Looks like lovely Barn Swallows out at Gull Point!
Amazed and transfixed by beautiful Barn Swallows:
Bird On A Wire
From Birds to Bugs
Dateline: May 2022
With peak migration season over, time to enjoy some interesting and beautiful insects out at Presque Isle State Park. (Not to worry, no more tick pics!)
First, a few birds!
Unless stated otherwise, following shots all from Pine Tree Meadows. https://birdingpi.com/pine-tree-meadows/. Pine Tree Meadows is great for seeing diverse insects (and ticks) in a relatively small area.
First, the very tiny but very beautiful Eastern Tailed-blue butterfly:
Switching to a dragonfly, the amazing Black Saddlebags:
Picture below seems to be of an immature or female Blue Dasher dragonfly; lots of these around. Note the vertically-striped thorax and horizontally-striped abdomen. See https://www.welcomewildlife.com/dragonflies-and-damselflies-top-guns-of-the-insect-world/ for a nice write-up on dragonflies generally, plus a helpful diagram of anatomy. (No affiliation.)
Next up, the colorful Common Green Darner:
Photographing dragonflies in the air is harder even than birds. Very erratic flight patterns. Lucky to get even this mediocre shot:
Always great to see another Monarch. Note the white spots on the thorax – distinctive of Monarch relative to other, similar-looking species.
Next, the distinctive Silver-spotted Skipper:
Closing this post out with another dragonfly classic, the Twelve-spotted Skimmer. (Don’t worry, more insect shots to follow!) This is likely a female or immature – a mature male would have white spots next to the black spots on the wings.
Web of Flies
Dateline: May 2022
“Web of snacks?” In any event, while we wait for the weekend update, here’s some recent shots of a Baltimore Oriole partaking of an easy meal. From the Long Pond Trail by its east-end trailhead by the swamp.
Bird In A Tree
BirdingPI.com — the only website bringing you Spotted Sandpiper in a tree!
Weekend update featuring Gull Point and other fun coming soon!
Amazing/H3
Dateline: May 2022
Hummingbirds: (i) beautiful and (ii) amazing from a bio-mechanics perspective. Here in Erie we get the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Recent shots of a lovely female out at Presque Isle State Park, off the Pine Tree Trail:
Bird ID tip: male would have a ruby- or dark-colored throat.
[Photo Editor’s note: lighting conditions were very shady for these shots, with a low hit rate. Still, pretty good all things considered.]
Re-Goosed
There’s never too many Canada Geese.
Four portraits of a Canada Goose:
Red Head/Misc II
Dateline: Spring 2022
Making progress on the photo dump. More birds! First up, a lovely, adult Red-headed Woodpecker, in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”). Note, males and females appear similar.
This one was along the outer old trail towards Gull Point, at Presque Isle:
More misc birds!
Misc Bird
Dateline: May 2022
Catching up on overflowing memory cards with some pleasant bird shots from the last month. All at Presque Isle State Park.
[Editor’s note: no more tick posts. Unless we find a new species of tick to share #science #nature.]
Ticks! I hate these guys
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.]
Park @ No. 10 Budny
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:
