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Today it’s ‘weekend update‘ part 1. Conditions Saturday in Erie County, Pennsylvania: cold, snowy, gloomy; mostly hung out at the local McDonald’s drinking black coffee. Sunday, partially sunny and just-above-freezing “warm,” great day for hiking out to Gull Point for the first time this year. Much more on that later. But first, in chronological order @ Presque Isle State Park, a GBH ice fishing at the edge of Marina Lake:

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Unfortunately, the GBH here seemed distracted by human presence (even if fairly distant), so it was soon time to leave this fine laddie or lassie in peace.

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Nearby, perched in a tree by Long Pond, a beautiful mature Bald Eagle:

Hiked around past boat landing #4 to get slightly closer, w/ these very nice, if “challengingly lit,” photographs:

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Trail & parking conditions at Presque Isle: generally good, frozen, w/ light ground snow cover; roads icy. Lots of traffic (for winter) w/ folks ice fishing esp. at Misery Bay and Horeshoe Bay.

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Coming up soon, more from Sunday @ Presque Isle State Park, w/ ducks! Here’s a preview of female Red-breasted Merganser at North Pier:

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More digital photographs from last week at Presque Isle State Park, featuring beautiful American Tree Sparrow @ Budny Beach, plus long-distance shots of Gull Point/outer Thompson Bay taken from Beach No. 11:

Species/sighting note: American Tree Sparrow breeds in far northern North America + overwinters, e.g., in places like Pennsylvania. Hence a common winter sighting in Erie Co.

This is the furthest/’pointy part’ of Gull Point, w/ Scaup (in flight), Tundra Swans (x5 – lower right middle and far right), & 1 Canada Goose (lower right, standing):

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Coming up soon, a reasonably-exciting weekend update, w/ a return to Gull Point!

Marking the end of 2024-2025 primary duck hunting season at Presque Isle State Park yesterday with a ‘mega post’ of recent ducks @ outer Lake Erie, off Budny Beach/Sunset Point. Depending on weather conditions, an amazing amount of migratory activity w/ ducks heading both east and west (presumably south, too, at some point):

Nice sequence of beautiful Redhead ducks (male = red head):

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Distant ducks, looking north, @ 600mm, mostly Red-breasted Mergansers, and lots of them!

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Two shots of mixed ducks:

Annotated version of shot above: 1) female or immature Bufflehead; 2) female Common Goldeneye; 3) male Bufflehead; 4) male Common Goldeneye; rest: probably Lesser Scaup ducks.

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Red-breasted Mergansers in flight:

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In contrast, these are Common Mergansers:

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These are typical views, looking north, @ 600mm of ducks (mostly Red-breasted Merganser) heading east along outer Lake Erie. Following shot, the larger bird in the center middle = Great Black-backed Gull:

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Lesser Scaup in flight, fairly close to shore:

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Finally, a distant but nice sequence of Common Goldeneye (male – right; female/immature: left) coming in for landing:

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Looks like a cold but partially sunny day today in Erie County, PA – happy birding!

In today’s post, recent shots of a beautiful female Canvasback on a frozen Budny Beach @ Presque Isle State Park:

Time to depart over outer Lake Erie:

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In Presque Isle State Park news, conditions continued to freeze up with the ongoing cold temps – interior ponds frozen, Presque Isle Bay mostly frozen, outer Lake Erie @ float ice w/ localized ‘freeze over’ (e.g., Thompson Bay), roads very icy; human ice fishing on Misery Bay in full swing. Weekend weather forecast for Erie County: cold w/ light, ongoing snow. Ahead of this afternoon’s cloud cover, here’s a shot of the 3/4 moon early this morning:

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Continuing on with January coverage, it’s New Year’s Day 2025 @ Presque Isle Bay:

Geography reminder: Presque Isle (PI) Bay (the ‘back bay’) is defined between Presque Isle State Park and the Erie ‘mainland,’ with its entrance/egress to outer Lake Erie on its east end between North Pier and South Pier (see above).

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Coming up soon, ducks, more ducks, and even more ducks! Lots of ducks.

[Editor’s note: “human ice fishing” = humans engaging in ice fishing. As opposed to birds engaging in ice fishing – which is a thing – or something ice fishing for humans, perhaps like polar bears (?).]

It’s tough to photograph Common Ravens in bad lighting – a longer exposure time (for getting detail on black feathers) = motion blur. Nevertheless, seems there’s been a lot more Raven activity in Erie County recently, e.g., starting here at Presque Isle State Park on New Year’s Day:

Unfortunately, no good pictures of “two Ravens together” to share, but anecdotally, almost always seen in pairs.

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From a few weeks ago, over Lawrence Park Twp, one of another pair of Common Ravens, carrying something-or-other:

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Finally, another “one of a pair” of Ravens recently spotted at East Ave Boat Launch:

Continuing w/ New Year’s Day 2025 content from Presque Isle State Park, with birds along the Old Gas Well Trail (extending from Waterworks to Marina Lake past the eponymous ‘old gas well’). As previously mentioned, weather was cold, rainy, & windy, but no ground snow.

Lots of American Tree Sparrow activity at this location (flock of 12+); nice to get a few shots of one ‘out in the open:’

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Oil’s well that ends well!

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In Presque Isle news, w/ the recent cold temps, as of yesterday the back bay (Presque Isle Bay) is mostly frozen over, same for outer Lake Erie around East Ave Boat Launch (see above) & similar locations. Great for “gulls on ice” + waterfowl (in areas of open water).

For gulls, probably every year is “Year of the Gull,” but why not? In birding, if all else fails, there’s gulls. At least at Presque Isle State Park, like these beautiful American Pixie Gulls (formerly Bonaparte’s Gulls) at the Presque Isle Marina (i.e., Marina Lake) on a cloudy, cold, rainy/snowy New Year’s Day:

Weather conditions on this date: just above freezing, windy, rainy, unpleasant. Lots of ‘outdoor suffering’ involved to bring this post to BirdingPI.com’s fine readers!

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Taking a break (again) from the cold weather, with a return to “misc. bird” at Presque Isle State Park from back in August. Unless otherwise noted, it’s a beautiful bathing Mallard:

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It’s day 4 of the current ‘winter weather event’ here in Erie County, PA. Conditions at Presque Isle State Park yesterday: awful, w/ very cold temps, gusty wind, & on/off lake-effect snow. Here’s Long Pond a week ago yesterday, looking towards the maintenance yard:

And ‘after,’ a similar view yesterday:

Before, boat landing #4 a week ago yesterday:

And yesterday, the ‘after‘ shot:

Anyway, time to move on to interesting ducks in flight (DIF) and ducks not in flight, from last Saturday @ Long Pond. First up, nice view of female or immature Hooded Merganser; note the distinctive merganser beak & sharp contrast between neck & breast:

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From a distance, at the center of each shot, American Black Duck; note the overall dark colour & olive-toned bill compared to the neighboring Mallards:

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Three shots of mixed ducks. Birds on far left and upper right = Gadwall; note the distinctive wing patches of white with black and dark brown:

Other birds (e.g., pair @ lower center left) are American Black Ducks:

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Here’s two shots of a Duclair duck (w/ white breast patch) w/ wild female Mallard, w/ male and female Mallards in background:

Duclair duck is another type of domesticated Mallard (same scientific name/species), bred for fairly larger size. (See previous posts w/ the white Pekin also @ Long Pond.)

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Mallards in flight:

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Mixed waterfowl, e.g., Tundra Swan (right), Mallards (center), & Gadwall (left):

Duck @ center rear = male Northern Pintail:

Northern Pintail @ upper left:

Extreme crop/closeup of the Pintail; note the dark-brown head + distinctive white stripe extending from upper breast to rear of head:

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Finally, it’s Mallards & American Black Ducks in ‘takeoff mode’ & flight:

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