If birding the greater Erie, Pennsylvania bayfront area this time of year, likely to see many beautiful Red-breasted Mergansers, like these mostly males at South Pier:

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No post yesterday on BirdingPI.com due to bird counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count. (Important to make sure the population is tallied correctly ahead of U.S. mid-term elections later this year.) Should be ok weather this weekend in Erie County, Pennsylvania, including above-freezing air temps, so wishing everyone happy counting!

Today’s digital photographs are from South Pier the other early, cold morning, mostly looking east towards outer Lake Erie/Thompson Bay, featuring Surf Scoter and a great, if poorly lit, pair of Common Ravens:

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Here’s a sequence of long-distance shots of a Bald Eagle approaching outer Gull Point:

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In Erie County, PA “birding news of interest,” pockets of open water appeared once again around the North Pier/South Pier area this week, after a recent “near 100%” freeze-over due to cold temps. Open water = greatly increased seasonal waterfowl activity, including reported sightings yesterday/today of Surf Scoter and, early this morning, this rather unusual what’s probably a Hooded Merganser x Common Goldeneye hybrid:

ID: looks like a male Hooded Merganser but without any white on the head/’hood.’ Who knew?

[Editor’s note: somewhere in the metaverse, Netflix has greenlit development of A Duck Tail of Forbidden Love…]

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More from South Pier later. Here’s BIF, etc. from 1 February 2026 at Presque Isle Marina:

And finally, lots and lots of Common Merganser in flight:

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Nothing more fun in the world of bird photography than “landing ducks,” even with uneven lighting/exposure due to cloudy conditions. This is a female Common Merganser recently seen at Presque Isle Marina, in chronological order:

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More ‘winter birds’ recently seen in Erie County, Pennsylvania, featuring White-breasted Nuthatch:

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Another cold morning in Millcreek Twp, Pennsylvania (“Since 1800”), but should “warm up” later today and into the week, with highs above freezing forecast for tomorrow/Tuesday (!)

Despite the cold, there are still birds, as in these recent digital photographs taken in Erie County:

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Back to Presque Isle Marina a week ago, featuring (unless otherwise noted) beautiful Red-breasted Merganser taking advantage of the open water.

Male, female, & immature Red-breasted Merganser:

Male Common Goldeneye @ center/foreground:

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At last, cooperative American Crow subjects so we could finally use this title for a blog post. Only took 17.5 hours of waiting out in the cold.

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[Editor’s note: “17.5 hours” should be in quotes. Or perhaps change ‘hours’ to ‘minutes.’]

[BirdingPI.com ornithology specialist note: interesting to see American Crow foraging on Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina). Usually associate such behavior with American Robin, Black-capped Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, etc. It must happen regularly, but never noticed this behavior in American Crow before. Perhaps the long spell of cold weather has made other food sources scarcer?]

Lucky to see Merlin a couple times a year in Erie County, Pennsylvania, so this sighting a few days ago in Millcreek Twp (“Since 1800”) of this beautiful falcon species was a happy occasion. Of course, it’s weird to have a bird named after avian vocal recognition software, so hopefully as part of the AOS project to re-name honorific bird names, they’ll come up with something more appropriate like “Gandalf.”

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Looks like more extremely cold weather coming this weekend to Erie County, Pennsylvania. These shots from last Sunday morning at dawn at Presque Isle Marina, where the air temp was maybe around 4 deg F. On the other hand, little wind, and the sunshine made for good exposure on beautiful birds like this male Bufflehead (right):

And with the protracted cold weather, even these Canada Geese are finally heading south:

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