Almost as exciting as the famous bigfoot film, it’s bonus video clips of five Great Egret at Gull Point, Presque Isle State Park.
Also, bonus Stilt Sandpiper at Gull Point. Note the heavy underside baring, yellow-green (but not bright yellow) legs, and long/slightly dropping bill (longer than Yellowlegs, shorter than Dowitcher).
More from Presque Isle State Park on Sunday, at Gull Point/trail.
eBird did not ‘believe’ there were five Great Egret at Gull Point on Sunday, but 100% true. See, e.g., all five egrets together:
No one disbelieves the hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants:
Only a quick stop at the observation platform (w/o a spotting scope), but still saw two Piping Plover chicks:
Several shots of three of the Great Egret as they moved further away from the observation platform due to human presence:
Beautiful American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) are starting to bloom on ‘turtle pond’ (pond/lagoon adjacent to the entrance of the roped-off observation platform corridor):
This was a tough one, but research indicates it’s a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper. (“Tough” = lack of spots.) Note the white underbelly, relatively plain/brown back, and partial spectacle. (Plus yellow-green legs which aren’t easy to see in this view. Also exhibited characteristic ‘bobbing’ behavior.)
More juvenile ‘begging’/feeding behavior, here with Red-winged Blackbird @ the grassy area at Thompson Circle, Presque Isle State Park.
Dateline: 23 July 2023
Yet another beautiful weekend in Erie County, PA: high temps around 27 deg C, mostly sunny; very humid with a slight breeze Saturday, warmer/dryer Sunday, moderate rain overnight into Monday.
Presque Isle State Park trail conditions remain good; typical ‘problem spots’ vary based on recent rain, e.g., Gull Point ‘inner old’ trail at one point flooded/impassable, later muddy/traversable.
Plenty of summer bird activity. With the recent/unusual shorebird activity, BirdingPI.com personnel dispatched to Gull Point multiple days. These shots from Sunday late morning:
Very excited about this BirdingPI.com “first time at Presque Isle” sighting of a beautiful male Indigo Bunting, along the Gull Point ‘outer old’ trail:
Very happy to finally see a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) butterfly this season (see “ID Tip” below):
One of the sunflowers in the Helianthus genus, perhaps Stiff Sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus):
Great Egrets: reasonably common at Presque Isle generally, less so at Gull Point specifically. Total of five individuals in the pond/lagoon:
ID Tip: Viceroy butterfly has a cross-stripe (see red arrow) along the hindwing, which Monarch lacks; Viceroy forewing (green arrow) has different pattern vs. Monarch; Viceroy body lacks most of the Monarch’s white speckling.
Coming up soon: more Gull Point, more Gull Point Trail, more Great Egret, more Piping Plover! Also bonus Egret video #more_bird
Dateline: 22 July 2023
Exciting news at Presque Isle State Park this week: happy to report the successful hatching of four Piping Plover babies at Gull Point! Really amazing occurrence generally, plus bonus points for an actual sighting/photo or several.
These @ 800mm shots suffer from the distance + heat shimmer; still fun to see. All from Saturday morning @ observation platform, looking generally south and to the left (east) of the nesting enclosure. (See location note at bottom of post.)
Adult (far right) + chick 1 (middle) + chick 2 (far left):
Three chicks (far right, right middle, and far left):
Adult (far right) + 3 chicks (middle right, middle left, and far left):
Uncropped view @ 800mm (aspect ratio changed to 16×9):
Finally, all 4 chicks together! (Far right, right middle, left middle, and far left.)
Following two views are cropped from the same single photograph. First is Piping Plover chicks #1-3, the second #4 (to the left of the 3):
Also seen Saturday: Yellowlegs, Dowitcher, Sanderling, Spotted Sandpiper and other sandpiper, Bank Swallow and other swallows, Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gull and other gulls, Caspian Tern, Turkey Vulture, Song Sparrow, GBH, House Wren, Baltimore Oriole, American Robin, Gray Catbird!, Red-winged Blackbird, Green Heron, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, American Goldfinch, American Crow, rabbits having breakfast, etc. – report to follow. (Also lots of Killdeer. Can’t forget the Killdeer.)
Location note: from a different day, wide-angle iPhone shot of where the Plovers above were seen – nest enclosure to right of center, Plovers sighted approximately on the lagoon far shore at very center:
On a beautiful Saturday in Erie County, PA (report on Gull Point to follow), a “data dump” of misc bird from May-July 2023. #more_bird
Following shots all Presque Isle State Park:
More Yellow Warbler @ Misery Bay:
Warbling Vireo @ Misery Bay:
White-crowned Sparrow @ Misery Bay:
Coming up soon, more exciting news from Gull Point!
On the bird side of things, please enjoy Green Titmouse special report.
Due to small size/erratic movement, very tough to capture DIF (dragonflies/damselflies in flight). Happy to see this beautiful Spot-winged Glider (Pantala hymenaea) in ‘hover mode’ out at Gull Point, Presque Isle State Park. All shots @ 560mm + cropped:
ID Note: Per Wikipedia, “It looks very similar to the wandering glider, with the addition of a dark basal spot on the hindwing.” From the shots above, an example of the ‘dark basal spot’ (red arrow):
No affiliation, but please consider supporting Wikipedia = a great online source of all sorts of information for free.
Fun, recent shots of beautiful adult/juvenile Eastern Kingbird + ‘juvenile begging’/feeding behavior. Along the Gull Point “outer old trail,” Presque Isle State Park.
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Ok, Whimbrel at Gull Point! Two of these amazing (and uncommon for Presque Isle State Park) birds spotted recently on the outer north beach.
All shots from where the beach trail ends at the “do not enter the bird nesting area” sign @ 800mm. Challenging conditions due to distance and heat shimmer.
ID tip: look for the very long, very downturned bill that isn’t long enough to be a Curlew.
Bonus Whimbrel video!
More recent insects at Presque Isle State Park. First up, a great sighting of the amazing Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina) dragonfly:
Probably juvenile/male Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis):
One of the Azure butterflies, perhaps Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon):
