Heavy rain overnight (Friday night) here in Erie County, Pennsylvania. While waiting to see if the flooding’s subsided enough for some rain birding at Presque Isle State Park, it’s a quick but long post of the final recent, Saturday-morning content (early March) at El Rio Preserve in Marana, Arizona.

Anecdotally, not nearly as much Greater Roadrunner activity this time of year relative to summertime. So it pays to keep an ‘eagle eye’ out:

(It’s way, way up there on the hillside, right at the center of the shot above against the skyline.)

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Not the best pictures, but still so nice to see a small flock of Neotropic Cormorant:

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Back to Wilcox, Arizona, where the main nature attraction (close to town) is Cochise Lake and the adjacent ponds/wetlands @ Twin Lakes Golf Course. These shots of the latter, answering the question of “where are all the American Wigeons?” (Answer: mostly in Arizona, apparently.)

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Finally, a couple “bonus American Wigeon,” a bit closer up, from the day before elsewhere/nearby in southern Arizona:

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Coming up soon, lots of birds at Cochise Lake!

We tried explaining to these nice folks you don’t need to swim into the surf to enjoy beautiful Willets in flight. In response, it was mostly “Dude, leave me alone!” and “WTF is a Willet?!?,” followed by a quick scurrying away up the beach. Anyway, unless you are way, way out to sea (e.g., on a boat), the beach view is just as good for seeing passing shore birds. Additional advantages to birding on land: dryer, warmer, easier to buy/drink hot coffee, & lower risk of shark attack.

Also easier to operate camera equipment. (Nikon weatherproofing is notoriously good, and rightly so, but weatherproofing =/ (does not equal) waterproofing/submersible.) Take these photos of beautiful Willet “not in flight:”

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Same day/location at Oceanside Harbor Beach, very interesting to see female (etc.) Great-tailed Grackle foraging on the jetty/rocks/surf-line:

Even better, beautiful Marbled Godwit:

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More Marbled Godwit:

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Here’s a Willet @ field sobriety test, or practicing dance moves, or something:

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More Willet:

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Nice sequence of Western Gull (probably) in flight/landing:

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Even more Willet:

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Coming up soon, catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world! Or maybe more birds.

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[Editor’s Note: As best can be determined, “WTF” = ‘what the fun.’]

The generally bad/wintery weather continues this week in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, spring creeps forward. Like with these recent sightings of beautiful Brown Creeper at Presque Isle State Park and elsewhere in the greater Erie area:

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Second/final part of birds, etc. at San Onofre State Beach bluffs/campground, just south of San Clemente, California (not too far south of famous “return of the swallows” location San Juan Capistrano).

On the blufftop and especially in more protected areas (e.g., where the bluff has collapsed from erosion), the birds were enjoying large thickets of native Lemonade Berry (see above and below) & native Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina), shown in this shot (and many others above/below):

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Generally awful weather here in Erie County, Pennsylvania over the weekend. Rain, rain, & more rain. (So much for the forecast for a sunny Saturday! Ay caramba.) Nothing better to do, mostly, than photo editing + playing with the new Ghibli-style AI tools, e.g., here, a Great Horned Owl (based on one of the photos posted the other day) in Studio Ghibli style. Have to admit, it is very cute.

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Moving on to ‘real bird’ content, continuing with part 2/3 of a nicer recent Saturday morning @ El Rio Preserve in Morana, Arizona:

Great Egret flying in and landing:

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Back to Oceanside Harbor Beach & vicinity on 5 March 2025. All photos Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, like the following, unless otherwise noted:

Not only the great beach at this location, but the mouth of the San Luis Rey River, w/ associated “non-beach” vegetation. Hence the Gnatcatchers.

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Closing it out with preening Willet:

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Well, to the extent this morning’s partial solar eclipse would have been visible in Erie County, Pennsylvania (= not much), it’s cloudy anyway. With that in mind, & considering all the recent AI-related news (AI taking jobs, AI-related stocks going up/down, Studio Ghibli memes, etc.), here’s computer generated images of a Great Horned Owl + partial solar eclipse, courtesy of Fotor:

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With the topical/goofy content out of the way, here are real pictures of Great Horned Owl, taken at dusk in early March outside the BIRDS (BirdingPI.com regional desert southwest) field station in Casas Adobes, Arizona:

Actually rather dark when the above were taken on two successive evenings. Shots were handheld at relatively long exposure (< 1/60 sec) + post processing including exposure correction & AI sharpen and de-noise using various Topaz^TM tools.

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Erie County weather this past week: wintery (cold and/or snow) Saturday – Wednesday, warmer but seasonally cool yesterday (Thursday), cool and overcast today (Friday). Upcoming weekend weather: potentially rainy Sunday, probably sunny Saturday afternoon. With ‘nesting season’ starting April 1, a reminder that this is the last weekend for unrestricted access to outer Gull Point.

Bird content of this post features early spring birds spotted recently at Presque Isle State Park.

More beautiful Common Grackle:

[Photo Editor’s note: not the best lighting on the shot above, but still so nice to get that lovely back/wing feather color!]

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Bad weekend for a deer, best weekend ever for Turkey Vultures (@ North Pier Trail by Beach 11):

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Happy weekend, happy nature! #more_bird

San Onofre State Beach bluffs/campground, north of San Diego. It’s an odd area, an elongate, narrow strip of land sandwiched between Interstate 5 on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (“SONGS,” decommissioned) on the north, and USMC Camp Pendleton on the south.

From the park road (parallel to the train tracks and I5), several bluff-top trails branch off to descend to the beach. On this rainy day in early March, out of 4+ such beach access trails, two were unusable due to erosion. Kahuna (trail #3?) and Atomic Sands (trail #1?) trails were open. Fascinating biome of blufftop, coastal chaparral, and both rocky and sandy beach.

Bird activity: lots of Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrow, & White-crowned Sparrow, + a few Anna’s Hummingbird, Turkey Vulture, California Towhee, etc.

“Bird of the day,” so great to see an amazing California Thrasher in the open. Singing on a branch, perhaps out to enjoy the rain:

Lots of severe erosion along this stretch of coast, like this huge section of collapsed bluff along one of the blufftop trails:

View of Atomic Sands Trail (#1) descending to beach, w/ SONGS in the background/horizon center:

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