Seems like waterfowl migration season’s off to a slow but steady start at Presque Isle State Park. Here are some recent shots at Long Pond, + plenty of other birds like copious Blue Jays.

Amazingly, a BirdingPI.com contributing editor recently obtained “conclusive photographic proof” of the existence of Bessie, the Lake Erie Monster (!):

These photographs were taken off the Sunset Point area recently at Presque Isle State Park, with the back profile of the elusive creature seen briefly before disappearing back under water, or something like that. (Wow!)

BirdingPI.com’s resident cryptozoologist conducted a “thorough scientific review,” with the following comments in reference to the annotated view below. “This is amazing. Frankly. That such a large-ish creature has existed in Lake Erie for so long, with so few sightings since the 1800’s [when folks on ships were regularly drunk on rum]. Just wow. Based on these photographs, overall length ‘L’ at least 10 meters [30 feet]. Larger than any known eel or American Alligator or gar or carp, by a significant margin. ‘2’ and ‘3’ below point to what are clearly dorsal fins. [See also view above.] ‘4’ points to what appears to correlate to a caudal fin, while ‘1’ appears to be a bony ridge at the rear of the head, perhaps a post-orbital structure of some sort.”

Following artist’s rendition based on historical records:

Or maybe it’s a floating log. Happy Halloween!

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Bonus Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) & Erie foliage content. Happy fall!

This is Robert, a beautiful male Downy Woodpecker, named after his sire whose given name was also Robert. All recent photos @ Presque Isle State Park.

Still at Leo’s Landing at sunrise the other morning, with lots of gulls, etc.! #more_bird

And more “we heart fish part,” w/ Ring-billed Gulls:

Takeoff & escape:

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More beautiful Ring-billed Gull @ morning sunshine:

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Always fun to see gull diving behavior:

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Somehow the BirdingPI.com team made it out to Leo’s Landing @ sunrise the other weekend morning; “behold the power of black coffee.”

Next, part 1 of a lengthy saga of American Crow vs. Herring Gull, entitled something like “We heart fish part:”

Stay tuned for part 2, gull vs. gull!

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Second and final part of a morning at El Rio Preserve in Marana, AZ, from this past summer:

Three nice shots of Green Heron:

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Here’s a view of the El Rio Preserve dyke; the artificial pond/lake is fed w/ tertiary-treated wastewater and/or purchased agricultural water:

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Finally, a medley of Verdin (w/ food) + other birds as indicated:

Once again waiting on photo editing for recent Presque Isle shots, but there’s still a lot of Tucson-area content in the queue from this past July/August. If you recall the “Roadrunner caught a baby kangaroo rat” post, these are from that same morning @ El Rio Preserve in Marana, Arizona:

To celebrate the weekend, here’s a very nice medley of very cute juvenile Vermilion Flycatcher (male) x adult female Vermilion Flycatcher (in flight, carrying food):

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Coming up soon, checking in with the sun!

It’s the final leg of last Saturday’s expedition to Gull Point, featuring birds along the ‘inland’/’official’ trail between outer Gull Point and Budny Beach. Except where noted, lots of cute Golden-crowned Kinglet:

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Erie weather forecast: seasonally cool & sunny – looks like a spectacular weekend ahead for fall foliage/nature/birds. #more_bird

After multiple sightings of “no Egret, lots of Crows,” seems like the ‘resident’ Great Egret at Leo’s Landing was replaced by several+ American Crows. Or perhaps it’s just one bird, like a magical Egret that can turn into several crows. Or maybe several crows that can combine to form a Great Egret. Like Voltron.

[Editor’s note: with apologies, it appears the BirdingPI.com team is still suffering from post-Las Vegas second-hand smoke exposure. ‘Voltron’ indeed.]

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Anyway, a great/surprising at-dawn sighting at Leo’s Landing of an American Crow engaging in what appeared to be dive fishing, or some other sort of ‘water retrieval’ (see note below):

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Behavioral note: the crows at this date/location were jockeying with the local gulls for fish scraps – see photograph immediately above. The crow above may have been attempting to retrieve something in the water, e.g., dropped by another bird. More on this (gulls/crows) in an upcoming post!

It’s part 2 of Presque Isle State Park weekend content, w/ continuing shots of a loop hike to Gull Point Saturday late morning. As usual this time of year, lots of Double-crested Cormorants flying in/out:

“Bird of the weekend,” lots of Yellow-rumped Warbler everywhere there were trees & brush, e.g., here in the willows along the beach close to outer Gull Point:

Nice sequence of foraging behavior w/ insect caught in spider’s web:

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“Bird of the day,” always nice to see Eastern Meadowlark, here popping up briefly from the grass at outer Gull Point to reposition elsewhere in the grass:

Nice view from outer Gull Point, looking generally west, of a lagoon + tree line:

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Heading back on the ‘inland’/’official’ trail, w/ more Yellow-rumped Warbler & a nice sighting of Field Sparrow on the rope fence: