The generally bad/wintery weather continues this week in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, spring creeps forward. Like with these recent sightings of beautiful Brown Creeper at Presque Isle State Park and elsewhere in the greater Erie area:
Second/final part of birds, etc. at San Onofre State Beach bluffs/campground, just south of San Clemente, California (not too far south of famous “return of the swallows” location San Juan Capistrano).
On the blufftop and especially in more protected areas (e.g., where the bluff has collapsed from erosion), the birds were enjoying large thickets of native Lemonade Berry (see above and below) & native Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina), shown in this shot (and many others above/below):
Generally awful weather here in Erie County, Pennsylvania over the weekend. Rain, rain, & more rain. (So much for the forecast for a sunny Saturday! Ay caramba.) Nothing better to do, mostly, than photo editing + playing with the new Ghibli-style AI tools, e.g., here, a Great Horned Owl (based on one of the photos posted the other day) in Studio Ghibli style. Have to admit, it is very cute.
Moving on to ‘real bird’ content, continuing with part 2/3 of a nicer recent Saturday morning @ El Rio Preserve in Morana, Arizona:
Great Egret flying in and landing:
Back to Oceanside Harbor Beach & vicinity on 5 March 2025. All photos Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, like the following, unless otherwise noted:
Not only the great beach at this location, but the mouth of the San Luis Rey River, w/ associated “non-beach” vegetation. Hence the Gnatcatchers.
Closing it out with preening Willet:
Well, to the extent this morning’s partial solar eclipse would have been visible in Erie County, Pennsylvania (= not much), it’s cloudy anyway. With that in mind, & considering all the recent AI-related news (AI taking jobs, AI-related stocks going up/down, Studio Ghibli memes, etc.), here’s computer generated images of a Great Horned Owl + partial solar eclipse, courtesy of Fotor:
With the topical/goofy content out of the way, here are real pictures of Great Horned Owl, taken at dusk in early March outside the BIRDS (BirdingPI.com regional desert southwest) field station in Casas Adobes, Arizona:
Actually rather dark when the above were taken on two successive evenings. Shots were handheld at relatively long exposure (< 1/60 sec) + post processing including exposure correction & AI sharpen and de-noise using various TopazTM tools.
Erie County weather this past week: wintery (cold and/or snow) Saturday – Wednesday, warmer but seasonally cool yesterday (Thursday), cool and overcast today (Friday). Upcoming weekend weather: potentially rainy Sunday, probably sunny Saturday afternoon. With ‘nesting season’ starting April 1, a reminder that this is the last weekend for unrestricted access to outer Gull Point.
Bird content of this post features early spring birds spotted recently at Presque Isle State Park.
More beautiful Common Grackle:
[Photo Editor’s note: not the best lighting on the shot above, but still so nice to get that lovely back/wing feather color!]
Bad weekend for a deer, best weekend ever for Turkey Vultures (@ North Pier Trail by Beach 11):
Happy weekend, happy nature! #more_bird
San Onofre State Beach bluffs/campground, north of San Diego. It’s an odd area, an elongate, narrow strip of land sandwiched between Interstate 5 on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (“SONGS,” decommissioned) on the north, and USMC Camp Pendleton on the south.
From the park road (parallel to the train tracks and I5), several bluff-top trails branch off to descend to the beach. On this rainy day in early March, out of 4+ such beach access trails, two were unusable due to erosion. Kahuna (trail #3?) and Atomic Sands (trail #1?) trails were open. Fascinating biome of blufftop, coastal chaparral, and both rocky and sandy beach.
Bird activity: lots of Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrow, & White-crowned Sparrow, + a few Anna’s Hummingbird, Turkey Vulture, California Towhee, etc.
“Bird of the day,” so great to see an amazing California Thrasher in the open. Singing on a branch, perhaps out to enjoy the rain:
Lots of severe erosion along this stretch of coast, like this huge section of collapsed bluff along one of the blufftop trails:
View of Atomic Sands Trail (#1) descending to beach, w/ SONGS in the background/horizon center:
Cold temps and snow overnight in Erie County, Pennsylvania – around 5 cm (2 inches) of snow on non-paved surfaces. (Winter’s not over yet!) Escaping the cold, for today’s post it’s part 1 of a recent Saturday morning visit to the great El Rio Preserve in Marana, Arizona, one of the top birding hotspots in the greater Tucson area. First up, a nice shot of Violet-green Swallow in flight. Tough to shoot swallows in flight; this was captured using patience + the “pre-focus” method:
Nice shots of beautiful Gadwall ducks:
Don’t quite know how a staff member ended up in Yuma, Arizona for BirdingPI.com’s “late winter go somewhere other than Erie County” week. Maybe it’s for the ‘salt free’ water? In any event, about a 3-hour, 10-minute drive from Tucson/Phoenix to Yuma, at the border of both California and Mexico, along the Colorado River.
Main birding ‘hot spot’ (hot area?) in Yuma seems to be centered around the Colorado River, @ Yuma West and Yuma East Wetlands. Lots of fun desert/riparian bird activity esp. Yellow-rumped Warbler and Black Phoebe.
From last Sunday afternoon, this is along the rocky beach by Leo’s Landing @ Presque Isle State Park, featuring male Common Grackle & a female Mallard:
