Beautiful day yesterday (Saturday, 22 October 2022) at Presque Isle State Park; looks like another beautiful day today. The BirdingPI.com team is getting geared up for heading back out (Gull Point perhaps?), so only time for a quick post of cute Semipalmated Plover from the Gull Point beach trail the other weekend. More plover! More bird!
Dateline: 16 October 2022
As previously reported, beautiful day last Sunday at Presque Isle State Park. A special photo report from BirdingPI.com’s team stationed around the Marsh Trail/Ridge Trail/Dead Pond Trail junction. Part II to follow next week.
Marsh Trail = good, open spot for sometimes seeing fly-by birds. Here, lovely Red-tailed Hawk:
Plenty of Yellow-rumped Warbler, kinglet, woodpecker, and sparrow activity. Here, the former:
Stars of the Marsh Trail, Chipping Sparrow and amazing White-crowned Sparrow:
White-crowned Sparrow in the shade:
And in the sunlight:
Another Yellow-rumped Warbler:
Downy Woodpecker (m) in the shrubbery:
Cute White-throated Sparrow:
On the Dead Pond Trail, a slightly blurry shot of Brown Creeper; interesting for showing wing coloration/pattern:
Dateline: 15 October 2022, Presque Isle State Park
Partially cloudy, windy, and cool on Saturday. Amazing number of Yellow-rumped Warbler passing through. Also Kinglet. Despite the wind, loads of bird activity generally. Here, all shots on or near the Pine Tree Trail.
Two shots of cute Golden-crowned Kinglet:
Several more Kinglet:
More Warbler!
Several shots of what appear to be Magnolia Warbler (female or immature):
Note the gray-ish neck band and hints of chest streaking in this shot:
The beach nearby:
Friday, 21 October 2022: looks like windy but sunny weather. Forecast for the weekend is clear and mild. “Fingers crossed” for great birding/nature weather – BirdingPI.com teams are on call and ready to deploy!
Wishing everyone a great weekend!
After several days of clouds and cold/frozen rain in Erie, PA, time to revisit a nicer, sunnier day from last week. Several shots of Red-bellied Woodpecker + one of American Robin + general foliage, all Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”).
On Wednesday, a short break in the rain:
Stuck in the greater Atlanta, GA area with nothing but an iPhone, a monocular, and a MARTA pass? No excuse – it’s still birding “go time!” An epic special report from BirdngPI.com’s roving correspondent.
Tucked away amid the swank neighborhoods of Buckhead, GA is the lovely Blue Heron Nature Preserve – stream, wetland, mixed deciduous/tall-pine forest, well-maintained trails. Lots of Brown Thrasher activity. Bird of the outing: Carolina Wren; unfortunately no photos (see commentary below).
iPhone + manual focus monocular = bad bird photography –> hard to gauge sharp (or any) focus, hard to focus quickly, hard to get a bird in the field of view. But probably better than an iPhone by itself. Let us explain:
For those rusty on Renaissance Italian literature, “The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Tim Cook Satan is held in bondage.”
Circular image format: uncropped/zoomed out. Normal/rectangular image format: iPhone zoomed in. (All handheld shots; images not cropped in post-processing.) Landscape photos: iPhone w/o monocular.
If you thought focusing on hummingbirds was hard before. Yikes.
At least the trail shots look ok:
Advantage Presque Isle: fewer dodgy shopping-cart people.
Advantage Atlanta: dodgy shopping-cart people are friendlier.
Just one of many interesting Presque Isle birds this past weekend: a very cute Pied-billed Grebe (immature/non-breeding) on Long Pond. Bonus points for relatively close range @ boat landing #3. (Seemed confused enough by human presence to stick around for a couple minutes before departure via submersion.)
Now over to Thompson Bay on Sunday, with four Pied-billed Grebe:
Bonus peaceful video clips:
Dateline: 15 October 2022, Presque Isle State Park
Absolutely beautiful day Sunday at Presque Isle – light wind, mild temps, sunny. Ton of bird activity, especially Yellow-rumped Warbler and Kinglet. Content from multiple BirdingPI.com team excursions to follow this week. In the meantime, our lovely American Pekin friend on Long Pond on Saturday – first time seeing it fly. #proof_of_flight
More in-flight pics:
And, back for a landing:
Dateline: 15 October 2022, Presque Isle State Park
Saturday: unsettled weather – windy, cloudy in the morning (localized light rain), sunny in the afternoon. Despite the wind, loads of cool bird activity.
After a leisurely survey of the Pine Tree Trail, quick stop at Pine Tree Meadows. Lo-and-behold, a gorgeous Merlin perched on a dead pine tree = birding gold! Totally amazing #nature
Following shots are blurry, but still good for feather coloration in flight:
In quick trail news, the lake level’s back up and the newly reopened/widened Gull Point inner old trail = back in flood mode:
Stay tuned this week for a lot more from Presque Isle, plus a special field report from down south. Way down south. More bird!
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!
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!
