Dateline: 29 April 2023

Cloudy, humid, moderately warm Saturday in Erie, PA. On-and-off light drizzle at Presque Isle State Park, turning to widespread rain by 1:30PM. Bird activity fairly subdued, but as always, lots of Canada Geese! These shots @ Long Pond.

Happy times are here again, with the return of BirdingPI.com’s mascot/favorite warbler, the always amazing, and curiously yellow, Yellow Warbler! All shots under rainy conditions last Saturday at Leo’s Landing/Feather Platform, Presque Isle State Park.

Song Sparrow gathering nesting material:

---

Three of lovely Palm Warbler:

---

A ‘grab bag’ of bird content from this past weekend at Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA.

Very uncommon occurrence of three Wood Duck (2x male @ top/bottom, 1x female in middle) on Presque Isle Bay, off Leo’s Landing:

---

Following on Duck Pond as viewed from the road, Great Egret x Canada Goose:

---

---

Following all at Gull Point on Sunday:

Closing it out with more amazing, if poorly lit, Tricolored Heron:

Finally, the final “guest roving correspondent” content from Milford Point – the “Presque Isle of Connecticut.” As promised, Piping Plover, and lots of it! Even under foggy lighting conditions, wow.

More overcast/gloomy photography from this past weekend at Presque Isle State Park. First up, a very nice shot of beautiful Palm Warbler in the woods adjacent Thompson Bay:

Mixed Mallard and Wood Ducks in the clearing off Marina Lake, sort of across from the access trail to Boat Landing #4 on Long Pond. This spot far enough away from the road to avoid spooking.

---

For whatever reason, a bit more display this season of the eponymous crown of cute Ruby-crowned Kinglet, off Thompson Bay:

---

More Palm Warbler:

---

Duo Chipping Sparrow @ Budny Beach:

---

Dateline: 26 April 2023

Another year come and gone, with today the 238th anniversary of the birth of famous ornithologist and generally bad human being John James Audubon. Time for pros/cons:

John James Audubon:

• Pros:
  • Important contributions to ornithology and popularizing the birds/nature of North America
  • Liked squirrels
• Cons:
  • Owned slaves and was anti-abolitionist
  • “Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot. …” (Wikipedia.)

---

Bird photography:

• Pros:
  • Fun and rewarding; easier than painting
  • Easier to ID birds than ‘real birding’
• Cons:
  • Expensive/heavy equipment
  • Giant cameras somewhat pretentious

---

Swallow photography;

• Pros:
  • Beautiful birds
  • Fly around a lot in the same area
• Cons:
  • Small
  • Fly erratically

And with that out of the way, happy to see BirdingPI.com’s favorite swallow, the lovely Northern Rough-winged Swallow, back in Erie at Presque Isle State Park. (Also seen at this spot: Barn Swallow.) These shots adjacent the main park road by Niagara Pond, 23 April 2023.

[Nikon Z9 + Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 lens, cloudy conditions]

A reasonably epic post of more “guest roving correspondent” content at Milford Point, CT – the “Presque Isle of Connecticut.” This time, @ the beach!

View of boardwalk connecting main grounds of Audubon Center to beach:

Following shot – peninsula of Milford Pt in foreground, outer sand bar middle/left just below horizon, Stratford Point at horizon on right:

Beautiful flock of Brant, aka Brant Goose! #more_goose

Following shot – view west along the lagoon, outer sand bar on left, Milford Pt on right, flock of Brant just off center right:

Views of outer sand bar looking west:

As promised, the amazing and hard-to-see Piping Plover:

[Editor’s note: plenty more Piping Plover content to follow.]

Yay, shorebirds! (Sanderling: generally gray with shorter bill; Dunlin: generally brown with longer curved bill.)

Four of a beautiful Great Egret:

---

After the beach:

---

Stay tuned for reasonably nice Piping Plover photography!

Dateline: 21-24 April 2023

After a pleasant, sunny Friday, it was thunderstorms overnight, tapering off to drizzle by 12:30PM Saturday or so; cold, cloudy, windy. Sunday: colder, cloudy, windy. Monday morning: rain, snow.

Despite the awful Sat/Sun weather, a spectacular weekend for birding at Presque Isle State Park. Besides “the usuals,” first-this-year sightings of Yellow Warbler (!), Spotted Sandpiper, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, etc. Not to mention more warbler and thrush activity generally, and an amazing/crazy sighting of Tricolored Heron at Gull Point.

Trail conditions: wet. Gull Point ‘outer old trail’ flooded in spots but easily passable due to recent widening.

---

Tons of content forthcoming. Getting started with the lovely Blue-gray Gnatcatcher @ woods adjacent Budny Beach east parking:

Please enjoy a special report of Common Loon.

Dateline: 23 April 2023

This BirdingPI.com PI Bird Alert^TM brought to you by the Hoisin Sauce Advisory Board – Everything Tastes Better With Hoisin Sauce! Almost.^TM

---

In the realm of the ‘highly unlikely but nevertheless real,’ an amazing sighting today of a beautiful Tricolored Heron at Gull Point, Presque Isle State Park! Normally a coastal habitant, so wow. Substantially smaller than GBH, with white belly, white throat line, and blue head/neck colouration.

Just a few preliminary shots + video:

[Video resolution lowered due to site file size limitations.]

---

GBH at that same location for comparison:

---

More photography of this amazing bird coming up soon!