Recent shots of lovely mixed ducks in the sun, Presque Isle State Park, mostly at Long Pond:
Warmer and mostly sunny the last few days in Erie – a reprieve from the early winter weather. Weather appears unsettled over the long weekend, but wishing everyone in the US a Happy Thanksgiving! (As usual, beef on the BirdingPI.com menu – sorry cow friends.)
Recent, snowy shots of Dark-eyed Junco and friends at Presque Isle State Park.
Beautiful female Northern Cardinal in the shrubbery near Sunset Point, on Saturday at Presque Isle State Park.
[Photo Editor’s note: Too bad that last shot is partially blocked, but still fun to see.]
Dateline: 19 November 2022
Another significant snowfall in Erie overnight (Saturday into Sunday); overcast, cold, and windy as of the morning. Brutal, February-like conditions out at Presque Isle State Park on Saturday. With windchill, temps must have been below -7 deg C. Shallower ponds/swamp starting to freeze over.
Overall, reasonable bird activity – Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, gulls, and waterfowl. Rough photography conditions with overcast, wind, cold, and numb extremities, but some shots from Long Pond:
Three of (poorly exposed) ducks in flight @ Hooded Merganser:
Mallards in rough water by West Pier:
Stay tuned this week for Cardinal and Junco – more bird!
When you sign up to work at BirdingPI.com, it’s not a walk in the park. Well, ok, let’s back up. It’s almost always walking in parks, literally, but not in a flowers/sunshine/rainbows way. It’s opting in for long reasonable hours at high intensity. But shots of snow-covered geese aren’t going to take themselves, and if you don’t like it, go do weddings or baby portraits.
Yes, Erie’s already transitioned to full on winter, and that’s the way we like it. Lake-effect snow mini-blizzard? Doesn’t matter – BirdingPI.com’s operating at 110% intensity for more bird!
Ducks landing, heavy wind/snow @ Long Pond:
Weather forecast for the weekend? Snow, cold, clouds, whatever – doesn’t matter. #nature #birding_intensity
Couple bonus shots of additional wintery conditions:
Significant, heavy snowstorm last night in the greater Erie area – at least 30 cm. With the snow, a fairly steep dropoff in observable bird activity, other than some American Crows here and there.
While waiting for the roads to get cleared, a few shots from earlier in the fall of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker along the Pine Tree Trail, Presque Isle State Park:
Dateline: 12-13 November 2022
First up, been remiss in not mentioning again all the DCNR trail work at Presque Isle State Park this fall. For example, very excited to see the swampy crossing on the Long Pond Trail (above) filled in with rip-rap. (At least one BirdingPI.com staff member has previously fallen afoul of this slippery/treacherous morass.)
Moving on, awful weather in Erie over the weekend. Rainy all day Friday. Saturday, cold, overcast, periodic rain. Sunday, cold, overcast, very windy, periodic rain/snow/hail. Nevertheless, BirdingPI.com teams were dispatched as conditions allowed.
With duck hunting season officially open (e.g., numerous duck blinds on Presque Isle Bay and Thompson Bay), ‘duck watching’ conditions are highly variable, depending on location, time/day, etc.
Very interesting activity on the inner back bay between “Vista 2 Parking Lot” and “Vista 1 Parking Lot:” large flock of American Coot with Ring-billed Gull and Lesser Scaup on Saturday, + Bufflehead and Common Merganser on Sunday.
Here’s a shot with Coot in the foreground, Bufflehead at mid-frame, and Common Merganser flying in from the upper left corner:
Camera was at too slow a shutter speed for this shot:
Lots of Gull and Coot drama, with the former harassing the latter for food:
Moving over to Long Pond:
Finally, some shots of the bad weather for context:
Final note that all trail conditions are relatively wet due to recent precipitation. For example, west end of Long Pond Trail currently flooded out.
Too many memory cards, too many photographs. Can’t remember if these were already published, but pushing them out (again) to clear the decks. From Thompson Bay in the last few weeks.
Following all Golden-crowned Kinglet. More Kinglet!
“Wren-ten-ten.” Bottom of the barrel for wren puns, but at least there’s 10 photos…
Extremely cute House Wren from the recent past at Presque Isle State Park, near the Thompson Circle swamp/pond.
Brutal weather out at Presque Isle yesterday – cold, wind, rain/snow/sleet. Some interesting duck/etc. activity on the back bay, however – stay tuned for BirdingPI.com’s posts later in the week!