Back with recent Dunlin & friends at various locations around Presque Isle State Park. (All pictures Dunlin – alone or flock – unless otherwise noted.)

At No. 4 of the “Top 10 birding things to do at Presque Isle State Park on a slow autumn birding day,” it’s “stare longingly out to sea over Lake Erie for spotting migrating waterfowl:“

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Weekend weather forecast for Erie County, Pennsylvania: Saturday, cool and cloudy, Sunday cool w/ a mix of sun and clouds. Happy birding!

In eBird news, there were multiple reports of a highly unusual sighting of a Vermilion Flycatcher at Leo’s Landing, Presque Isle State Park, last Thursday, November 7, 2024 (<- true story):

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2 Days Earlier:

🙂

BirdingPI.com policy is to avoid situations disruptive to bird activity, e.g., minimize time near nesting sites. But even in well-traveled areas in the ‘off season,’ stuff happens. Take this past holiday Monday at the outer beach near Stull Interpretive Center for a quick look at migratory waterfowl activity over Lake Erie.

Crossing the narrow strip of grassy dunes, up from the grass startled an amazing Short-eared Owl (a BirdingPI.com ‘first ever!’):

Which was immediately caught up in a crazy wind gust:

Resulting in an unplanned tree/owl excursion. Whoops. 🙁

The good news, it seemed unhurt, flying off into the nearby woods:

Shot above, the owl is in upper right corner (blurry); in shot below, owl is just above center:

With the conditions + total surprise, lucky to get any shots of this encounter. (Rule 3 of bird photography: always have a camera at the ready.) Following shot was the only one with a visible face – note the distinctive black-rimmed, golden-coloured eye:

& visible talons in this shot:

Coming up soon, looks like beach cleanup!

Back to the “Top 10 birding nature things to do at Presque Isle State Park on a slow autumn birding day.” At No. 7, it’s “photograph random trees:“

Benefit of foliage photography: trees don’t fly away.

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Moving on to No. 6, “hike an interior trail.” Benefit 1 of hiking = exercise. Benefit 2 = might see a bird or two. Following shots from Saturday along the Sidewalk and Ridge Trails, east end:

Best trails for interior hiking at Presque Isle State Park: Ridge Trail, Sidewalk Trail, Dead Pond Trail, Long Pond Trail, & Duck Pond Trail. Best loop hikes: Ridge + Sidewalk + Fox (or Marsh); & Pine Tree + Dead Pond + B Trail (longer option: Pine Tree + Dead Pond + A Trail + Pine Tree Meadows).

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Next up at No. 5, “impromptu GBH behavioral study,” e.g., standing still, or (if lucky) displaying active predation behavior (a.k.a. fishing). Here, from Saturday on Long Pond, it was very interesting to see two GBH in proximity (but not directly interacting), both with their heads held up with neck extended, while walking slowly through the pond vegetation, for quite a long time:

Never seen a GBH exhibit this behavior for so long, let alone two. Research suggests it might be for spotting other herons or predatory birds overhead. However, no such birds were seen at the time by BirdingPI.com staff.

Where to see GBH at Presque Isle State Park: potentially, any pond or lagoon; Long Pond probably the most reliable from an “easy to access” standpoint.

The official polling place associated with BirdingPI.com HQ recently moved to the Asbury Woods Nature Center, for unknown reasons. (True story.) And what better to do on US general election day (with sunny skies & near-high temps) than enjoy nature, even if only briefly? (Plus bird photography, of course.) First, a nice sighting of Red-tailed Hawk in the woods:

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Saw American Crows and Blue Jays flying here and there, but the star of the day was Tufted Titmouse, at least several, shown here mostly with nice background lighting effects:

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Finally, at last, it took all fall to get a couple decent shots of male White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Wait for it…

Never gets old.

Happy Monday! And for those in the US, happy Veteran’s Day – thank you to those who served!

Rainy/cold/windy Sunday today. Beautiful weather yesterday/Saturday at Presque Isle State Park (sunny/chilly/light wind), but bird activity was fairly subdued. With that in mind, here’s part 1 of the “Top 10 birding things to do at Presque Isle State Park on a slow autumn birding day.” At No. 10, gull peeping, like these Ring-billed Gulls on Long Pond:

Reliable Presque Isle gull hangouts: Leo’s Landing outer sand bar, Beach No. 11, & North Pier.

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At No. 9, quality time with Canada Geese, like these spotted flying between Marina Lake & Long Pond:

Reliable PI spots for Canada Geese: just drive around and you’ll see some eventually. (Also, Leo’s Landing, Waterworks, Marina Lake, Thompson Bay, head of Presque Isle Bay, outer Presque Isle Bay, Misery Bay, Long Pond, pretty much everywhere.)

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At No. 8, Mallard hunting. As in driving around to find Mallards somewhere, to see and admire. (Not hunting hunting – stay safe, duck friends.) Like these beautiful males by Fisher Dr. bridge:

Reliable Mallard hotspots: Long Pond, Duck Pond, greater Leo’s Landing area, Gull Point interior ponds & lagoons, Niagara Pond, etc.

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And with Canada Geese, Mallards, & gulls, plenty of fine photography content to fill a blog post (following shots all Canada Goose except where noted):

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Coming up soon, election day results, & more Top 10!

Such a great name for a pub in a fantasy book/movie, or anywhere else for that matter. (And by ‘pub,’ of course it’s meant cafe where they sell mostly black coffee. Maybe also Diet Coke^TM and water.) These shots from the ‘archive,’ back in July at Presque Isle State Park along the Gull Point trail, featuring House Wren x Blue-gray Gnatcatcher:

Erie County weekend weather forecast: sunny Saturday, rainy Sunday. Hopefully a great day for birding/nature tomorrow!

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Before moving on to Long Pond from last weekend, here’s some fun shots of blue-headed Mallards off Leo’s Landing. Fun fact: depending on age and time of year, males will display varying colours of classic green, black, mottled, or as here, dark blue or purple-blue:

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Over to Long Pond w/ the view(s) at Boat Landing 5, starting w/ 2 Bald Eagles in a distant tree (one on right, one upper left slightly obscured):

Lots of Dark-eyed Junco activity. Following two shots include ‘bird on ground’ and ‘bird in flight,’ the latter being background/blurry, but still good examples of the distinctive white side tail feathers = a great way to ID these fast-moving birds in the field:

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Following shots all Dark-eyed Junco:

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Finally, just to get the weekend off to a good “birdy start,” here’s bonus Ruby-crowned Kinglet w/ flowers:

Whatever else is happening in the human world or life generally, the BirdingPI.com editorial staff hopes these ok photographs of a cute Dunlin & friends at Presque Isle State Park make your day a bit brighter. (Being out in nature = even better.) This is Beach No. 11 & (for the Junco & Warbler) in the trees along Beach 11.

Finally, a Common Merganser in landing mode on Thompson Bay: