Along the Trail

Back to Gull Point at Presque Isle State Park, along the trail by Budny Beach (trailhead area):

Willow Ptarmigan?
Eastern Kingbird
Kingbird II
European Starling (female or immature)
Killdeer
Kingbird III
Kingbird IV
Male Red-winged Blackbird on cattails
Yellow Warbler
Possibly immature Swamp Sparrow
Kingbird V
Yellow Warbler in poison ivy
Female Red-winged Blackbird
Kingbird VI
Song Sparrow
Yellow Warbler III
Kingbird VII
Yellow Warbler IV
Kingbird VIII
GBH @ landing
Kingbird IX

Coming up soon, more GBH!

Enter the Gray Birdcat

“Catbird:” one of several groups of unrelated songbirds whose vocalizations resemble a cat meowing. The Gray Catbird! (Dumetella carolinensis) is a member of the New World catbirds in the mimid family, and the only species regularly found north of Mexico. (The other is the Black Catbird endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula.) These shots of a Gray Catbird from Sunday near the Gull Point Trail trailhead:

Back to Normal

The last Willow Ptarmigan sighting at Presque Isle State Park was over a week ago; an Internet search reveals no subsequent sightings in Ohio, New York, Ontario, or anywhere else; sources suggest the bird may have moved on due to seasonal changes and/or the July heat. And with the ‘big bird event’ of the summer over, it was back to normal at Gull Point yesterday – a few birders, more casual hikers, actually rather peaceful.

Beach trail towards Gull Point

Peaceful perhaps, but a great day for bird activity; these shots all long distance from the old observation platform:

Gulls and Caspian Terns @ outer Gull Point
Sanderling @ center
Sanderling II
2x uncommon Willet (on either side of immature gull)
Immature Piping Plover in bath mode
Piping Plover II

The plover in the shots above is very pale. Differentiated from Snowy Plover based on location + determinative yellow legs in the following shot (i.e., immature Piping Plover are pale with yellow legs; Snowy Plover would have dark legs):

Piping Plover III
Piping Plover IV (probably a different individual)
2x Willet II
Sanderlings, or possibly Semipalmated Sandpipers
Willet III
Willet IV
Willet V
Willet with Ruddy Turnstone (r)
Geese flying over outer Thompson Bay
Ruddy Turnstone II
Uncommon (for this time of year) Long-tailed Duck, female/immature plumage
Long-tailed Duck II
Long-tailed Duck w/ Ruddy Turnstone
Duck and Turnstone II
Final view of Ruddy Turnstone

Coming up soon, more shorebirds!

Male Delivery

With the local hummingbird feeder territorially dominated by a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, sightings of males have been brief (a few seconds at most) and few-and-far-between. Finally in the last couple days, the ‘patiently sit outside for as long as it takes’ method paid off, with a few decent/ok shots:

Around this same time, a well-lit morning shot of the female:

Tripple Yellow

Not something you see every day, a male American Goldfinch
(Spinus tristis) + Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) + Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum). (ID note: the Goldfinch is the bird, the Tiger Swallowtail is the butterfly, and the Cup Plant is the plant.) All Erie County, PA.

Looks like a mild, partially cloudy day in Erie today = good conditions for being outside. Happy birding! #more_bird

At the “Shore”

Lake Melvin @ Flag Park @ Fairview Business Park in Fairview Twp, PA is a bit muddy and swampy this time of year (+ copious goose droppings), but there are much, much less pleasant places to bird in the world. (Visiting roadside dairy effluent ponds between Tucson and Phoenix is really a thing, for migratory shorebirds; the smell in question = bacteria-generated sulphur dioxide.)

Female and baby Mallards
Killdeer in flight
Groundhog
Eastern Kingbird
Killdeer II
Killdeer III
Mallards II
Lesser Yellowlegs (r) + Semipalmated Sandpiper (l) + Least Sandpiper (middle)
The U.S. flag at Flag Park
Killdeer (r), Lesser Yellowlegs (middle), & Least (left middle) and Semipalmated Sandpipers (far left)
Eastern Kingbird in flight
Shorebirds
Eastern Kingbird III
Lesser Yellowlegs IV
Another view of mixed shorebirds
Lesser Yellowlegs VI
Killdeer IX
Lesser Yellowlegs VII
Semipalmated Sandpiper (l) + Least Sandpiper (r)
Lesser Yellowlegs XIII
Willow Flycatcher
Lesser Yellowlegs IX
Lesser Yellowlegs in flight
Lesser Yellowlegs XI
Sandpipers (l) + Lesser Yellowlegs (r)
Lesser Yellowlegs XIII

ID Notes: (i) Lesser Yellowlegs: relative lack of barring along flanks + vocal ID via Merlin; (ii) Willow Flycatcher: vocal ID via Merlin; (iii) Least Sandpiper: mottled brown coloration + yellow-green legs; & (iv) Semipalmated Sandpiper: small but larger than Least Sandpiper, dark legs, black/gray coloration.

[Editor’s note: the effluent ponds northwest of Tucson, AZ off the Interstate 10 corridor are associated with both dairies and feed lots.]

More “Smoked Duck”

(For narrative continuity, re-running ‘part 1’ of the comic:)

Thankfully, with unsettled weather in Erie County, PA over the weekend and into the week (wind, rain), the smoky conditions from last week have dissipated. But here’s continuing coverage from South Pier last Friday, under smoky skies, featuring a different female Mallard and two older ducklings, all enjoying a clump of floating vegetation in the entrance channel to Presque Isle Bay:

Back at the Feeder

Back at the feeder outside BirdingPI.com HQ, featuring female Ruby-throated Hummingbird in nice, morning light:

Believe this is the ‘local’/territorial female, since she regularly chases away other hummingbirds. That being said, a male was seen at this spot – very briefly – yesterday.