Dateline: 26 December 2022

Friday-Sunday in the greater Erie area: light/moderate snow, mostly overcast (some sun Saturday afternoon), windy, and extremely cold. No BirdingPI.com field operations due to unsafe conditions. Monday, overcast and cold, but warm enough (-7 deg C) to muster a small team for a chilly outing to Presque Isle State Park.

In park news, with the cold snap the back bay made an abrupt turn from ‘mostly unfrozen’ to ‘mostly frozen.’ Also, as of Monday afternoon, outer loop main park road was closed from East Pier to the main turnoff for the Coast Guard station. Presumably due to icy road conditions along the bay. (Extreme cold + high wind = blowing freezing water.) Access to West Pier also closed, for the same reason.

Reasonably good bird activity Monday. Lots of Tundra Swan activity (especially in an unfrozen area of the back bay by Feather Platform – more on this later in the week), plus sparrows, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, various ducks and gulls, and various woodpeckers. Here, Tundra Swan far out on Lake Erie, taken from Budny Beach. For a bit of colour therapy, interspersed with Northern Cardinal (m) also along Budny Beach:

Bad shots of swans in flight:

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All trail conditions generally poor: 13 cm snow on top of ice/frozen rain. Windblown areas close to the water not safely traversable due to slippery conditions. Paved trails in reasonably good shape.

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Bonus bad swan video:

A nice gift from Santa: backlogged shots of lovely female Black-and-white Warbler, from this past April at Presque Isle State Park. (Female: note the buffy wash/flanks.)

Dreaming of a White-breasted Nuthatch Christmas. All shots recently near Long Pond @ Presque Isle State Park.

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Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Here in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”), overcast, cold, light wind, and actively snowing. (Temp @ 9:21AM: -10 deg C.) Not quite blizzard conditions, but not a good day for the outdoors.

Dateline: 24 December 2022

The awful weather continues in Erie: overcast, windy, current temp of -16 deg C with a windchill down as low as -38 deg C, in the “dangerous” category. BirdingPI.com field operations remain on hiatus until conditions improve.

So, not a post on the fabled final George R.R. Martin novel that’ll never see the light of day. Instead, time for a ray of virtual sunshine in the form of backlogged shots from spring migration this past April, at Presque Isle State Park.

First up, BirdingPI.com’s second favorite warbler, the amazingly lovely Black-throated Blue Warbler:

The equally lovely Magnolia Warbler (m):

Following shot probably a Swainson’s Thrush. Note the bold, buffy eyering, plus the tail isn’t reddish/doesn’t contrast with the back (like a Hermit Thrush):

The irascible, beautiful Brown Thrasher:

Looks like a lovely Veery:

Some type of thrush (Hermit or Swainson’s):

Lovely American Robin:

Dateline: 22-23 December 2022

Cloudy and windy but relatively mild on Thursday. Light rain in the evening, with rain overnight turning to snow and blowing wind Friday; relatively severe winter storm conditions. Temperature currently in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”)(10:45 EST): -14 deg C. (Yes, it’s a minus sign.) Plus severe wind chill.

Celebrating the cold temps/snow with woodpeckers! Pileated Woodpecker above, from a few days ago. Following clips from today (Friday) near BirdingPI.com HQ, an intrepid Downy Woodpecker:

All BirdingPI.com field activities canceled for safety reasons, until conditions improve, hopefully, over the weekend. Stay warm/safe everyone!

A special “large format” report featuring plenty of Ring-billed Gull!

Gullmania IV

Dateline: 21 December 2022

Happy last day of fall/first day of winter, with winter solstice 2022 @ 4:48PM eastern standard time. Hope everyone has a nice day!

What better way to celebrate winter than with white birds? Here, of course, beautiful Tundra Swan on Long Pond, from the last couple weeks @ Presque Isle State Park. (Plus a Mallard or two.)

Tundra Swan (left), Canada Goose (center), Mallard (m & f)(right), and perhaps a female Ring-necked Duck (second from left)(note the white eye ring):

Part 2 of lovely a lovely Northern Cardinal (m) perched in trees. All Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”).

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Tomorrow, mostly-white birds!

Dateline: 17-18 December 2022

Erie weather: Sunday, overcast and snowy all day, light to heavy depending on location; heavy and almost white-out conditions on Presque Isle Bay. Re. video above, sorry to whichever BirdingPI.com staff member drew the ‘short straw’ for morning duty at South Pier. (More on this below.)

Saturday, cold and mostly overcast, hint of almost-sun at one point. Reasonably ok day for the annual Presque Isle Audubon Great Christmas Bird Count at Presque Isle State Park and vicinity. Considering the weather, seemed like a decent turnout of birders and bird enthusiasts.

Various ‘merely ok’ shots from the GCBC:

Got some nice shots of the Tundra Swan coming in for a landing, which were ruined due to overexposure. Forgot to crank the exposure comp down after the hawk shots below = totally boneheaded move. Rule Number 4 from Kessler’s Mini-handbook of Great Digital Photography (C&R Press, 2008): always remember to re-adjust the exposure compensation back to zero/neutral.

Haven’t seen a Hairy Woodpecker in at least a month:

Bird of the day: amazing Cooper’s Hawk, @ Long Pond Trail. Tough conditions in the shade/forest backlit by overcast sky. These shots adjusted in Photoshop as best possible + sharpening via Topaz AI.

Again, haven’t seen American Robin for weeks. Four individuals in a tree across the road from the Budny Beach restroom building. E.g.:

Nice to see American Tree Sparrow @ Thompson Bay. Note the distinctive center chest spot/marking:

So, back to the topic of South Pier in the snow. Following is a view southeast from North Pier on Saturday, towards the mainland. The gulls to the center right and far right with the dark wings may be Great Black-backed Gull. If so, very cool spotting.

So, South Pier and East Ave Boat Ramp Sunday morning. Hoping for better shots with a longer lens, or positive ID via spotting scope, but visibility too low for anything other than Ring-billed Gull near the beach:

Anyway, more on this interesting area later in the week.

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Tomorrow, back in the red with Cardinalmania II!

Web-hosting platform down for maintenance yesterday. Lots of interesting Presque Isle and Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”) bird activity to report on later in the week. In the meantime, foraging/feeding behavior from the lovely Black-capped Chickadee. Recent shots from the Thompson Circle swamp/pond (with seeds from Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)), and earlier shots (the green ones, with probably a species of Goldenrod) from earlier in the fall along the dirt service road passing through Pine Tree Meadows.