Dateline: 21-22 January 2023.

Bad weather in the Erie, PA area this weekend – overcast with periodic light frozen rain/hail on Saturday, light/moderate but substantial snow starting 12 noon on Sunday. Still, plenty of interesting avian activity at Presque Isle State Park; BirdingPI.com personnel deployed as usual for bird photography. #hot_coffee #more_bird

Following shots from Saturday:

Below, Common Merganser over Presque Isle Bay. Hill in far distance (looking south) in upper right corner is the Waste Management “Lake View” dump.

Tundra Swan on Presque Isle Bay. Middle/left background: Ferncliff Beach; middle right: Erie Yacht Club.

Off Long Pond, an American Tree Sparrow:

Beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, in the trees on the inland side between Saw Mill and Short Jetty:

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Moving on to Sunday. Ring-billed Gull in snow @ Marina Lake:

Canada Geese/Marina Lake/snow:

Thanks to a kindly birder passerby on Saturday, heard a rumour of an Iceland Gull at Presque Isle. Iceland Gull = very uncommon; like a Ring-billed Gull or Herring Gull but with white or gray wingtips. BirdingPI.com wishes everyone good luck in finding the Iceland Gull!

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Gull ID tip: hopefully obvious, but in case not, wing tips in flight shown in top view below. Wing tips on land/water shown in lower view below (red arrows):

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Coming up this week: more Great Black-backed Gull, including “amazing” video! Also more gull fishing! Plus Red-breasted Merganser, and Canada Goose vs. Bald Eagle (?)! #more_bird!

Overcast and cold weekend in the greater Erie area. Before getting back to gull coverage, time for a ‘ray of sunshine’ with these shots of Eastern Bluebird from last Monday near Pymatuning Reservoir:

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Elsewhere, in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”):

Dateline: 14 January 2023

Finally delivering on the promised Great Black-backed Gull content from last Saturday, along with some “misc nature.”

Here’s our cute Pekin friend with accompanying Mallard ducks. Might recall this bird was spotted on Lake Erie off Budny Beach on Sunday – it gets around! (Or, there could be more than one.)

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Great Black-backed Gulls. They’re big, they’re black (partially), they’re great!

Distant view, Lake Erie, mixed gulls on sandbar off Beach 11:

Front a distance, distinctive due to very dark (black) wings:

Several views, from further to closer:

Adult Great Black-backed Gull ID tips: (i) large size: compare the GB-bG adult center right to the Ring-billed Gull just off center left; (ii) very dark wings; (iii) white head, throat, and breast, yellow bill and red spot on lower bill; and (iv) pink-ish legs. (Lesser Black-backed Gull = gray wings and yellow legs.)

In the following crop, adult is center. Bird on the right probably a first- or second-winter Great Black-backed Gull. Note the size, dark bill, sort of mottled head/breast, and checkered black/gray wings. (More shots of this bird next time.) Bird on left could be juvenile Herring Gull.

An uncommon treat to get some reasonably nice shots of GB-bG in flight:

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Currently having a spell of bad weather in Erie County – rain, more rain, mixed rain/snow, more rain, wind, overcast. Wishing everyone a nice weekend nevertheless! And in any event, coming up soon: more Great Black-backed Gull!

Dateline: 16 January 2023

Checking in with BirdingPI.com’s occasional Crawford County contingent for a special report on recent raptor sightings, via the tried-and-true: (i) “drive along backcountry farm roads with an eye on power poles/power lines/trees;” (ii) “find a safe turnaround and backtrack as needed for repositioning your vehicle if the bird in question is overshot;” and (iii) “ID a lull in traffic for stopping in the road to take pictures out the window” method. (Not good for photography or road safety, but sometimes works. #more_bird)

Above and below, two different, beautiful American Kestrel (out of three spotted in the same area) approximately at the corner of Dicksonburg Rd. and Inlet Rd., west of Fatboy’s Saloon. (No affiliation.)

In that same area, a lovely Red-tailed Hawk:

Moving on, south of Linesville, PA near the Linesville Fish Hatchery, an amazing “hawk, but not a Red-tailed Hawk.” Take a look at the banded tail and ‘scaled’ back – perhaps a Red-shouldered Hawk. (Vs. other options like Broad-winged Hawk, which are unlikely to be in this area this time of year.)

Distant Bald Eagle in a tall tree, somewhere outside Conneautville:

Another amazing (!) American Kestrel (two spotted in this area), along Rundeltown Rd.:

Distant Red-tailed Hawk (x2) off Route 98 south of Crossingville:

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American Kestrel for the win! Absolutely gorgeous.

