After a rainy Friday yesterday, temps plummeted overnight in Erie County, Pennsylvania; weather Saturday morning: partially cloudy, light snow, very cold/icy. BirdingPI.com field operations on “TBD;” maybe after more coffee. Anyway, closing out Gull Point from last Saturday; unless otherwise indicated, all shots foraging Snow Bunting @ outer Gull Point:
Trio of Red-bellied Woodpecker:
Rainy Friday today here in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Weather forecast tomorrow, cold & partially cloudy. Weather Sunday, warmer w/ light rain. Kicking off the weekend with recent, sunny ducks at South Pier, e.g., mixed ducks in the following shot Redhead, Common Goldeneye, Lesser Scaup, American Coot, + a male Canvasback @ center:
Finally, didn’t get the ‘splashdown’ portion, but still a nice sequence of landing male Mallard:
More from Gull Point @ Presque Isle State Park this past Saturday. Weather conditions: mostly cloudy, cold; awful wind chill @ outer Gull Point, where the star (and pretty much only) attraction was beautiful Snow Bunting:
Meanwhile, a bit more pleasant (if cold/snowy) inside the tree line, w/ great Black-capped Chickadee activity:
Not unexpectedly, the main activity was foraging for food, e.g., the Snow Buntings taking advantage the copious stalks of dried weed/flowers (w/ seed pods, presumably) @ outer Gull Point.
Happy to finally see winter warblers at Presque Isle State Park last Saturday, namely, overwintering Yellow-rumped Warbler along the Gull Point Trail:
Large thickets of Northern Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) within the Gull Point tree line, which seems to be a favourite winter food source:
Seems like the warblers move from location to location for foraging, so took 3 trips to Gull Point this January for this successful sighting. But be patient & stay on the lookout for mixed flock activity along the inland/’outer official’ trail.
More cute staff pet photographs of domesticated Dog (Canis familiaris). Easier than hiking out to Gull Point.
It’s the rest from Sunday at Presque Isle State Park, mostly at Beach 11 & off Budny Beach:
Following shot, foreground is outer Thompson Bay (frozen), then outer Gull Point, then outer PI Bay entrance channel (unfrozen), then ‘mainland’ (e.g., east Lawrence Park, PA):
Fairly iconic, Bald Eagle @ North Pier Light:
Outer PI Bay entrance channel (i.e., east of North Pier/South Pier) w/ Great Black-backed Gull (@ center):
Here’s an enlargement of that same gull; note the pink legs = Great Black-backed Gull (not Lesser):
Unknown objects on the horizon (although they were moving west-to-east); perhaps a ship:
This Herring Gull (@ center) was splashing in and out of the water for fishing; the Lesser Scaups on either side seemed quite offended:
Lots more folks out Saturday to Gull Point than usual for this time of year, especially considering the rather miserable conditions (bitter wind chill @ outer Gull Point). Appeared to be a bit of “Snowy Owl mania.” Unfortunately, no reports of any sightings this weekend. (1 Snowy Owl spotted last Saturday, & 2 (!) last Sunday by the EBO folks.)
Weekend weather: mixed sun and clouds, mostly the latter. Temps low but not as low as mid-week; windy. Trail conditions: snowy/icy, but easily manageable. Lake conditions: lots of float ice. Presque Isle Bay: frozen.
Bird activity highly localized. Of note, nice Snow Bunting activity at outer Gull Point, and happy to report finally sighting overwintering Yellow-rumped Warbler along the Gull Point Trail. More on all this later. Here, it’s Budny Beach yesterday afternoon, featuring a very red male Northern Cardinal & Herring Gulls:
As the post title suggests, it’s ducks in flight heading west along the entrance channel to Presque Isle Bay, between South Pier and North Pier @ Erie, Pennsylvania:
Clear overnight in Erie County, Pennsylvania, e.g., at 2:15AM, but turned partially cloudy (lake effect high fog) since then. Temps low but not “super low;” conditions ok for deploying to Presque Isle State Park for birds/nature. More on that in due course. In the meantime, even more Purple Sandpiper and Snow Bunting from the other weekend at Gull Point:
Final shot for today, following is outer Gull Point w/ a shorebird in flight (middle of photograph), probably another Purple Sandpiper:
Sharing some nice shots of Pied-billed Grebe off South Pier, + other floating waterfowl:
Finally for today, a nice sequence of Pied-billed Grebe exhibiting ‘escape by diving’ (i.e., flight) behavior:
