Stuck in the greater Atlanta, GA area with nothing but an iPhone, a monocular, and a MARTA pass? No excuse – it’s still birding “go time!” An epic special report from BirdngPI.com’s roving correspondent.

Tucked away amid the swank neighborhoods of Buckhead, GA is the lovely Blue Heron Nature Preserve – stream, wetland, mixed deciduous/tall-pine forest, well-maintained trails. Lots of Brown Thrasher activity. Bird of the outing: Carolina Wren; unfortunately no photos (see commentary below).

iPhone + manual focus monocular = bad bird photography –> hard to gauge sharp (or any) focus, hard to focus quickly, hard to get a bird in the field of view. But probably better than an iPhone by itself. Let us explain:

For those rusty on Renaissance Italian literature, “The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Tim Cook Satan is held in bondage.”

Circular image format: uncropped/zoomed out. Normal/rectangular image format: iPhone zoomed in. (All handheld shots; images not cropped in post-processing.) Landscape photos: iPhone w/o monocular.

If you thought focusing on hummingbirds was hard before. Yikes.

At least the trail shots look ok:

Advantage Presque Isle: fewer dodgy shopping-cart people.

Advantage Atlanta: dodgy shopping-cart people are friendlier.

Just one of many interesting Presque Isle birds this past weekend: a very cute Pied-billed Grebe (immature/non-breeding) on Long Pond. Bonus points for relatively close range @ boat landing #3. (Seemed confused enough by human presence to stick around for a couple minutes before departure via submersion.)

Now over to Thompson Bay on Sunday, with four Pied-billed Grebe:

Bonus peaceful video clips:

Dateline: 15 October 2022, Presque Isle State Park

Absolutely beautiful day Sunday at Presque Isle – light wind, mild temps, sunny. Ton of bird activity, especially Yellow-rumped Warbler and Kinglet. Content from multiple BirdingPI.com team excursions to follow this week. In the meantime, our lovely American Pekin friend on Long Pond on Saturday – first time seeing it fly. #proof_of_flight

More in-flight pics:

And, back for a landing:

Dateline: 15 October 2022, Presque Isle State Park

Saturday: unsettled weather – windy, cloudy in the morning (localized light rain), sunny in the afternoon. Despite the wind, loads of cool bird activity.

After a leisurely survey of the Pine Tree Trail, quick stop at Pine Tree Meadows. Lo-and-behold, a gorgeous Merlin perched on a dead pine tree = birding gold! Totally amazing #nature

Following shots are blurry, but still good for feather coloration in flight:

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In quick trail news, the lake level’s back up and the newly reopened/widened Gull Point inner old trail = back in flood mode:

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Stay tuned this week for a lot more from Presque Isle, plus a special field report from down south. Way down south. More bird!

Cloudy and windy with periodic, localized light rain on Saturday morning at Presque Isle State Park (15 October), sunny and windy by 2:30PM or so. Lots of amazing bird activity – post(s) forthcoming! In the meantime, a tough one from the other weekend near Beach 3/Beach 4.

Warbler-sized, overall brown, no wing bars, white ‘eyebrow,’ streaked chest, some yellow on belly and coverlets. Dark, brownish crown. Based on all those factors, going with juvenile Palm Warbler!

BirdingPI.com team’s mostly out on travel this week with various nature/bird/whatever trips, so it’s been quiet in the office. Pretty sure there’s team coverage scheduled for Presque Isle State Park this upcoming weekend, so stay tuned. In the meantime, more Broad-billed Hummingbird from Arizona in August. Amazing x lovely!

Dateline: August 2022, San Pedro House, Sierra Vista, AZ

Not a lot of exposition in today’s post, just beautiful Broad-billed Hummingbird at feeders at San Pedro House. Male: green/blue with red bill; female/juvenile: gray/green with black bill.

Just a quick, mid-week post of some recent shots mostly from Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA.

In Presque Isle State Park trail news, looks like the fine folks at DCNR were busy recently re-opening the Gull Point inner old trail, and widening/mowing the Gull Point outer old trail. Looks a bit ugly for now, but certainly helps with access, especially moving the downed trees. Also good for birding = easier to see.

Moving on to more birds finally, an amazing amount of Double-crested Cormorant (+ gulls) activity on Sunday (9 October 2022). First out at Gull Point, then transitioning to Thompson Bay, then transitioning further into Presque Isle Bay.

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Finally, a ‘sneak preview’ from Sunday, four extremely cute Semipalmated Plover east of Budny Beach along the Gull Point beach trail! More photos later in the week.

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Now that’s out of the way, back to the business at hand. Weekend weather at Presque Isle State Park: Saturday (8 October 2022) – mostly cloudy, windy, cool; Sunday – mix of sun and clouds, windy, cool but pleasant; nice day.

Lovely Golden-crowned Kinglet along the Gull Point inner old trail near the beach, from Saturday:

And the equally lovely Ruby-crowned Kinglet, near Thompson Bay:

Note the slightest hint of red on the crown (i.e., hidden red feathers):

More Kinglet from Sunday!

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Next time: the big trail news!