Looks like a nice day today in Erie County, Pennsylvania (e.g., chilly but sunny). Ahead of heading out for field operations, here’s recently seen Erie-area sparrows, starting with long distance – but still fun – shots of a male House Sparrow collecting nesting material:
Alternating with close-ups of lovely adult Chipping Sparrow (males and females look alike):
Coming up soon, more White-throated Sparrow, plus more “birds with flowers!”
Another rainy/gloomy day here in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, celebrating the last weekend in April with exciting nature content “not at Presque Isle State Park.” First up, a great sighting of beautiful Brown Thrasher at Chatauqua Park (at the very northeast corner of the City of Erie) in a flowering apple tree:
Even more exciting, after weeks [*] of forest surveillance in McKean, PA, Millcreek Twp, PA (“Gateway to Presque Isle”), Summit, PA, etc., finally spotted a legendary black-variant Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), or “Devil Squirrel” as the locals call it [**], at LERC West Road Property:
Per Wikipedia, “The black coloration is caused by an incomplete dominant mutation of MC1R, where E+/E+ is a wild type squirrel, E+/EB is brown-black, and EB/EB is black.”
Please enjoy a happy weekend and also more Brown Thrasher x mutant squirrel:
[*Editor’s note: perhaps more like twenty minutes.]
[** Editor’s note: may not reflect an actual term that locals use.]
Back at/near the same parking lot as yesterday’s post. Conveniently adjacent the San Luis Rey River just before it empties into the Pacific Ocean:
More around the parking lot & nearby areas:
Exiting the parking lot w/ some nice shots of an adult Black-crowned Night Heron in flight. Along the San Luis Rey River.
Back to Oceanside, California in early March, at the periphery of one of the parking lots @ Oceanside Harbor. Featuring (unless otherwise noted) female House Finch foraging on Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia):
Today, mostly highlighting another vernal herald, the briefly appearing but lovely Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), blooming this week in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Plus a few “spring foliage backlit by setting sun” shots.
Finally, ‘squirrel in flight’ along the Pine Tree Trail at Presque Isle State Park, probably juvenile Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger):
Very high up + moving very quickly, so lucky to get even this not-quite-correctly-centered shot.
Despite the rainy/gloomy conditions, some really nice shots of beautiful American Kestrel exhibiting “eating prey” behavior, along the Sidewalk Trail @ Presque Isle State Park. (At least two Kestrels sighted in this area multiple times recently.)
Great opportunity recently to see/photograph a small family of Horned Grebe off South Pier, Erie, Pennsylvania. This trio was closer to the pier than usual due to passing small watercraft (e.g., folks out fishing) in the channel between South Pier and North Pier.
In these two shots (above/below), the female is upper left, male is foreground, and the juvenile/immature is on the right.
Following shot, female is top, juvenile is middle, and male lower right:
As in the following shot, the male has a red/russet breast w/ a brown-black back:
As in the following shot, the female is slightly smaller w/ a blacker back and silvery/white breast w/ hint of russet:
As in shots above/below, juvenile is smaller, w/ a mottled appearance overall; back of neck is distinctively silvery:
Generally awful weather yesterday in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, squeezed in 45 minutes of quality field time between rainstorms, along the one end of the Sidewalk/Ridge Trails at Presque Isle State Park. (If anyone’s in doubt, the warblers are back!) Following all beautiful Palm Warbler:
Coming up soon, more Pine Warbler, more Yellow-rumped Warbler, & an American Kestrel lunchtime! #more_bird
Wow, currently getting slammed with thunderstorms inc. torrential rain (literally torrential, w/ localized flooding) on this Saturday morning here in Erie County, Pennsylvania. All field operations on hold pending some sort of improvement.
On the other hand, very happy to report the first BirdingPI.com spring warbler sightings yesterday at Presque Isle State Park. Highly variable weather, then, too – mostly sunny in south Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”), but localized rain squalls (almost thunderstorms) + cloudy and super humid at Presque Isle. But with the warm/damp weather, the birds were out in full force, at least along the Long Pond Trail, e.g., five warbler species sighted and one heard, including these:
Also great to see beautiful Rusty Blackbirds:
And White-throated Sparrow:
Before yesterday’s rain, also nice to spot a Spotted Sandpiper in flight @ head of Presque Isle Bay:
Also of note at that same location, several Forster’s Terns, along with copious Caspian Terns. In the shot below, Caspian Terns are in flight/large, & the Forster’s Terns are much smaller in the foreground:
Closing out today’s post with misc. sparrow from earlier in the week at Leo’s Landing, starting with Savannah Sparrow (note the distinctive yellow patch above the eye):
And beautiful Field Sparrow:
Finally, Song Sparrow:
Plenty more warbler/bird photos forthcoming, esp. Palm Warbler!
While BirdingPI.com staff is gearing up for weekend field operations at Presque Isle State Park (forecast: rain), it’s back to the beach at Oceanside Harbour in Oceanside, California, early last month:
ID note: Elegant Terns smaller than Royal Terns (which are in tern smaller than, e.g., Caspian Tern) (ha ha) + much narrower bill w/ more yellow (see above).
Finally, a great sighting of Hermann’s Gull, soon to be renamed something like American Sooty Gull hopefully:
Wishing everyone a nice weekend, and for those celebrating Judeo-Christian holidays, a happy Easter and Passover!