More misc. nature from last Saturday at Presque Isle State Park. All shots from along the Dead Pond Trail east of B Trail.
Lupine (Lupinus perennis) Dead Pond Trail x Lupine
Can’t resist Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) x Lupine. These shots extra interesting for showing orange-coloured pollen sacs (a.k.a. pollen basket or corbicula):
Possibly female or juvenile Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) dragonfly:
Dashing
Lovely Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela) butterfly:
Couple shots of Zabulon Skipper (Lon zabulon) butterfly:
This is probably White Spring Moth (Lomographa vestaliata):
More Little Wood SatyrEastern Pondhawk(Erythemis simplicicollis)
Finally, a very interesting sighting of a well-camouflaged moth, probably Kent’s Geometer (Selenia kentaria):
Coming up soon, more birds! More insects! #more_nature
Misc. nature from last Saturday morning at Presque Isle State Park. (Birds covered in previous post.)
Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)
Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) enjoying the traffic-free road. Or something.
Took a long time to deploy these deer decoys on the Pine Tree Trail:
Deer duo (Odocoileus virginianus)Double deerDashing deer
Invasive/beautiful Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus) along the Gull Point Trail:
Yellow threat
Probably Northern Blue Flag Iris (Iris veriscolor) near Thompson Circle:
Beautiful blueSpatterdock (probably Nuphar advena) @ Thompson Bay swamp/pondClematis (?) by Thompson Circle
Plenty of beautiful Lupine (Lupinus perennis) along the Dead Pond Trail, in the sandy/open area between B Trail and Thompson Circle. More Lupine shots in the next post.
Lupine and other flowers
Invasive Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum) (+ unknown insect) along the Dead Pond Trail:
Hawkweed
And, invasive Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) also along the Dead Pond Trail:
Lots of beautiful Eastern Kingbird at Presque Isle State Park this time of year. These recent shots from the marsh/swamp between Long Pond and the main park road.
Catching a dragonfly/snack:
Lots of flying around and interaction, probably mating behavior:
Yellow Warbler x Eastern Kingbird
More Kingbird:
The rare Yellow Kingbird. Or perhaps a female American Goldfinch:
Safe to say that spring migration season’s mostly over. End of May, the casual BirdingPI.com “warbler tally” was a respectable/normal 18 species (not including vireos) seen at Presque Isle State Park:
Unexpected: Blue-winged Warbler, Hooded Warbler
Might have seen but didn’t: Canada, Prothonotary, Blackburnian, most of the ‘gray headed’ warblers
Would have liked more time with: Northern Parula
‘Warbler of the month:’ Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat (m)
The unusual stretch of dry/moderate weather continues. Per Erie News Now (June 5), “Erie has not seen ANY rain for 15 days straight now, …. If we make it through tomorrow night dry, this will become the longest rainless stretch in over 20 years for Erie.” (!)
American Robin II
Presque Isle State Park trail conditions generally good. Gull Point “inner old” trail muddy but passable. Despite the dry weather, problem spots still include: Long Pond west end, Duck Pond, B Trail, and Gull Point “middle old.”
Song Sparrow ISong Sparrow II
As previously mentioned, main park road was closed Saturday morning (between Beach No. 8 and Beach No. 11) for a charity walk. Very peaceful with the reduced road noise. Also a great time to bird the ’causeway’ between Thompson Circle and Budny Beach:
Goose patrol
The Canada Geese don’t care about traffic even under normal conditions, but easier to get ‘goose crossing’ shots like these:
Goose family crossing IGoose family crossing IIShould be “Goose Lane”
With restricted vehicle access, BirdingPI.com’s Saturday contingent hiked from Beach No. 8 to Pine Tree Trail, to the end of the Gull Point ‘inner old’ trail (by the beach), to Thompson Circle, and then up the Dead Pond Trail to A Trail, which terminates back at Beach No. 8. (Side note: this is a classic PI loop hike.) Not a ton of bird activity, but still great to see things like these lovely Great Crested Flycatcher on the Dead Pond Trail:
Lots of flower/mammal/insect activity on Saturday! Posts forthcoming.
Lots of excitement at Presque Isle State Park on Saturday (3 June 2023), with the outer main park road being closed between Beach No. 9 and Beach No. 11 for the something-or-other ‘walk for charity of some sort.’ Hard to easily access certain trailheads, but nice/peaceful without the road noise. More on all that later. Meanwhile, getting caught up on May content, here, misc. nature from the Pine Tree Trail.
Piping Plover and Killdeer covered in other posts, so this is Part III of holiday Gull Point coverage from Monday.
Gull Point outer old trailBaltimore Oriole (m)Some sort of pea or vetchHouse Wren
Just a beautiful morning out at the point – sunny/mild/balmy. Plenty of bird activity including all the regulars: Canada Goose, gulls, Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Killdeer, Barn Swallow, etc.
Gull Point view towards observation platformSong SparrowGull Point view NW backs along trailGull Point view west-ish towards Thompson BayCanada Goose (baby)Spotted Sandpiper ISpotted Sandpiper II (outline)
So great to see the Dunlin (maybe 5 individuals) fairly up close:
After the nest at Gull Point a couple weeks ago, it was great to see more Killdeer babies, this time on the back side of one of the outer beaches (east of Budny Beach) along the Gull Point Trail. Specifically, where the ‘outer old’ trail deviates from the beach, with a vantage of swamp/pond/beach/lake:
View north from Gull Point Trail towards Lake Erie
Bad photography conditions due to the distance + backlighting, but still fun to see:
Two chicks and two adults; one adult in the following shots and both in the final shot below: