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:

Bunting that is. Temps remained near record highs yesterday in Erie County, Pennsylvania (around 24 deg C / 75 deg F) = no snow in sight. (Soon to change, most likely; this is Erie after all.) Following shots all Snow Bunting, except where noted, all at Leo’s Landing.

Interesting to see a 1-legged Dunlin, shown at center in the following shot. Happy to report it seemed to be getting along just fine.

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Another view of Stumpy the 1-legged Dunlin, on left:

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Before more Snow Bunting from this past weekend, going back a couple weeks to a late afternoon drive around Presque Isle State Park with a visiting dignitary. (Yes, even w/ visitors there is time for bird photography. There is always time for bird photography. #more_bird)

Following are the view from Leo’s Landing of an amazing/large raft of Double-crested Cormorant on Presque Isle Bay. It’s a lot of Cormorants!

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Following two shots are the view east-ish towards the entrance channel to Presque Isle Bay (North Pier on left, South Pier on right). The dark line of dots under the horizon is another raft of mostly Double-crested Cormorant. It’s a lot of Cormorants!

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Always great to see a Belted Kingfisher exhibiting “hover fishing” behavior, e.g., flapping to stay in place high above the water, followed by periodic dives; this individual flew off before ever entering the water.

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Over at North Pier now w/ a Ring-billed Gull in vocalization mode:

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Beautiful weekend at Presque Isle State Park, with sunny/cool weather and dry trail conditions. Bird activity fairly moderate; as always, though, plenty of birds to watch.

These shots from Saturday afternoon at Leo’s Landing, starting w/ Ring-billed Gulls:

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“Bird of the weekend” definitely Snow Bunting, spotted both here on Saturday and at Gull Point on Sunday. Qualifies as BirdingPI.com’s ‘earliest fall sighting ever,’ and also our first sighting of this species at PI anywhere other than outer Gull Point. (Following shots Snow Bunting except where noted.)

Also nice to see lots of American Pixie Gulls, a.k.a. Bonaparte’s Gulls:

Here was a Dunlin, furtively trying to make its way on ground through the gulls:

Nice to see a small flock (6+) of foraging Dunlin:

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Coming up next time, more Snow Bunting, more gulls, more Dunlin, & return of Mr. Stumpy! #more_bird

With the end of daylight savings time as of 2 AM this morning (for applicable US states), time to check in with everyone’s favourite star, the sun. Except where noted, all shots are a recent sunrise over Presque Isle Bay:

Later in the day, deployed the solar filter again for checking on sunspot activity, in conjunction (in some shots) with passing clouds:

Nice view of sunspot activity w/o clouds @ 600mm (slightly cropped):

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Another nice view of sunspot activity @ 1200mm, slightly cropped:

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Beautiful afternoon yesterday at Presque Isle State Park once the clouds burned off. “Bird of the day” – a great/surprise sighting of 5x super cute Snow Bunting @ Leo’s Landing! More on this in tomorrow’s post.

Cloudy weather yesterday in Erie County, Pennsylvania, but the forecast calls for sun later today (Saturday) + the next few days. A reminder that as of 1 November, outer Gull Point is open for human access for the ‘off season’ = good time for an extended hike on the outer beach. But for now, back to the duck theme (+ misc. bird further below) w/ juvenile Wood Duck (@ Leo’s Landing) x what’s probably Greater Scaup in flight over Graveyard Pond:

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“Bonus birds” along Graveyard Pond at the Lagoon Boat Launch:

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ID note: the ID as Greater Scaup is based on overall colouration (for fall birds) + the white-ish stripe on the back of the wing that extends almost to the primaries (tips), as pointed to by the arrows in the following annotated excerpts:

These aren’t the best views, however, so also possible these are instead Lesser Scaup.