Dateline: 28-29 January 2023.
Saturday: overcast and quite cold in the morning, clearing to mostly sunny by the afternoon, then rain overnight; report to follow. Sunday: rain; all BirdingPI.com Presque Isle State Park operations cancelled. Local, gloomy Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”) content to follow, but first up, spying on a Fox Squirrel in the rain:
BirdingPI.com – like watching water drip:
From earlier in January, a lone Red-breasted Merganser (m) on Presque Isle Bay. Overcast and somewhat backlit = erratic exposure, but still fun to see this bird on the back bay. (More often seen out on Lake Erie proper.)
Probably BirdingPI.com’s last major coverage of Great Black-backed Gull for the season, absent the unexpected. First up, random gulls!
Gloom/overcast notwithstanding, pretty cool video featuring noisy GB-bG – both adult and juvenile (1st/2nd winter):
Bonus video:
It’s “bonus bad goose video” Friday! Wow.
Taking a break from the gull coverage with recent shots of a male Downy Woodpecker along the access trail to boat landing #4, Long Pond, Presque Isle State Park.
Overcast, cold, and snowy in the greater Erie, PA area since Tuesday; looks like it will continue into next week. Wishing everyone a nice weekend! #more_gull #more_waterfowl
Ring-billed Gull @ Marina Lake, from last Saturday:
More Great Black-backed Gull and gull friends from the other Saturday, Presque Isle State Park, Beach 11.
Great Black-backed Gull adults on the right:
Mixed gulls – Great Black-backed Gull right rear (adult and juvenile), Ring-billed Gull front corner right, the others include Herring Gull:
Mixed gulls – good size comparison between GB-bG (center) and Ring-billed Gull (center foreground):
Large gull on left – Great Black-backed Gull juvenile, 1st/2nd winter:
More GB-bG:
In flight, lower right:
Bonus video content!
Good news! More GB-bG content to come from this past weekend, including ‘gull sounds’ and carrion scavenging! Wow.
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:
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!
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):
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:
Elsewhere, in Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”):
