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):
Dateline: 15-16 July 2023
Another beautiful summer weekend in Erie County, PA. Saturday: warm (high just below 27 deg C), humid, very pleasant on the lake; turned cloudy in the afternoon followed by thunderstorms (localized heavy rain) in the evening. Sunday: overhead patchy fog in the morning, just slightly cooler (high around 26 deg C), humid, windy, some haze/cloud. Lots of beach-goers at Presque Isle State Park on Saturday, slightly fewer on Sunday.
Major excitement out at Gull Point on Sunday: highly unusual sighting of three American Avocet! Many thanks to the nice birder with the spotting scope who mentioned it in passing – the Avocet were out on the “pointy part” of Gull Point (by the gulls and cormorants) = very difficult to see from the observation platform with a 500+mm lens.
The following shots qualify as ‘bad bird photography’ due to long distance + heat shimmer. This @ 560mm cropped to 16×9 + slight enlargement (birds at center of photo):
More tightly cropped:
Very tightly cropped, showing foraging behavior:
ID tip: tall/spindly legs, black-and-white body, white wing ‘stripe,’ russet head, long/upturned bill. (For better shots of American Avocet, see En La Playa from last year in Arizona.)
With that out of the way, the real star of the weekend was ‘juvenile begging behavior.’ Referring to post-nest (and flight-capable) juveniles begging for feeding by adults. For example, following is a trio of juvenile Eastern Kingbird on the east end of Bundy Beach, waiting for an adult to return with food:
Notice the head tracking in the following three shots – keeping an eye on the adult/food:
More on this in later posts, including juvenile Red-winged Blackbird, juvenile Yellow Warbler, and some great shots of adult + juvenile Eastern Kingbird.
Few more shots from Gull Point/trail on Sunday:
Out at the point, two shots of Greater Yellowlegs:
Bonus Green Heron @ Long Pond, on a different day, early morning:
Before resuming our regularly-scheduled nature coverage, time for a BirdingPI.com “bad astrophotography” moment:
Very exciting.
Meanwhile, very amazed/happy to see these two Eastern Raccoon in a tree at Thompson Circle last Sunday at Presque Isle State Park. Weather conditions: overcast; humid.
These coons seemed a bit befuddled by human/photographer presence; BirdingPI.com’s WMBD (wild mammal behavioral department) analysis suggests they were overly enthusiastic, i.e., incautious, juveniles.
After 10 minutes of observation, BirdingPI.com’s survey team temporarily left (1-2 minutes) this location for ‘fiddling with camera settings.’ Upon returning, the Racoons had vamoosed – obviously, capable of very quick movement when warranted.
Bonus video:
Mid-day last Sunday at Presque Isle State Park, @ Thompson Circle in one of the willow (?) trees by the ‘swamp/pond,’ another amazing/uncommon daytime sighting of two Eastern Racoon (Procyon lotor lotor). As stated in a previous post, the nature just keeps happening!
These shots are in chronological order, so next time, + racoon # 2!
[Editor’s note: ‘raccoon’ and ‘racoon’ both acceptable spellings.]
Dateline: 8 July 2023
Mostly macro shots @ 105mm of what’s probably Northern Broken-Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet) butterfly, on and off Common Milkweed at ‘Pine Tree Meadows,’ Presque Isle State Park.
Dateline: 9 July 2023
BirdingPI.com’s five-year mission: To boldly go where no turkey has gone before! [Editor’s note: ?]
Considering they mostly stick to the underbrush, great to see this Wild Turkey hen + two chicks along the Long Pond Trail (east end) last Sunday @ Presque Isle State Park. It may be the summer ‘slow season’ (re. migration), but the nature keeps happening!
More bumble bee (various species) x Butterfly Bush:
Heavy localized rain in Erie County this Wednesday morning; based on a quick drive around the loop road, all conditions at Presque Isle State Park: wet. Also lots of biting flies and mosquitoes.
Fun shots of beautiful Cedar Waxwing x foraging behavior along the Sidewalk Trail, after a recent/earlier rainstorm:
Been a while since reporting out on Gull Point. Here’s a lengthy ‘mashup’ of the last two BirdingPI.com expeditions out to the best spot @ Presque Isle State Park, on 4 July 2023 and 19 June 2023. In approximate interleaved chronological order along the ‘inner old,’ beach, and ‘outer old’ trails + mud flats.
Trail conditions: (i) ‘inner old’ – wet/muddy but passable; (ii) ‘middle old’ – impassible; (iii) ‘outer old’ – good condition; (iv) beach – good condition other than erosion spots.
Lots of Canada Goose activity out at the mud flats, e.g.:
“Gull Point news” item 1. Thought someone was inappropriately enjoying the outer beach until seeing the placard below:
The fox cutout seems a little cartoon-like, but no one ever accused BirdingPI.com management of being expert in bird population remediation. Or anything else for that matter.
Shot of a Piping Plover protective enclosure:
Either a Piping Plover or a Piping Plover decoy:
Lots of beautiful Bank Swallow activity:
ID tip relative to Northern Rough-winged Swallow (‘the other brown swallow’): Bank Swallow = very dark/brown breast band; Rough-winged Swallow = no dark breast band.
Aerial Tree Swallow duo:
Recent Gull Point bird activity‘s mostly included Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbird, various swallows, Song Sparrow, Killdeer, Caspian Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, gulls, and Spotted Sandpiper. Anecdotally, seemingly an unusual lack of shorebirds. For example, on July 4th it was only two Spotted Sandpiper (other than the “maybe a Piping Plover”). Also seems like there’s less vegetation than this time previous years – see, e.g., bare foregrounds in the shot immediately above + scarecrow shot further above. Can’t help thinking the two are connected; further investigation needed.
Another example – much less Common Yucca (Yucca filamentosa) in bloom currently than the last few years, e.g., 2 plants vs. dozen+:
Northern Flicker exhibiting “doing something on the ground before flying away” behavior:
Great series of Brown-headed Cowbird @ Gull Point ‘outer old’ trail:
And a few of the always lovely Great Crested Flycatcher:
Finally, lots of Killdeer activity pretty much everywhere:
Coming up soon: “great” photography from this past/spectacular weekend at Presque Isle State Park! Spoiler alert: more Eastern Racoon x2 (really) + baby Wild Turkey (really). #more_nature
Dateline: 1 July 2023
Checking in with BirdingPI.com’s western NY field team, reporting from Tom’s Point on Lake Chautauqua, NY:
Great sighting of male Indigo Bunting:
Lots of wet Song Sparrow:
“Glass half empty:” out-of-focus deer
“Glass half full:” pretty meadow flowers with artistic deer leaping effect bokeh
Wrapping it up w/ more Red-winged Blackbird:
