An expected – but still abrupt – change in weather in Erie, Pennsylvania, from “mostly spring-like” earlier in the week to plenty of cold and snow as of Saturday morning (12 March 2022). Current conditions: mostly cloudy, temperature of 22 deg F, not snowing currently but 5-6″ fresh snow on the ground from overnight. Not a good day for the outdoors, so time to catch up on some miscellaneous duck shots from the past couple weeks while waiting for Swan Luge Part 2.

First up, a species not covered much on BirdingPI.com previously, the lovely Gadwall. The following four views are from Long Pond at Presque Isle State Park:

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Time for a BirdingPI.com “Bird ID” moment, with reference to the following enlargement from the picture above of a male Gadwall. Note the distinctive white-above-black tail coverts (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_feather), dark bill, high forehead and generally square-ish head, patterned chest, and brown-with-white outline back feathers. Also patches of rufous on the wings as shown in the shots above.

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Next up, some decent shots of mostly Ring-necked Ducks in flight and takeoff, on Long Pond and Graveyard Pond (i.e., Lagoon boat launch):

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Still seeing Northern Pintails, like this on Long Pond; Pintails on the right, Mallards on the left:

Two shots from the back bay:

Now over to Lake Erie by Presque Isle Lighthouse, looking north:

And over to Thompson Bay for American Coots:

[Editor’s note: American Coots are not ducks.]

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Not enough ducks, you say? Don’t worry, plenty more where that came from!

How ’bout Buffleheads!

Buffleheads on right, Ring-necked Duck foreground left, Hooded Merganser background far left:

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Still not enough ducks? Tough crowd. Time to break out the big guns with some nice shots of Hooded Merganser:

Hooded Mergansers on Graveyard Pond – male on left with crest raised, male in middle with crest lowered, and female on right:

[Editor’s note: “…break out the big guns with some nice shots of Hooded Merganser…”???]

“Swan-athlon?” “Swan-alympics?” “Swan luge?” Ok, none of that makes sense. (Although, ‘Swan luge’ is pretty good…) What does make sense is how amazing Swans are, e.g., here in Erie, Pennsylvania recently, plenty of Tundra Swans!

There’s lots of amazing stuff in the “world of birds.” One example, Puffins off the coast of Scotland. Or Puffins off the coast of anywhere else for that matter. But what surely falls into that category (i.e., of amazing bird stuff) is a large flock of Tundra Swans seemingly materialize out of nowhere from the white, winter sky for a landing on Thompson Bay at Presque Isle State Park. Truly a sight to behold.

The content here doesn’t do it justice, but it’s a website and that’s what we do…

These are all on Thompson Bay, taken from the west-side beach by Access Trails #1 and 2 and therebetween.

Following two shots looking almost due north, towards Lake Erie (ice dunes in background right):

Remaining shots looking generally east towards the Gull Point area:

Again, doesn’t do it justice, but here’s a clipped shot of a flock of Tundra Swans coming in for a landing:

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Time for a BirdingPI.com “bird ID” moment. Tundra Swans and Trumpeter Swans look very similar, and the territory technically overlaps at Presque Isle State Park; although only slightly on the eastern side of the latter’s range.

Here’s a great summary of how to tell the difference: https://finwr.org/which-swan-is-which/.

In the picture below – an enlargement from these shots – the bird on the left has an almost straight line of black between its eyes. This is indicative of a Tundra Swan, whereas a Trumpeter Swan would have a notched/indented line of dark coloration instead. Also, on the bird on the right, there’s a yellow spot just to the left of the eye, and the eye is fairly distinct (i.e., mostly surrounded by white feathers). Both traits are characteristic of Tundra Swans.

In the following cropped view, the bird on the bottom has a partially pink-colored bill. This is indicative of a juvenile Tundra Swan.

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Back to more swans landing:

A couple groups of Tundra Swans landing was amazing enough. Almost as amazing was watching the newly-landed swans intermingle with those already on the ice. Perhaps it’s foolish to characterize it as a happy reunion, but that’s how it seemed – certainly, they were all very interested and animated for the get-together. Is there such a thing as swan joy? Maybe not, but hopefully so.

Finally for this installment, bad swan video:

Stay tuned for Swan-a-thon Part 2!

“And Janie and I went bird watching. We saw a Grackle!” Lisa Simpson, “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge.” The Simpsons, season 2, episode 9, Fox, 20 Dec. 1990.

Common Grackle, Millcreek Twp, 7 March 2022:

Bonus birds (not Grackles):

Dateline: 5-6 March 2022

An amazing weekend at Presque Isle State Park, with conditions changing rapidly and daily. Saturday started off cloudy with a few drops of rain, but turned partially sunny with temps in the high 30’s (deg F). Ice on Thompson Bay was starting to break up, but remained solid enough elsewhere on Presque Isle Bay for a final day of human ice fishing. That is, humans doing ice fishing. Stayed warm into the evening, with rain overnight, turning partially sunny Sunday with highs in the mid- to upper-60’s (deg F) and humid. Shirtsleeve weather in early March – lovely (!) Large portions of Thompson Bay unfrozen, diminishing ice elsewhere.

