From this past Sunday along the Gull Point Trail (appropriately enough under sunny conditions), starting with a better shot of the new information kiosk:

Following are along the official/inland trail including the first bayside beach access by ‘big bend’ (where the trail turns). First, Lesser Yellowlegs at the edge of one of the interior lagoons:

Lots of Semipalmated Plover activity on the bayside mudflats, see, e.g., above. More digital photographs of plover activity coming up soon!

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[Editor’s note: mixed small shorebirds in flight above – Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, & Semipalmated Plover.]

[Editor’s note 2: re. blackbird ID above, the 2 were identified as juveniles based on colouration + begging for food from a nearby adult male. No good photographs, unfortunately, of male/juvenile interaction.]

First up, a bit of mediocre but interesting astrophotography, w/ Jupiter and its moons pre-dawn yesterday at around 5:30AM EDT, looking west (Venus was to the right of this shot, but basically just a large white dot):

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For the rest of the post, back to more recent Erie County, Pennsylvania hummingbird activity, w/ female Ruby-throated Hummingbird on and off a feeder:

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Back with more recent shots of Red-tailed Hawk, this time mostly in flight, in Millcreek Twp, Pennsylvania (“Since 1800”):

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With the Presque Isle Triathlon + entrance road lane closures, there were no BirdingPI.com field operations Saturday, at Presque Isle at least. Sunday, however, was a nice day for birding at the park, including lots of great shorebird activity. While waiting on photo editing, here’s a quick post of exceptionally beautiful Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) butterfly at outer Gull Point:

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[Editor’s note: the plant in the digital photographs above is a type of loosestrife, exact species uncertain, but perhaps Lythrum salicaria.]

Today’s post featuring an amazing female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (mostly exhibiting preening behaviour) in Millcreek Twp, Pennsylvania (“Since 1800”), from 1 August 2025:

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In Presque Isle ‘general’ news, happy to report the completion of the new information kiosk at the Gull Point Trail trailhead at Budny Beach (Beach 10) parking. Here’s the ‘best available’ picture of said kiosk from the BirdingPI.com field team:

Too much black coffee? Too much Diet Coke? Distracted by passing birds? Whatever the case, by way of written explanation, the kiosk helpfully includes a standard trail map + information about great Gull Point bird species like Common Tern and Piping Plover.

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More importantly/significantly, in Presque Isle nature news, there was a significant fish die-off in outer Lake Erie this week. Warning: content after the pretty Yellow-rumped Warbler includes pictures of dead fish.

As of Friday, there were thousands of dead perch, freshwater drum (a.k.a. sheepshead fish), etc. washed up on Budny Beach and elsewhere at Presque Isle:

Preliminarily, this was attributed to hypoxic upwelling, where weather conditions (e.g., recent very windy weather) force de-oxygenated water up to the lake surface and fish closer to shore, where they suffer from hypoxia, leading to death by lack of oxygen.

Unfortunately, the Presque Isle Triathlon is this morning (Saturday), including a swim portion just up the beach in the shot above. Crews were spotted doing beach cleanup, as above/below.

Per local news speculation, this was not expected to significantly impact the overall Lake Erie fish population. However, some sources indicated the frequency of such occurrences has increased in recent years due to warmer seasonal temperatures.

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Recent heatwave in Erie County, Pennsylvania broke yesterday with lots of rain and cool temps into the lower 60’s deg F. Chilly but sunny this Friday morning; should be great weather over the weekend for birding/nature before temps climb again next week.

These shots: recent sunset (above), a beautiful roadside Red-tailed Hawk at Presque Isle State Park (immediately below), & a beautiful immature (older duckling) Wood Duck at South Pier:

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The scene above at Beach 11 (looking towards Gull Point on the horizon) appears rather peaceful, but this past Saturday afternoon at Presque Isle State Park it was anything but. What that shot doesn’t show is beachgoers + a full-on festival (food trucks, etc.) up the beach to the left, and 9-10 parked boats w/ lots of (apparently) drunk summer revelers down the beach to the right. Despite the relatively chaotic conditions, the Beach 11 sand/mud bar (the little spit of land in the picture above) was hopping with fun bird activity, including a great sighting of immature/non-breeding Piping Plover + a Ruddy Turnstone:

Bonaparte’s Gull (breeding plumage adult) ID: black head, white eye crescents, black bill, and light orange/red legs.

Note the Piping Plover has three ID bands – plastic orange, plastic black, and metal. Probably one of the relatively recent hatchlings, now approaching maturity, over from nearby Gull Point.

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Guess it’s that time of the morning for coffee break, or some other sort of break – why not a herpetology break? – with recent, fun shots of Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) in the enclosed pond at South Pier, Erie, Pennsylvania:

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Today, back with part 2 of Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve outside Cleveland, Ohio.

Except where noted, following are all bee, e.g., Eastern Bumble Bee or Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica), on Wild Mustard (Rhamphospermum arvense):

More Red Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) on milkweed:

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