In Presque Isle State Park news, conditions continued to freeze up with the ongoing cold temps – interior ponds frozen, Presque Isle Bay mostly frozen, outer Lake Erie @ float ice w/ localized ‘freeze over’ (e.g., Thompson Bay), roads very icy; human ice fishing on Misery Bay in full swing. Weekend weather forecast for Erie County: cold w/ light, ongoing snow. Ahead of this afternoon’s cloud cover, here’s a shot of the 3/4 moon early this morning:

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Continuing on with January coverage, it’s New Year’s Day 2025 @ Presque Isle Bay:

Geography reminder: Presque Isle (PI) Bay (the ‘back bay’) is defined between Presque Isle State Park and the Erie ‘mainland,’ with its entrance/egress to outer Lake Erie on its east end between North Pier and South Pier (see above).

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Coming up soon, ducks, more ducks, and even more ducks! Lots of ducks.

[Editor’s note: “human ice fishing” = humans engaging in ice fishing. As opposed to birds engaging in ice fishing – which is a thing – or something ice fishing for humans, perhaps like polar bears (?).]

It’s tough to photograph Common Ravens in bad lighting – a longer exposure time (for getting detail on black feathers) = motion blur. Nevertheless, seems there’s been a lot more Raven activity in Erie County recently, e.g., starting here at Presque Isle State Park on New Year’s Day:

Unfortunately, no good pictures of “two Ravens together” to share, but anecdotally, almost always seen in pairs.

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From a few weeks ago, over Lawrence Park Twp, one of another pair of Common Ravens, carrying something-or-other:

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Finally, another “one of a pair” of Ravens recently spotted at East Ave Boat Launch:

Continuing w/ New Year’s Day 2025 content from Presque Isle State Park, with birds along the Old Gas Well Trail (extending from Waterworks to Marina Lake past the eponymous ‘old gas well’). As previously mentioned, weather was cold, rainy, & windy, but no ground snow.

Lots of American Tree Sparrow activity at this location (flock of 12+); nice to get a few shots of one ‘out in the open:’

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Oil’s well that ends well!

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In Presque Isle news, w/ the recent cold temps, as of yesterday the back bay (Presque Isle Bay) is mostly frozen over, same for outer Lake Erie around East Ave Boat Launch (see above) & similar locations. Great for “gulls on ice” + waterfowl (in areas of open water).

For gulls, probably every year is “Year of the Gull,” but why not? In birding, if all else fails, there’s gulls. At least at Presque Isle State Park, like these beautiful American Pixie Gulls (formerly Bonaparte’s Gulls) at the Presque Isle Marina (i.e., Marina Lake) on a cloudy, cold, rainy/snowy New Year’s Day:

Weather conditions on this date: just above freezing, windy, rainy, unpleasant. Lots of ‘outdoor suffering’ involved to bring this post to BirdingPI.com’s fine readers!

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Taking a break (again) from the cold weather, with a return to “misc. bird” at Presque Isle State Park from back in August. Unless otherwise noted, it’s a beautiful bathing Mallard:

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It’s day 4 of the current ‘winter weather event’ here in Erie County, PA. Conditions at Presque Isle State Park yesterday: awful, w/ very cold temps, gusty wind, & on/off lake-effect snow. Here’s Long Pond a week ago yesterday, looking towards the maintenance yard:

And ‘after,’ a similar view yesterday:

Before, boat landing #4 a week ago yesterday:

And yesterday, the ‘after‘ shot:

Anyway, time to move on to interesting ducks in flight (DIF) and ducks not in flight, from last Saturday @ Long Pond. First up, nice view of female or immature Hooded Merganser; note the distinctive merganser beak & sharp contrast between neck & breast:

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From a distance, at the center of each shot, American Black Duck; note the overall dark colour & olive-toned bill compared to the neighboring Mallards:

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Three shots of mixed ducks. Birds on far left and upper right = Gadwall; note the distinctive wing patches of white with black and dark brown:

Other birds (e.g., pair @ lower center left) are American Black Ducks:

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Here’s two shots of a Duclair duck (w/ white breast patch) w/ wild female Mallard, w/ male and female Mallards in background:

Duclair duck is another type of domesticated Mallard (same scientific name/species), bred for fairly larger size. (See previous posts w/ the white Pekin also @ Long Pond.)

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Mallards in flight:

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Mixed waterfowl, e.g., Tundra Swan (right), Mallards (center), & Gadwall (left):

Duck @ center rear = male Northern Pintail:

Northern Pintail @ upper left:

Extreme crop/closeup of the Pintail; note the dark-brown head + distinctive white stripe extending from upper breast to rear of head:

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Finally, it’s Mallards & American Black Ducks in ‘takeoff mode’ & flight:

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This just about sums up conditions the last couple days in Erie County, Pennsylvania. All shots male Northern Cardinal.

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It’s day 2 of the current ‘snow event’ here in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Probably a solid 30 cm (1 foot) of snow, maybe more, in the last 30 hours. Temps expected to drop into the -6 deg C range (low 20s F) next week + remain cold. Bird activity very subdued yesterday, but here’s some lovely Red-tailed Hawk from a week ago in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”):

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Bad weather yesterday (New Year’s Day) at Presque Isle State Park – cold and rainy/snowy. Nevertheless, lots of great bird activity for early winter, including Common Raven, Peregrine Falcon, & Golden-crowned Kinglet. More on all that later. Here, it’s more shots of Tundra Swan from the other day over Long Pond:

Here’s a fun example of bad photo editing :), or maybe it’s like a scrolling video game:

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Wishing everyone on the Gregorian calendar a very Happy New Year and a great forthcoming 2025! Celebrating the holiday here with recent shots of Great Black-backed Gulls at Beach No. 11 @ Presque Isle State Park.

Unusually, there were at least seven Great Black-backed Gulls along the waterline, e.g., 5 are shown in the lovely shot above, along w/ Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. (More typically it’s one or two, frequently way out on the water or perched on a buoy.)

ID tips: black wings, very large (larger than Herring Gull), and light pink legs.

This shot is just American Coots & Ring-billed Gulls:

Dark bird with outstretched wings could be juvenile Herring Gull:

Mixed gulls including Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls:

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[Editor’s note: “In 2024, ornithologists split the Herring Gull, found across much of the Northern Hemisphere, into four species: American Herring Gull, European Herring Gull, Mongolian Gull, and Vega Gull. The American Herring Gull breeds in Canada and the United States and spends the nonbreeding season as far south as Central America.” Good to know!]