Huge amount of bird activity – ducks, swans, the previously reported Sandhill Crane, even some activity in the interior, e.g., sparrows and such. What better way to end a great weekend than with even more coverage of Erie’s most ubiquitous and irascible bird, the Canadian Goose!

[Editor’s note: picture above, Perry Monument looking southeast towards North Pier and South Pier, with the three smoke stacks of the Hammermill Paper Co. – now otherwise demolished – in the background. See https://www.sb3erie.com/history/. Picture below, Thompson Bay.]

Finally, a close-ish encounter Sunday by the swamp/pond off Thompson Circle:

[Editor’s note: Apologies for the anthropomorphism.]

This PI Bird Alert(TM) brought to you by Mountain Dew(R) Code Red(R) beverage. Nothing refreshes after a long day of birding than the cherry-burst flavor of Code Red(R)!

The team was bivouacked off Thompson Bay most of Saturday, enjoying the reasonably nice weather and the nearby Tundra Swans. Suddenly, what flies high overhead but a Sandhill Crane! Wow wow wow!!! So unusual didn’t even know what to think about it at first, e.g., “Mutant swan?”

We mostly associate Sandhill Cranes with places like Florida, so to see one at Presque Isle State Park in late winter was rather mind blowing.

Pictures follow:

It was flying east to west and soon out of sight over inland Presque Isle State Park. No other cranes sighted out in the bay or elsewhere.

[Editor’s note: Bird identification tip – Cranes, like Geese and Swans, fly with necks straight and outstretched. Herons (e.g., Great Blue Heron) fly with coiled or curved necks. See Sibley, David Allen. The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America: Second Edition. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.]

[Editor’s note: The Sibley guides are BirdingPI.com’s preferred field guides. Lots of excellent content and great for bird identification.

https://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Field-Guide-Eastern-America/dp/0307957918/. No affiliation with Amazon or David Allen Sibley.]

More ‘diversity and inclusiveness’ training today at BirdingPI.com (takeaway: all birds are beautiful and we love them all), but just enough time at lunch for a half-hour out at Presque Isle State Park, along the short trail by the Feather Observation Platform. And what a stroke of good timing – Northern Pintails both in the air and on the water!

Never seen Northern Pintails before at Presque Isle, although the timing and environment/location make sense since they’re early migrators. According to folks who know about such things. But regardless, an amazing and exciting sighting! (Just need like a 1200mm lens for a great close up…)

We’re off to a great start for migration season, and it isn’t even spring yet!

All pictures at a long distance with Nikon D850 and 500mm f5.6 PF lens.

Dateline: 1 March 2022

After weeks of fruitless tracking through the cold, snowy woodlands of southern Erie county, finally confirmed a positive sighting (with pictures) of Eastern Bluebirds in Millcreek Twp, Pennsylvania. The first of the season, and a sure sign of impending spring!

Of note, this appears to be a male and female pair. Notice the brighter blue color of the male on the right (picture above), whereas the female has a greyer head color and some white on the throat.

What a weekend for birding and bird photography at Presque Isle State Park! So much content it couldn’t be contained in one, two, or even three posts! Wow.

After a sunny start, Sunday quickly turned cloudy, remaining mostly overcast the rest of the day. Moderate high temps (28-30 deg F), but windy. Not bad in sheltered locations, but the wind chill on the back bay: once again brutal.

Roads at Presque Isle State Park in pretty good shape. Main bicycle/walking trail also in pretty good shape (mostly ice-free).

First up, a stop at Long Pond. Plenty of duck and geese activity on the unfrozen west end.

Lots of honking and other goose shenanigans:

Admittedly, easily amused here at BirdingPI.com, but it was still pretty funny.

Next, back to the Perry Monument area. (Q. How do you know the weather conditions are bad at Perry Monument? A. When there’s no one else out mid-day on a weekend, except folks huddled in cars.) Lots of ducks on the water and lots of ducks in flight. Amazing day for duck activity! A few representative shots:

Before heading out for the day, it was time to enjoy the view from the car while waiting for extremities to regain feeling. What else comes floating into view but a gull-festooned piece of float ice, moving easterly at a brisk clip in the wind (right-to-left in the picture below). Facing the wind and thereby moving backwards, the gulls soon exited ‘stage left’ as the float ice moved further down the bay and behind a screen of trees. The picture below doesn’t do it justice (and not the right time/conditions for video), but still ‘lol’ (literally) funny.

So you’re out there taking pictures in the cold and wind as best possible, hoping for the best mostly. And then something like this comes along. Uh. Canadian Geese, obviously. Hijinks presumably. Boggles the birding mind.

[Editor’s note: edited for cropping and a slight bump in brightness only.]

Gulls are great. Beautiful birds, relatively common (depending on your location), and such a love for fish!

Here’s an amusing exchange from Saturday on Presque Isle Bay by the Perry Monument. First up, someone fumbled the ball:

Followed by an attempted recovery:

Followed by a conversion:

Running for the end zone:

Almost at the goal line:

Touch down!

Wings in “V” for ‘victory dance:’

[Editor’s note: apologies for the American football analogies.]