Mystery Bird @ Beach No. 4

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!

Solo – A Feeder Story

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!

Feeder/Duet (II)

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.

Misc PI Bird

Thompson Bay

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

American Goldfinch (f)
Dark-eyed Junco
Belted Kingfisher
GBH
More GBH
Kingfisher/landing
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blue Jay/flight/acorn
Happy fall 2022

Big Trail News!

Gull Point inner old trail looking east

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.

Gull Point inner old trail with view of Budny beach in distance
Probably American Crow @ Budny Beach
Gull Point outer old trail, view east
Gull Point, view east
Outer old trail, view west
Outer old trail, another view west
Budny Beach

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.

From Gull Point observation platform
More video from observation platform
And again
Cormorant and gulls @ Gull Point
Beach flight
On Thompson Bay
Cormorant w/ snack, Presque Isle Bay
It’s a lots of Cormorant

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.

Plover

The Return of the Kinglet

This BirdingPI.com post brought to you by Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power, Season 1, Episode 7: streaming now on Amazon.com Prime video! Amazon: Two days of holiday deals Oct. 11-12: Only for Prime members! Wow!

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!


Next time: the big trail news!

Windy Weekend

Dateline: 1-2 October 2022

View of Gull Point from Budny Beach

Cool, mostly cloudy, and windy yesterday (Saturday, 8 October 2022); nice day for being outside, not so nice for bird photography. Still, plenty of bird/nature action out at Presque Isle State Park. Plus exciting trail news (really!) – report to follow tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy more birds from last weekend!

Black-capped Chickadee
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Following are all Yellow-rumped Warbler (female, Myrtle variant):

Golden-crowned Kinglet
White-throated Sparrow
Focus on yellow rump
Long Pond, showing relatively low water level
Canada Geese/Long Pond

Cabbage/Duo

Quick post while the BirdingPI.com team gears up for heading out to Presque Isle State Park, despite unsettled weather this second Saturday in October.

More beautiful Cabbage White butterfly (Pieris rapae) on goldenrod, northeast of Beach No. 3.


Tomorrow: back to last weekend with more bird!

Gull Update (II)

Double-crested Cormorant

After nice weather earlier this week, looks like a rainy Friday in Erie. So, time for more photos of mostly Ring-billed Gull from this past, windy weekend!

All shots North Pier and/or Thompson Bay/Erie Harbor Entrance Channel, Presque Isle State Park.

North Pier Light and old papermill smokestacks