Saturday: previously reported. Sunday: mostly sunny with scattered clouds transitioning to light cloudy/overcast/partly sunny, sunnier later in the day; quite warm. Localized, interesting bird activity on the interior Presque Isle trails. Nice day to be outside, other than the biting flies. Trail conditions: generally dry and in good shape. Hope everyone had a great Discover Presque Isle weekend!
More recent photos at or near Gull Point. Last Sunday: Dowitcher (previously reported). Later in the week: hundreds of Bank and other swallows; more posts forthcoming. Saturday: just a handful of swallows, no mudflat shorebirds (other than Killdeer), lots of Caspian Tern and gull activity plus Canada Geese.
Three slightly-fuzzy shots of Osprey:
Stay tuned for an exciting Osprey nest update later in the week!
Seems like August is the best time for ‘shore birds on the beach’ at Presque Isle State Park, so off to a good start Saturday with several Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling, and Spotted Sandpiper. Just a few of each, but still great to see. Between Budny Beach and Gull Point.
Bad group shot, with gullPlover and Sanderling ISanderling and Plover IISanderling (juvenile)More Plover and Sanderling
Wishing everyone an exciting Discover PI Weekend (no affiliation). Mild and partly cloudy Saturday; surf up on the lake with moderate wind – lovely day for being out at Presque Isle State Park for the excitement. E.g., Rotary pancake breakfast, archery, bonfire, volleyball, art fair, and so on. Not to mention the BirdingPI.com “Gull Point Forced March” this morning; big success: at least ten folks seen coming or going from Gull Point.
In exciting bird news, Plover (Semipalmated?) and Sanderling spotted along the beach for the first time this season! Stay tuned for photography. In the meantime, Canada Geese video! And gull video! And Barn Swallow video! Wow.
Never know what will show up at Gull Point. (High likelihood: gulls and geese.) Several individual Dowitcher spotted earlier this season. Sunday, however, a flock of 10+ fairly close to the observation platform trail. Really amazing to see. Partly hazy/cloudy photography conditions.
Dowitcher and Killdeer
Following video clips may seem sped up, but no, they’re really moving that quickly.
Upset he can’t visit Gull Point more often
[Editor’s note: Probably all Short-billed Dowitcher. No vocalizations to confirm, however.]
[Photo Editor’s note: Due to budget constraints, this blog/website is not conducive to large video files, hence the short video snippets.]
Another epic BirdingPI.com weekend update. And this just the misc stuff — stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 later this week, especially exciting videography from Gull Point on Sunday! (Really.)
Weather in Erie: Saturday – warm, humid, alternating clouds and sun, couple drops of rain. Sunday – rain early AM/overnight; very warm and humid, partly sunny by mid-morning, but obvious T-storms towards the north/Canada. Heavy rain over Presque Isle by 11:30am, otherwise very localized. Dry in south Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”) until 6pm or so, followed by brief-but-severe wind/rain/t-storms. Periodic rain/thunder/lightning overnight, still very warm/humid. Milder by Monday morning.
Trails locally wet/muddy due to recent rain. Gull Point inner old trail re-flooded and impassible without wet feet.
Moving on to nature content. First, Millcreek Twp. Very cool sighting of a Viceroy butterfly:
Limenitis archippus
Similar to a Monarch, but lacks significant white spots on the top of the head/thorax. Note also the cross-stripe indicated in the excerpt below, lacking in Monarch:
Next up, cute/noisy Chipping Sparrow:
Probably juvenile male House Sparrow:
Next up, Presque Isle, Dead Pond Trail. A deer in the brush:
Deer Prudence
[Editor’s note: A picture of a deer at Presque Isle… Wow.]
Beautiful Common Yellowthroat (female or immature):
Yellowthroat vocalizations
Matthew McConaughey’s favorite bird (?):
Rare breedLong branchGratuitous product placement
Great to see a Pickerel Frog, right along the trail:
Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris)
Gull Point on Sunday. Enough of a ‘sun/dry window’ to tempt the foolhardy. Almost made it back to Bundy Beach before the rain hit, but not quite; good thing for warm temps and waterproof-ish gear.
Rain on the way, view west towards Budny Beach
Song Sparrow along the Gull Point Trail:
Red-winged Blackbird (f):
Eastern Kingbird:
Lovely out at Gull Point itself; devoid of other birders/humans. Gulls, geese, Caspian Tern, swallows, Mute Swan, Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer, blackbirds, Eastern Kingbird, etc. Tall Pond Lilies are in bloom; always nice to see:
Big “first BirdingPI.com sighting this season” news was Bank Swallow:
These shots dashed off and rather poor quality; good enough for ‘get the idea.’ Note the brown upper side, white lower side, and most distinctively (vs. female Tree Swallow, or Northern Rough-winged Swallow), a sharp dark band around the lower neck. See arrow here:
Surprise appearance of Common Merganser:
Juvenile or non-breeding Spotted Sandpiper:
Other big news at Gull Point: an amazing flock of 10+ Dowitcher, in the wet area right by the roped-off trail to the observation platform. Pics and video tomorrow!
On the quick/pre-rain hike back to Budny Beach, Spotted Sandpiper x surf:
[Photo Editor’s note: Photo at top of Viceroy butterfly was ‘shopped to remove extraneous/objectionable content.]
Green Heron summer continues — with what else? — more lovely Green Heron! From the swampy pond at the east end of the Sidewalk Trail. (This individual – or related – spotted two weekends in a row at this spot – and not overly skittish.)
Localized, heavy rain’s put a damper on the Presque Isle outdoors activities today (Sunday, 24 July 2022), but fear not! Enough of a mostly- dry window for another trek out to Gull Point in the AM! Stay tuned for some very cool photography and video, featuring birds! Once the camera equipment dries out, that is.
[Editor’s note: The camera equipment is fine. #waterproof bags.]
