Dateline: 10-11 September 2022

Greater Erie, PA weather. Saturday: mostly sunny, moderate temps (warmer in the afternoon), humid. Sunday: overcast with rain tapering off by mid-afternoon; moderate temps, humid.

With “Beast on the Bay” Saturday and the Erie marathon Sunday morning, BirdingPI.com team consensus was to avoid the congestion – trip to Erie National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday (report to follow), and Presque Isle State Park later Sunday after the rain. (Would have run the marathon, but too difficult carrying a giant camera…)

Sunday afternoon, with overcast and periodic light sprinkles, surveyed the Pine Tree Trail/Budny Beach/Pine Tree Meadows loop. First up, Fox Squirrel w/ snack, + cute video:

Second-guessing going out in poor weather conditions? Second guess no longer. Amazing sighting of the amazing Ovenbird, along the Pine Tree Trail. Official BirdingPI.com Birding Rule Book, “Rule 37: Any outing with a confirmed sighting of Ovenbird is an unqualified success, absent major bodily injury.” Spotted Ovenbird several times in the spring, but only briefly. Here, perched on a branch with obvious/raised crest and well-delineated markings = non-ironic wow!

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Tomorrow, elsewhere in Pennsylvania, featuring honey bees!

Cactus Wren without a cactus. Feels weird. But can’t pass up on a preening wren, plus erratic video clips.

All content from back of the BirdingPI.com Regional Desert Southwest (BIRDS) field station in Tucson, AZ.

Dateline: 3 September 2022

Checking in with the team out at Lake Chautauqua. First up, always great to see Bentley Nature Preserve – excellent spot for woods/birds/nature.

More Black-capped Chickadee:

Following could be juvenile Yellow Warbler (unlikely), maybe juvenile Common Yellowthroat. Hard to tell.

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Now over to Tom’s Point:

Wrapping it up with a nice view of what appears to be juvenile or female Blackburnian Warbler:

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Tomorrow, more BIRDS field station content from Arizona! Later in the week, strange happenings at Gull Point!

General reminder that Saturday, 10 September 2022 is the annual Barber “Beast on the Bay” obstacle race at Presque Isle State Park, starting at 8:30AM. Expect congested traffic conditions and delays until mid-afternoon.

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In the recent post entitled “Point/Peeps,” a yellow-legged sandpiper was identified as Least Sandpiper. Upon further analysis, it is believed that this might instead be Pectoral Sandpiper. As evidenced, for example, by a streaky breast neatly bordering a white belly. Relatively small size could be attributed to juvenile status. BirdingPI.com apologizes for any inconvenience.

Dateline: late August-early September, 2022

The western Pennsylvania Wild Turkey migration is off to a strong start – huge flocks taking to the sky:

Ha! A bird funny. Obviously those are Canada Geese.

Appears the squirrels might be meddling again.

More seriously, on the entomological side, lots of Monarch Butterfly at Presque Isle State Park this past weekend:

Active waterfowl/shorebird migration: see yesterday’s post re. swans; also (not shown) Canada Goose, Double-breasted Cormorant, & Blue-winged Teal. … Following perhaps juvenile or female Mallard Duck:

Also female/immature Common Merganser, off Budny Beach:

Please enjoy peaceful surf floating:

As usual, plenty of Wood Duck on the Thompson Circle swamp/pond (southern side):

Some misc bird, first – male Downy Woodpecker:

Found a snack:

Gray Catbird!

Probably an Eastern Wood-pewee:

The very yellow American Goldfinch (m) @ Headwaters Park, Millcreek Twp (“Gateway to Presque Isle”):

Everyone’s favorite red-headed woodpecker, a duo of Red-headed Woodpecker:

Back to Pine Tree Trail with a mystery bird. Could be immature Common Yellowthroat?

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Tomorrow, back to Bentley Nature Preserve in western New York State – there will be birds!

[Editor’s Note: bad bird humor is against BirdingPI.com policy. The management apologies for the leading content above, which is obviously European Starling. Example of real Wild Turkey:

Dateline: August 2022

Bonus post – catching up on field reports with some misc bird from the Ramsey Canyon, Arizona area!

