Dateline: 15-16 July 2023

Another beautiful summer weekend in Erie County, PA. Saturday: warm (high just below 27 deg C), humid, very pleasant on the lake; turned cloudy in the afternoon followed by thunderstorms (localized heavy rain) in the evening. Sunday: overhead patchy fog in the morning, just slightly cooler (high around 26 deg C), humid, windy, some haze/cloud. Lots of beach-goers at Presque Isle State Park on Saturday, slightly fewer on Sunday.

Major excitement out at Gull Point on Sunday: highly unusual sighting of three American Avocet! Many thanks to the nice birder with the spotting scope who mentioned it in passing – the Avocet were out on the “pointy part” of Gull Point (by the gulls and cormorants) = very difficult to see from the observation platform with a 500+mm lens.

The following shots qualify as ‘bad bird photography’ due to long distance + heat shimmer. This @ 560mm cropped to 16×9 + slight enlargement (birds at center of photo):

More tightly cropped:

Very tightly cropped, showing foraging behavior:

ID tip: tall/spindly legs, black-and-white body, white wing ‘stripe,’ russet head, long/upturned bill. (For better shots of American Avocet, see En La Playa from last year in Arizona.)

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With that out of the way, the real star of the weekend was ‘juvenile begging behavior.’ Referring to post-nest (and flight-capable) juveniles begging for feeding by adults. For example, following is a trio of juvenile Eastern Kingbird on the east end of Bundy Beach, waiting for an adult to return with food:

Notice the head tracking in the following three shots – keeping an eye on the adult/food:

More on this in later posts, including juvenile Red-winged Blackbird, juvenile Yellow Warbler, and some great shots of adult + juvenile Eastern Kingbird.

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Few more shots from Gull Point/trail on Sunday:

Out at the point, two shots of Greater Yellowlegs:

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Bonus Green Heron @ Long Pond, on a different day, early morning:

Before resuming our regularly-scheduled nature coverage, time for a BirdingPI.com “bad astrophotography” moment:

Very exciting.

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Meanwhile, very amazed/happy to see these two Eastern Raccoon in a tree at Thompson Circle last Sunday at Presque Isle State Park. Weather conditions: overcast; humid.

These coons seemed a bit befuddled by human/photographer presence; BirdingPI.com’s WMBD (wild mammal behavioral department) analysis suggests they were overly enthusiastic, i.e., incautious, juveniles.

After 10 minutes of observation, BirdingPI.com’s survey team temporarily left (1-2 minutes) this location for ‘fiddling with camera settings.’ Upon returning, the Racoons had vamoosed – obviously, capable of very quick movement when warranted.

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Bonus video:

Mid-day last Sunday at Presque Isle State Park, @ Thompson Circle in one of the willow (?) trees by the ‘swamp/pond,’ another amazing/uncommon daytime sighting of two Eastern Racoon (Procyon lotor lotor). As stated in a previous post, the nature just keeps happening!

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These shots are in chronological order, so next time, + racoon # 2!

[Editor’s note: ‘raccoon’ and ‘racoon’ both acceptable spellings.]

Dateline: 8 July 2023

Mostly macro shots @ 105mm of what’s probably Northern Broken-Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet) butterfly, on and off Common Milkweed at ‘Pine Tree Meadows,’ Presque Isle State Park.

Dateline: 9 July 2023

BirdingPI.com’s five-year mission: To boldly go where no turkey has gone before! [Editor’s note: ?]

Considering they mostly stick to the underbrush, great to see this Wild Turkey hen + two chicks along the Long Pond Trail (east end) last Sunday @ Presque Isle State Park. It may be the summer ‘slow season’ (re. migration), but the nature keeps happening!

More bumble bee (various species) x Butterfly Bush:

Heavy localized rain in Erie County this Wednesday morning; based on a quick drive around the loop road, all conditions at Presque Isle State Park: wet. Also lots of biting flies and mosquitoes.

Fun shots of beautiful Cedar Waxwing x foraging behavior along the Sidewalk Trail, after a recent/earlier rainstorm:

Been a while since reporting out on Gull Point. Here’s a lengthy ‘mashup’ of the last two BirdingPI.com expeditions out to the best spot @ Presque Isle State Park, on 4 July 2023 and 19 June 2023. In approximate interleaved chronological order along the ‘inner old,’ beach, and ‘outer old’ trails + mud flats.

Trail conditions: (i) ‘inner old’ – wet/muddy but passable; (ii) ‘middle old’ – impassible; (iii) ‘outer old’ – good condition; (iv) beach – good condition other than erosion spots.

Lots of Canada Goose activity out at the mud flats, e.g.:

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“Gull Point news” item 1. Thought someone was inappropriately enjoying the outer beach until seeing the placard below:

The fox cutout seems a little cartoon-like, but no one ever accused BirdingPI.com management of being expert in bird population remediation. Or anything else for that matter.

Shot of a Piping Plover protective enclosure:

Either a Piping Plover or a Piping Plover decoy:

Lots of beautiful Bank Swallow activity:

ID tip relative to Northern Rough-winged Swallow (‘the other brown swallow’): Bank Swallow = very dark/brown breast band; Rough-winged Swallow = no dark breast band.

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Aerial Tree Swallow duo:

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Recent Gull Point bird activity‘s mostly included Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbird, various swallows, Song Sparrow, Killdeer, Caspian Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, gulls, and Spotted Sandpiper. Anecdotally, seemingly an unusual lack of shorebirds. For example, on July 4th it was only two Spotted Sandpiper (other than the “maybe a Piping Plover”). Also seems like there’s less vegetation than this time previous years – see, e.g., bare foregrounds in the shot immediately above + scarecrow shot further above. Can’t help thinking the two are connected; further investigation needed.

Another example – much less Common Yucca (Yucca filamentosa) in bloom currently than the last few years, e.g., 2 plants vs. dozen+:

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Northern Flicker exhibiting “doing something on the ground before flying away” behavior:

Great series of Brown-headed Cowbird @ Gull Point ‘outer old’ trail:

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And a few of the always lovely Great Crested Flycatcher:

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Finally, lots of Killdeer activity pretty much everywhere:

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Coming up soon: “great” photography from this past/spectacular weekend at Presque Isle State Park! Spoiler alert: more Eastern Racoon x2 (really) + baby Wild Turkey (really). #more_nature

Dateline: 1 July 2023

Checking in with BirdingPI.com’s western NY field team, reporting from Tom’s Point on Lake Chautauqua, NY:

Great sighting of male Indigo Bunting:

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Lots of wet Song Sparrow:

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“Glass half empty:” out-of-focus deer

“Glass half full:” pretty meadow flowers with artistic deer leaping effect bokeh

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Wrapping it up w/ more Red-winged Blackbird:

The age-old debate – American Robin v. Gray Catbird! – is finally settled. All shots 2 July 2023, Sidewalk Trail @ Presque Isle State Park.