Dateline: 23 July 2023

Yet another beautiful weekend in Erie County, PA: high temps around 27 deg C, mostly sunny; very humid with a slight breeze Saturday, warmer/dryer Sunday, moderate rain overnight into Monday.

Presque Isle State Park trail conditions remain good; typical ‘problem spots’ vary based on recent rain, e.g., Gull Point ‘inner old’ trail at one point flooded/impassable, later muddy/traversable.

Plenty of summer bird activity. With the recent/unusual shorebird activity, BirdingPI.com personnel dispatched to Gull Point multiple days. These shots from Sunday late morning:

Very excited about this BirdingPI.com “first time at Presque Isle” sighting of a beautiful male Indigo Bunting, along the Gull Point ‘outer old’ trail:

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Very happy to finally see a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) butterfly this season (see “ID Tip” below):

One of the sunflowers in the Helianthus genus, perhaps Stiff Sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus):

Great Egrets: reasonably common at Presque Isle generally, less so at Gull Point specifically. Total of five individuals in the pond/lagoon:

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ID Tip: Viceroy butterfly has a cross-stripe (see red arrow) along the hindwing, which Monarch lacks; Viceroy forewing (green arrow) has different pattern vs. Monarch; Viceroy body lacks most of the Monarch’s white speckling.

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Coming up soon: more Gull Point, more Gull Point Trail, more Great Egret, more Piping Plover! Also bonus Egret video #more_bird

Dateline: 22 July 2023

Exciting news at Presque Isle State Park this week: happy to report the successful hatching of four Piping Plover babies at Gull Point! Really amazing occurrence generally, plus bonus points for an actual sighting/photo or several.

These @ 800mm shots suffer from the distance + heat shimmer; still fun to see. All from Saturday morning @ observation platform, looking generally south and to the left (east) of the nesting enclosure. (See location note at bottom of post.)

Adult (far right) + chick 1 (middle) + chick 2 (far left):

Three chicks (far right, right middle, and far left):

Adult (far right) + 3 chicks (middle right, middle left, and far left):

Uncropped view @ 800mm (aspect ratio changed to 16×9):

Finally, all 4 chicks together! (Far right, right middle, left middle, and far left.)

Following two views are cropped from the same single photograph. First is Piping Plover chicks #1-3, the second #4 (to the left of the 3):

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Also seen Saturday: Yellowlegs, Dowitcher, Sanderling, Spotted Sandpiper and other sandpiper, Bank Swallow and other swallows, Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gull and other gulls, Caspian Tern, Turkey Vulture, Song Sparrow, GBH, House Wren, Baltimore Oriole, American Robin, Gray Catbird!, Red-winged Blackbird, Green Heron, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, American Goldfinch, American Crow, rabbits having breakfast, etc. – report to follow. (Also lots of Killdeer. Can’t forget the Killdeer.)

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Location note: from a different day, wide-angle iPhone shot of where the Plovers above were seen – nest enclosure to right of center, Plovers sighted approximately on the lagoon far shore at very center:

On a beautiful Saturday in Erie County, PA (report on Gull Point to follow), a “data dump” of misc bird from May-July 2023. #more_bird

Following shots all Presque Isle State Park:

More Yellow Warbler @ Misery Bay:

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Warbling Vireo @ Misery Bay:

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White-crowned Sparrow @ Misery Bay:

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Coming up soon, more exciting news from Gull Point!

On the bird side of things, please enjoy Green Titmouse special report.

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Due to small size/erratic movement, very tough to capture DIF (dragonflies/damselflies in flight). Happy to see this beautiful Spot-winged Glider (Pantala hymenaea) in ‘hover mode’ out at Gull Point, Presque Isle State Park. All shots @ 560mm + cropped:

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ID Note: Per Wikipedia, “It looks very similar to the wandering glider, with the addition of a dark basal spot on the hindwing.” From the shots above, an example of the ‘dark basal spot’ (red arrow):

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No affiliation, but please consider supporting Wikipedia = a great online source of all sorts of information for free.

Fun, recent shots of beautiful adult/juvenile Eastern Kingbird + ‘juvenile begging’/feeding behavior. Along the Gull Point “outer old trail,” Presque Isle State Park.

This BirdingPI.com PI Bird Alert^TM brought to you by SCAB-Canada, the Swiss Chard Advisory Board of Canada. Grown fresh by our friends across the lake. Swiss Chard from Canada – Taste the North Country!^TM

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Ok, Whimbrel at Gull Point! Two of these amazing (and uncommon for Presque Isle State Park) birds spotted recently on the outer north beach.

All shots from where the beach trail ends at the “do not enter the bird nesting area” sign @ 800mm. Challenging conditions due to distance and heat shimmer.

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ID tip: look for the very long, very downturned bill that isn’t long enough to be a Curlew.

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Bonus Whimbrel video!

More recent insects at Presque Isle State Park. First up, a great sighting of the amazing Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina) dragonfly:

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Probably juvenile/male Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis):

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One of the Azure butterflies, perhaps Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon):

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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.]