Dateline: 22 October 2022
Finally, BirdingPI.com’s shots of Black-capped Chickadee and Red-breasted Nuthatch from this past Saturday at Presque Isle State Park, on the east end of the Dead Pond Trail. Amazing amount of activity for both, plus sparrows, jays, even a thrush or two.
Next time: more Kinglet! More bird! Also, fall colour.
Special guest contributor shots from occasional BirdingPI.com commenter “Paul + Remark.” Amazing Long-billed Curlew on Moonstone Beach in Cambria, California, from earlier this month. Not quite as exciting as Ring-billed Gull on Lake Erie :), but still very cool!
A crop from the above shot, note the super-long bill and ‘cinnamon-washed’ underparts:
Great to see these amazing birds, even if not in person.
Looks like Erie’s spell of nice weather is over for now, with rain moving in Wednesday. … Waiting on editorial review of the chickadee/nuthatch shots. In the meantime, some reasonably ok, recent shots of Blue Jay/BIF with acorn!
Dateline: 22-23 October 2022
Beautiful weekend at Presque Isle State Park. Saturday, light wind, sunny, warm (high temps of around 20 deg C?); Sunday, light wind, sunny, slightly cooler but still very pleasant. Beautiful fall colour. Lake level surprising low; all BirdingPI.com teams report trails in good/dry condition.
Birds: lots of birds. Lots of Yellow-rumped Warbler (flocks of them), Dark-eyed Junco; Golden-crowned Kinglet, European Starling, sparrows, gulls, nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, and Double-crested Cormorant. Very little goose or duck activity.
Following shots mostly from Long Pond, boat landing #4, on Saturday:
Belted Kingfisher:
More lovely Golden-crowned Kinglet:
Tomorrow, nuthatch and chickadee along the Dead Pond Trail!
Dateline: 22 October 2022
No, not everyone’s favorite TV mechanic. Rather, from Saturday, beautiful American Coot at Thompson Circle swamp/pond north, Presque Isle State Park.
Another beautiful fall day Sunday. Stay tuned for an update on Gull Point; spoiler alert: cormorants, cormorants, and more cormorants! And gulls.
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.