A mixed weekend at Presque Isle State Park: partially sunny & extremely mild Friday, windy/cloudy but very mild Saturday, & windy/cloudy + much colder Sunday. Some rain Saturday overnight and Sunday overnight.

Lots of bird activity on the lake. Despite the mostly mediocre photography (poor lighting and/or long distance), here’s a “Top 4” of recent strange (as in uncommon) sightings. At #4, it’s recurring Long-tailed Duck off Pine Tree Beach and other ‘outer beach’ locations:

---

At #3, it’s White-winged Scoter off Sunset Point, flying westerly. Even long distance, still beautiful.

Re. ID, here’s an extreme crop; note the very dark colouration – black (male) on right and dark brown (female) on left, with distinctive white wing patches & white facial patches:

---

At #2, what’s probably Harlequin Duck (f), again off Sunset Point. Distinctive white dot behind the eye + white patch by the bill. Unusual for Presque Isle; these these were hanging around for a few days at least.

---

And finally at #1, highly unusual for December, amazing juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron @ South Pier. Only the second ever BirdingPI.com sighting of this species in Erie Co.!

---

Coming up soon, more juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron, this time back in Arizona! Also, spotlight on canned corn!

It’s more Tropical Kingbird at Sweetwater Wetlands (Tucson, AZ) back in August.

ID note relative to the more common Western Kingbird: similar looking, but Tropical Kingbird = yellow further up the chest (see above), + lacks white side tail feathers which would be seen in flight on a Western Kingbird.

Looks like dragonflies are a desired food source. (Plenty of “Eastern Kingbird vs. dragonfly” activity at Presque Isle State Park in the summer.)

A successful catch, but perhaps stealing another bird’s food is easier:

---

---

Coming up soon, Western Kingbird! Plus unusual/fun bird activity at Presque Isle State Park! Also grackles!

It’s Downy Woodpecker @ Leo’s Landing bookended by landscape & Northern Cardinal shots. (Because why not?)

---

---

---

Coming up soon, strange birds!

It may have been gloomy/rainy last weekend, but everything’s better with birds. These shots from Saturday and Sunday at Presque Isle State Park.

Hard to tell from this lighting, but these are Redhead over Lake Erie (bottom flock) + mixed Mergansers (Common Merganser & probably Red-breasted Merganser) on top:

---

Two shots of the irascible Belted Kingfisher in flight over Presque Isle Bay:

---

Ring-billed Gulls on Presque Isle Bay:

---

---

[Editor’s note: characterizations of any birds as “irascible” constitute unnecessary anthropomorphism, with apologies. However, Belted Kingfisher are notoriously skittish + their harsh ‘chittering’ vocalizations may sound angry to human ears.]

“Celebrating” fall rain with recent rainy/wet shots from Presque Isle State Park.

Following are a medley of Song Sparrow @ Leo’s Landing (“bird bath” photos = always fun) + other shots as labeled:

Back to recent photographs at Presque Isle State Park and nearby locations.

More APGIF (American Pixie Gull In Flight):

---

Mixed gulls + 4 Tundra Swan (middle of shot in water) @ Leo’s Landing:

---

[Editor’s guide to BirdingPI.com’s bad person/racist/etc. bird re-naming project – a work in progress:

Bonaparte’s Gull: American Pixie Gull or Black-headed American Pixie Gull

Say’s Phoebe: Cinnamon Phoebe

Cassin’s Kingbird: Gray-hooded Kingbird

Wilson’s Warbler: Yarmulke Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler: Orange Flame Warbler

National Audubon Society: National Birding & Bird Conservation Society (NBBCS)

John James Audubon generally: “He who must not be named.”

… more to follow.]

Cloudy/gloomy again today in Erie, Pennsylvania, colder, w/ a light-but-steady “wintery mix.” Time to return, even if only mentally, to warmer climes. Here, Sweetwater Wetlands on 31 July 2023 in Tucson, Arizona.

Here’s a lovely Verdin working on nestbuilding. (Due to the multiple layers of tree branches + twigs, very tough situation for camera auto-focusing.)

---

More Verdin nestbuilding:

---

Never could figure out specifically what bird this is. Some sort of flycatcher probably + feeding behavior on mesquite pods.

---

More Sweetwater Wetlands coming up soon, but bringing this post to a close with a long series of Tropical Kingbird duo ‘food chase.’ This is a known/occasional location for this bird, + lack of white side tailfeathers (white side tailfeathers = more common Western Kingbird).

---

Later this week or next, more Kingbird, including a great Arizona quartet of Tropical, Thick-billed, Western, and Gray-hooded*!

[Editor’s note: * formerly Cassin’s Kingbird.]

Quite a challenging weekend at Presque Isle State Park: Saturday, overcast, on-and-off light-to-moderate rain, & localized ground fog; Sunday, at first overcast but dry with a hint of sun, then thunderstorms by 2:30PM or so with on-and-off heavy rain into evening/overnight. Nevertheless, lots of gull, grebe, & waterfowl activity + the “fall usuals” (sparrows, Northern Cardinal, Golden-crowned Kinglet, etc.) Here’s a reasonably dramatic iPhone shot Sunday afternoon generally southwest towards downtown Erie with thunderstorms moving in (on right):

While waiting on weekend photo editing, these shots from earlier in the week and before:

Shot above mostly Herring Gull + a couple Great Black-backed Gulls, e.g., on left.

---

Here’s several of Black-headed American Pixie Gull in flight by North Pier:

---

More beautiful Horned Grebe:

---

More American Pixie Gull in flight over Presque Isle Bay at dawn:

---

Ah, nature. Never know what will show up next. These ‘fishy’ shots of Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) – an introduced species – at Pymatuning Reservoir spillway. This is the ‘protected hatchery’ side of the lake; the carp congregate by the spillway for handouts. DCNR rules prohibit feeding birds – although that doesn’t stop anyone – but not fish.  

Happy things in bird/nature photography: (1) good lighting; and (2) reasonably close subjects. These recent shots are mostly both, from a nice day at East Ave boat launch, Erie, Pennsylvania.

Relatively speaking, lots of Horned Grebe activity this year on Lake Erie at Presque Isle State Park. Good places to see: East Ave, North/South Piers, Thompson Bay, & Presque Isle Bay generally.

[Editor’s note: in light of the forthcoming ‘bird re-naming’ project, BirdingPI.com is officially renaming the former “Bonaparte’s Gull” as ‘Black-headed American Pixie Gull’ (B-hAPG). Although no evidence Charles Lucien Bonaparte was a particularly bad person. ‘Pixie’ because it’s one of the smaller North American gulls and “little” is taken already.]