Dateline: 8 April 2023

An excellent and unexpected encounter with a flock (16+) of amazing (and noisy) Rusty Blackbird Saturday at State Game Lands No. 109. Audio and video at the bottom.

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Dateline: 7 April 2023

Cool but beautiful (mostly sunny) holiday weekend in western PA. No additional warbler activity, but lots of nature otherwise. These shots from Presque Isle State Park on Friday.

“First time this spring” along the Sidewalk Trail, west end, a lovely Brown Thrasher:

Another “spring first,” lucky this beautiful Eastern Towhee de-shrubified for a moment:

Yet another “spring first,” great to see Chipping Sparrow back in the area, by Beach No. 9 (Pine Tree):

Another Brown Thrasher along the Pine Tree Trail:

Lots more Golden-crowned Kinglet activity – consolidated post (with shots from other days) to follow.

Belted Kingfisher above the swamp across from Pine Tree Trail east trailhead:

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Trail conditions: wet.

Following are flooded: Dead Pond Trail (west end); A Trail; B Trail; Long Pond Trail (west end); Duck Pond Trail; Marsh Trail; Sidewalk Trail (east end).

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Next time: a special appearance from down in the southlands, and later, more great weekend content!

Short outing Thursday evening at Headwaters Park, Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”). Always nice for a short hike and/or casual birding.

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Meanwhile, beautiful day Friday at Presque Isle – cold but sunny. No new warbler activity, but six “first time this spring” sightings: Chipping Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, and American Kestrel! Plus dragonflies and a Garter Snake conclave! Pics to follow ASAP.

Part 7 of ‘weekend update’ content at Presque Isle State Park, last Sunday at Thompson Bay – first Osprey of the spring!

Long distance shot – Osprey @ tree, head of Thompson Bay:

Backlit shots of ‘hovering’/hunting behavior (taken from edge of Thompson Bay):

Then backlit shots in flight:

A short time later, from near Thompson Circle (Dead Pond Trail east trailhead), probably heading off west into the woods for fish dinner:

Saw a couple Osprey-sized birds far off in the distance, but unsure if there was one Osprey in the area or more than one. (Plenty of distant Bald Eagle and Turkey Vulture activity as well.)

Dateline: 6 April 2023

Buckle up? Heads up? Man up? What’s up? Well, since you asked, spring migration season’s ‘officially’ off and running in Erie with the first BirdingPI.com warbler sighting this year! Appropriately enough, a beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler spotted Thursday in the vegetation adjacent East Ave beach:

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Elsewhere, also seen today, Brown-headed Cowbird (no pics) & Green Heron!

Erie weekend weather forecast: cool but dry. Happy birding!

[Editor’s note to staff: “Man up”?!? Before posting, please change to “Person up?” or “Woman/person/man up?” Per BirdingPI.com D&I Policy Section 2(b). Thanks.]

Dateline: 2 April 2023

Back to last weekend with more content from Sunday at Presque Isle State Park. (Weather: sunny, cold.)

First up, back along the Pine Tree Trail, with cute Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger):

Obligatory but fun “camouflaged Brown Creeper” shot:

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Despite the awful photographs, still fun to see the first Fox Sparrow of the season. Yellow lower beak suggests American Tree Sparrow, but heavily streaked breast (+ overall face colouration) = Fox Sparrow:

See also red tail:

Another great sighting, this time Winter Wren. Note overall brown colouration, short tail, slender beak, hint white eyebrow, etc.:

Another day with lovely Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:

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Heading over to the Dead Pond Trail (east end) again, this time with the second butterfly of the season, the beautiful Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma):

And, this is how you know:

(Similar looking Question Mark butterfly would have question mark-appearing spots instead + different wing spot pattern.)

Finally, didn’t get any good shots, but surprised to see Red-breasted Nuthatch this early:

Bonus post of Horned Grebe on Thompson Bay! Currently seeing individuals with both non-breeding and transitioning/breeding plumage.

First up, breeding/transition plumage – white-tipped bill, red eye, black head, blond tufts/”horns:”

A nice view where the ear tufts actually look like horns:

Non-breeding plumage – same bill/eyes, white cheek, black head, and a fairly sharp border between black/white:

Part 4 of weekend+ content, with more to come!

First up, from last week at East Ave boat launch, happy to see Bonaparte’s Gulls back in the area:

Non-breeding plumage – black bill and black ‘smudge’ behind the ear.

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Back to Presque Isle State Park along the Pine Tree Trail on Saturday:

In the ‘random nature’ category, an interesting finding of a partial Woodchuck/Groundhog (Marmota monax) skull. Following shot lower mandible; two elongate teeth in the upper right are the lower incisors:

Upper mandible on left; curved teeth at bottom left are the upper incisors:

See the excellent book Anatomy of the Woodchuck for detailed reading on this topic.

Following rather dramatic shot probably two Eastern Phoebe (first sighting this spring):

More ‘random nature,’ blobby fungus on a fallen tree, probably Northern Cinnabar Polypore (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus):

American Tree Sparrow munching on invasive Common Reed aka Phragmites:

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Moving on to Dead Pond Trail (east end) just before the thunderstorms:

Lots of Brown Creeper activity over the weekend, e.g.:

More Brown Creeper shots to follow, also some uncommon sightings along the Pine Tree Trail on Sunday!

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Bonus Great Egret video, by Long Pond. (Sound level lowered due to road and wind noise.) Lots of heat shimmer on display, but still fun to see.

Happy to see Golden-crowned Kinglet back in Erie. These shots from Saturday afternoon along the Dead Pond Trail, under cloudy conditions:

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Behavioral note: Kinglets move quickly, flitting from branch to branch. Sometimes, they’ll also flutter in place or hang upside down for foraging for insects/other food = the ‘upside down’ shots above.

Dateline: 1 April 2023

It’s all about the weather. Clear, humid, relatively warm (20 deg C?; 65+ deg F) Saturday morning. Wind picked up + clouds/thunderstorms by 1:30PM, with a substantial temp drop down to approximately 7.2 deg C (45 deg F). Cold enough for mixed snow in the evening + below freezing Sunday morning. Sunday: clear, moderate wind, cold – maybe a high temp of 3.3 deg C (37-38 deg F).

Following video – thunderstorms north of Thompson Bay swamp/pond (looking towards Budny Beach); conditions deteriorated rapidly after this:

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Until the weather turned, beautiful morning Saturday for birding. Tons of activity along the Pine Tree Trail, esp. “new spring arrivals.” See previous post for “bird of the weekend” (Merlin). Here, ‘runner up’ lovely Golden-crowned Kinglet. Lots of Kinglet activity, and lots of great Kinglet shots coming up later in the week. Preview:

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‘Second runner up,’ the always amazing Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Multiple individuals sighted along the Pine Tree Trail both Saturday and Sunday: