few nice shots of Palm Warbler, along one of the little, red-sand beaches off Misery Bay (Presque Isle State Park) by the dirt parking lot/fishing access.
From earlier in the spring, finally posting these excellent shots of male and female Downy Woodpecker engaging in (presumably) mating behavior. This was off Budny Beach (Presque Isle State Park), along the Gull Point Trail just past the end of the inner old trail.
From ‘warbler week,’ let’s enjoy the Northern Parula!
Not many (e.g., two) BirdingPI.com sightings of this lovely bird so far this year.
Gray head with yellow throat, white eye arcs, yellow chest, white rump, gray wings with white wing bars, patch of burnt orange on the chest. (Latter feature best seen in the shots immediately above and below, but this may be a juvenile or first-year male – or perhaps molting plumage – since it’s less apparent than normal.)
Shots taken off Misery Bay near the Sidewalk Trail east end trailhead.
In the running for BirdingPI.com’s “bird of the weekend” was this amazing male Wilson’s Warbler sighted off Budny Beach both Saturday and early Sunday morning. Totally unexpected, and a first for BirdingPI.com at Presque Isle State Park.
Males are easy to ID with olive wings, a general “yellow warbler” appearance, and the defining trait, as here, a distinct black cap. Flitting about the shrubbery, this was difficult to photograph = good thing there’s digital photography with unlimited shots and cheap memory cards.
For whatever reason, usually associate Wilson’s Warbler more with the west coast (of North America). Hence the surprise.
In birding, you hear plenty of “Wilson this” and “Wilson that.” (E.g., plover, snipe, warbler.) Better-educated birders would know, but sometimes just need a little motivation to dig into the history.
From Scotland, and apparently no history with slave ownership = a big step up over JJA.
“Because he devoted little time to his trade as a weaver, Wilson lived in poverty. In 1794, he decided to emigrate to America. … Opportunities were scarce for weavers in the Philadelphia area, and Wilson turned to teaching.” (!) Not saying much for the teaching profession in late 1700’s America, apparently.
“Wilson died on August 23, 1813, ‘of dysentery, overwork, and chronic poverty’….” Sounds about right for an ornithologist, or a teacher for that matter. Yikes.
Whatever the case, let’s be glad we’re in the 21st century with access to quality sanitation (hopefully) and giant cameras from Japan, or wherever it is that Nikon, Sony, or Canon (etc.) manufacture their stuff.
Not the right “Wilson”
[Editor’s note: “World Wide Web?” Seem to be stuck in the ’90s here.]
[Editor’s note: “JJA” is not “J.J. Abrams.” Absolutely no disrespect intended to J.J. Abrams, who is 100% completely unaffiliated with anything relating to this website.]
[Editor’s note: quotes above attributed to the linked Wikipedia entry. Please consider supporting Wikipedia at https://donate.wikimedia.org/. No affiliation.]
After a busy migration week of scouring the Presque Isle forests for any any all warbler activity, it was high time to hit the beach for getting back to Gull Point. Partially cloudy Saturday, turning to thunderstorms (with heavy rain and localized flooding) by 12:30PM or so; hope no one was caught outside when the rain hit. Sunday, mostly clear, humid and warm; lovely weather. All trails in good shape except where previously reported.
Doing some observing
Almost no shoreline activity. Lots of ‘inland’ activity along the Gull Point outer old trail – stay tuned for some lovely photography on that front. Although this post is focused on Gull Point species diversity, highlights included Dunlin and – in a BirdingPI.com first – Black-bellied Plover! Wow!
Wouldn’t be Gull Point without gulls. Here’s a Ring-billed Gull with Erie downtown in the far background (behind the tree line):
The ‘gull’ of Gull Point
Here’s the aforementioned Black-bellied Plover! At a very long distance, but still amazing to see. Thanks to a kindly fellow birder for pointing it out.
Plover IPlover II
No butterflies out at the point, but no less fun to see what’s probably an Eastern American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus americanus):
Blending in
Quite a bit of Spotted Sandpiper (breeding adult) activity. Note the bold spots, orange-ish bill, dark eye-line, etc.
Front and side viewsWith gosling
Lots of Killdeer activity, here (on the right) with two Least Sandpiper:
Always fun to see Dunlin (lower right in picture below). Currently showing adult breeding plumage, with a russet back and black chest patch:
Killdeer/Sandpiper/Dunlin
The Dunlin were mostly in a flock of 15-20 individuals, but too far out for good photos. Hence the focus on closer individuals.
Plenty of sparrow and Red-winged Blackbird activity, too. Here’s Savannah Sparrow. Note the yellow coloration over the eye.
SavannahPerched
Some nice shots of Dunlin:
In flightIn waterGoosed
Lots of swallows taking advantage of the favorable food conditions. Here’s a beautiful Tree Swallow:
Perched II
Killdeer in flight:
In flight II
Sunday, the star of the show was a lovely Short-billed Dowitcher. Long distance shot from the observation platform:
Dowitching
The observation platform isn’t great for ‘good photography’ (absent a telescope perhaps), but it is good for seeing small birds very far away. Is there a bird in the shot below? Yes, that speck right in the middle. Enlarged in the second view = Semipalmated Plover. Note the overall color, single black chest band, and black eye stripe.
Bringing it on home, here’s a beautiful Barn Swallow:
Gull Point
Stay tuned for some great Wilson content! Whatever that means. It’s cryptic to engage interest.
It was a wonderful warbler week at Presque Isle State Park – fairly unprecedented activity (in BirdingPI.com’s experience, at least) in terms of both variety and density of warblers. Plenty of content forthcoming, but to kick things off, here’s the lovely Blackburnian Warbler, BirdingPI.com’s second-favorite yellow-orange bird.
No pithy captions or narrative needed – let’s just enjoy this lovely bird.
As can be seen, Blackburnian Warbler tend towards the tree-tops, so lots of looking upwards!
[Editor’s note: #1: Baltimore Oriole; #3: American Redstart. Photos on the way.]