There’s always room for Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger):

Dateline: 15 January 2023

Elsewhere at Presque Isle State Park on Sunday afternoon, it was BirdingPI.com’s “wandering around sort of near Gull Point” contingent. From Budny Beach (above) to the outer old trail to the back/south lakeshore of interior Gull Point then due north back to the outer beach/ “new trail.” Access note: lake level is low enough to easily/dryly walk along the entire south lakeshore from the outer old trail “turn” (from N/S to E/W at it’s closest approach to the lake on the south) to outer Gull Point. See red-marked trail with the star in following map excerpt:

Following shots mostly taken at/near the location marked by the red star above.

Various shots of Bufflehead:

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Back along the outer beach:

Trail note: due to periods of warm temps, outer beach edge mostly ice and ice dune free (see shots above) = hike to outer Gull point along the beach is relatively easy for this time of year.

[Editor’s note: Kaye C. Barker.]

Dateline: 15 January 2023

Out of (chronological) order for this BirdingPI.com weekend update, continuing to focus on sunny Sunday. Because sunlight = happy bird photographers. Tundra Swan and Bald Eagle were covered in the last two posts; bird activity: overall, excellent – only a few ‘land birds,’ but plenty otherwise (waterfowl, etc.)

Sunday, Presque Isle Bay frozen over (slightly/partially) just enough to support waterfowl. Here, looks like American Black Duck in the foreground and gulls in the background, from near Feather Platform:

Following three shots of Canada Geese at Perry Monument, first foraging, then startled, then in flight:

Two of Herring Gull in flight. Thank you, lovely blue background.

Bad photo, but, just for ID purposes, off Budny Beach: Mallard in the foreground left; perhaps a juvenile merganser middle-ground, off center left; five ducks in the background are Common Goldeneye.

Our Pekin friend and his Mallard lady friend (?) are back on the lake:

Misc. gull (species unknown) on Lake Erie:

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Sunday was so big, going to take four posts to cover it all. Weekend update part II tomorrow. Then, back to Greater Black-backed Gull (finally), Bald Eagle vs. Canada Goose (really, sort of), and American Kestrel, lots of them! Really.

Worried it’s “birding slow season” in PA? Worry no longer – BirdingPI.com is here to assuage your concerns via moderately intrepid nature reporting and mostly unobjectionable bird photography/videography content. #more_bird

Dateline: 15 January 2023

Presque Isle State Park. Cold but sunny Sunday. Peacefully driving the BirdingPI.com van along the outer loop road by Misery Bay.

“Hot damn! It’s an eagle! Quick, pull over!” [*]

Execute the “two second don’t hit pedestrians or bicyclists” check before pulling over onto the shoulder/multi-use trail. Take shots out the window as best possible. Jump out (execute the “one second don’t get run over by passing car” check) and keep shooting.

Run 1:

Run 2:

From here, looked like it flew off to the tall trees along the Ridge Trail – known Bald Eagle “hang out” spot.

Doesn’t get much better than Bald Eagle/hunting. #nature

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[Photo Editor’s note: tough conditions due to distance, lighting, etc. = not the best shots ever. Still, fun to see.]

[* Editor’s note: “Hot damn” appears to be a literary embellishment. Seems unlikely anyone says “hot damn.”]

Please enjoy peaceful Tundra Swan content from Sunday:

All content @ Presque Isle State Park, Erie County, PA. Taken near Feather Platform.

[Editor’s Note: shot above, background: looking east at entrance to Presque Isle Bay, with South Pier to the right and North Pier to the left.]

With the BirdingPI.com team out scouring Presque Isle State Park this weekend for interesting wildlife (spoiler alert: Great Black-backed Gull!), only time for some recent, previously-unposted shots from Erie County, in the ‘grab bag’ category. #more_bird!

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Common Merganser (f or immature male) over Presque Isle Bay:

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Ring-billed Gull vs. surf @ Budny Beach:

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Funky exposure on some of these shots of European Starling at Presque Isle State Park by the ranger station:

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Saturday weather: overcast with an occasional hint of blue sky; periodic, localized lake-effect snow; very cold in a damp/clingy way – lovely day at Presque Isle State Park, but unpleasantly cold. Reasonable gull and waterfowl activity, almost no ‘land bird’ activity. Sunday: looks like a sunny day as forecast!