First up, Mexican Jay at Carr Canyon:

Next up, the irrepressible Acorn Woodpecker/utility pole:

Plenty of Black-headed Grosbeak (f) in Ramsey Canyon, at least by feeders:

Awful picture. Nevertheless, highlight of any outing is Scott’s Oriole:

Similar species Audubon Oriole and the rare (in US) Black-vented Oriole = fully black tail. Probably.

Highlight of Ramsey Canyon: Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. And lots of them.

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher call: “squeaky toy.” Thanks to the kind folks at the Nature Conservancy Ramsey Canyon Preserve visitors’ center for the apt characterization. Example from on-site:

More Acorn Woodpecker. Very social, very busy, very beautiful.

[Photo Editor’s Note: Those are some nice shots of Acorn Woodpecker. Just sayin’.]

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[Editor’s Note: No affiliation with The Nature Conservancy. Please consider donating to this very worthy cause #nature]

Dateline: 5 September 2022

Back on the Pine Tree Trail, Presque Isle State Park, on a rainy Labor Day Monday. On-and-off rain in the morning, heavy rain by mid-afternoon. (Nearby Budny Beach shown above.) About a 45 minute ‘dry window’ for cloudy/shady photography; lots of bird activity – woodpecker, nuthatch, flycatcher, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Catbird!, etc. Plenty of warblers, but difficult to see in the tree tops.

A bit shady, but still an excellent shot of Common Yellowthroat:

Awful picture, but still illustrative of a male Redstart:

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Next time, back to the Weekend Update with a fall migration report!

Special preview – two Swans spotted Saturday in the French Creek swamp at the junction of Interstate 86 and Ashton Rd:

Couldn’t verify if Tundra Swan or Trumpeter Swan, but still very interesting to see this time of year.

Dateline: 5 September 2022

Nuthatch house, that is, swimming pools, movie stars… . Beautiful Red-breasted Nuthatch along the Pine Tree Trail, Presque Isle State Park, on Monday between “less rain” and “more rain.” Bonus = fun video clip.

In this clip, easy to see how dark it was with the clouds/rain. (Shots above: brightness turned up.)

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Tomorrow, more on the Pine Tree Trail!

Dateline: 4 September 2022 – Weekend Update, Part I

Mixed bag this weekend for Erie weather. Mostly sunny and warm on Friday. Partially cloudy, mild/warm, humid Saturday. Sunday, cloudy, mild/warm, and extremely humid. Light rain in the afternoon, then light-to-moderate rain overnight. Cloudy, mild, very humid, and unsettled Monday, with on-and-off rain – enough of a dry window for bird photography before heavy rain moved in over Presque Isle State Park by 2:30PM or thereabouts.

Bird activity fairly subdued on Sunday and with the heavy rain Monday afternoon, otherwise reasonably active. Thick end-of-summer foliage = tough conditions for warbler viewing.

Some shots of Northern Flicker on Sunday, along the Long Pond fishing access trail. Usually skittish, so lucky here to get a close-up view.

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Stay tuned this week for lots more greater western Pennsylvania bird content from the long weekend! More bird!

Dateline: Early September 2022

Back to Gull Point with some lovely sandpipers out on the mud flat – although more grassy than muddy due to dry conditions.

Based on yellow-green legs and small size, Least Sandpiper:

Front view – plenty of breast streaking on this individual:

Dark legs = not a Least Sandpiper. Coloration appears wrong for Western Sandpiper, so based on similar size, probably Semipalmated Sandpiper:

“Scaly” look due to white feather fringes suggests juvenile.

Group shot – note the overall color tone difference: brown/rufous vs. brown/black:

Two Semipalmated in the back/midground, Least in foreground:

Final shot – beak seems long for Semipalmated Sandpiper, so ?

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[Edit: bonus video:

[Editor’s Note: music = tired of listening to wind noise #crappy_in_camera_mics]