Red-winged Blackbird (m), Gull Point, Presque Isle State Park
Too much great content from this past weekend to reasonably contain in one, or even two, posts. Keeping things going here with Red-winged Blackbird from Saturday, at Gull Point.
Red-winged Blackbird (f)
Saw Osprey, gulls, swallows, Killdeer, sparrows, Spotted Sandpiper, Dunlin, Caspian Tern, and Least Sandpiper, among others. Great lineup, but no exotic shorebirds this weekend.
In flight I
Spent most of the time enjoying the numerous Red-winged Blackbirds.
Landing
The true meaning of pain: Nikon D850 autofocus. Truly awful for quickly and accurately focusing on moving birds. Good thing for luck and near limitless digital exposures.
Flight
While the hit rate’s maybe 10%, only need a couple decent shots for a post to come together.
Final perch
Next up, a very unusual Northern Flicker sighted near the point! Stay tuned.
As a quick update, looks like the Spring 2022 migration season has peaked, with things at Presque Isle State Park having returned, more-or-less, to normal. The extended week of Mother’s Day (7-15 May 2022) goes down as an “A+”/excellent in terms of bird volume, bird variety, good weather, and viewing conditions (e.g., low treetop foliage levels). Plenty more photography content to come!
Meanwhile, let’s enjoy nature. From Sunday before the rain/fog landed.
Alvin
A few Spotted Sandpiper seen along the beach and in the dunes across the road from the Pine Tree Trail west trailhead. Example of one individual:
Spotted!
Just like flying Bald Eagles, Rule 27(a) of the Bird Photography Manual (4th ed. 2017, Knopf) states “You can never have too many ‘duck takeoff’ pictures.” This appears to be a male Mallard. From the swamp/pond on the north side of the Pine Tree Trail.
Forwardnow upand outthen down
Happy to see a small flock of Cedar Waxwing:
Wax on
Off Budny Beach, quite an exchange between two Eastern Kingbird and one very robust dragonfly (species unknown). Despite the aerial acrobatics, couldn’t see that either bird was successful in snatching up this lower member of the food pyramid.
WWI-era dogfightAttack approachStayin’ alive
Lots of Green Heron this year so far. This one off the Sidewalk Trail (east end):
Swamp stalker redux again
And finally, a lovely Red-eyed Vireo, off Misery Bay. Eye color is not easy to see in this shot, but note the strong, dark eyeline:
[Editor’s note: clearly a Mallard.]
[Editor’s note: ‘food chain,’ not ‘food pyramid.’]
Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!
Nothing you have ever witnessed before has prepared you for such sheer stabbing shock!
The Bird is coming!
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Bird!
Sincere thanks (!) to our friends at River Patent Services, LLC in Connecticut for letting us share this original content.
[Editor’s note: no affiliation with the Estate of Alfred Hitchcock and/or Universal Pictures. Above taglines are considered ‘fair use’ under US Copyright Laws, as satire. Etc. etc.]
Continuing with the weekend update, heavy thunderstorms Saturday evening. (Had to evacuate the BirdingPI.com Dead Pond field station due to localized flooding, but everyone is fine.) Sunday, warm, humid, and partially cloudy in the early AM. Turned overcast with fog and light rain/drizzle by 10:30AM; temperature at Presque Isle State park dropped about 15 degrees F in the span of less than an hour.
While waiting to get today’s prints back from the Fotomat, time for a minor flycatcher mystery.
Originally thought the three shots below (plus one above) were Least Flycatcher. However, in further ponderance over a cool glass of sparkly Mountain Dew(R) Code Red(R) soft drink (cherry-burst flavor = yum), this bird seems awfully yellow-olive. Or at least slightly yellow-olive. More yellow-olive than a Least Flycatcher should be, at least. Could it be Yellow-bellied Flycatcher?
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher?
Both are small flycatchers with wing bars and eye rings. However, the head, neck, and eye ring of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher have a definite yellow-olive cast, vs. gray/white of the Least Flycatcher.
Another view
Plus a slightly larger, perhaps orange-edged beak on the Yellow-bellied.
And another
Let’s compare.
First up, from 22 May 2022, something that’s definitely not olive-yellow enough for a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.
Least Flycatcher?
Is it a Least Flycatcher? Note the white eye ring, gray head, and white throat.
Or Eastern Wood-pewee?
Other possibility is an Eastern Wood-pewee. However, as seen in the shot of an Eastern Wood-pewee below (from September 2021 along the Pine Tree Trail), Eastern Wood-pewee have a more obvious dusky ‘vest.’
Definitely Eastern Wood-pewee
In any event, here’s another recent shot of what’s definitely a Least Flycatcher:
Definitely Least Flycatcher
Note the white eye ring, white throat, and gray head.
Crop time! First, from the shot at the top above. Note the yellow-olive back transitioning to a same-color head. Throat appears similar, if somewhat lighter. Eye ring is distinct but tinged. (Tired of typing “yellow-olive…”) Beak appears slightly larger, with the bottom distinctly orange.
Crop ’til you drop
From the Least Flycatcher shot just above, note the white-ish throat, gray head, and white eye ring. Smaller beak.
Crop top
Based on this in-depth scientific analysis, seems like it’s time to call it as a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher!
Whew, way more work than usual around here.
[Editor’s note: Fotomat no longer exists, so someone is obviously making a ‘funny.’]
Lithobates clamitans (Green Frog), Long Pond Trail
Friday, severe thunderstorms in the morning, overcast, warm, humid later. Saturday, partially cloudy, warm, and humid in the morning, thunderstorms with rain by early evening. High around 80 deg F. Nice day Saturday for getting out to Presque Isle State Park for outdoors stuff, with an early start. Sunday: TBD.
With BirdingPI.com teams dispatched to Gull Point, Long Pond Trail, etc., plenty of exciting nature activity to share. Here, getting a start with Long Pond Trail highlights.
The frenetic Mother’s Day week warbler activity at Long Pond has subsided, but still plenty of Yellow Warbler out-and-about:
Properly framed II
The honeysuckle is blooming/starting to bloom, pretty much everywhere. Here’s a bad shot of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird:
H3
Another beautiful Green Heron:
Swamp duty redux redux
Bird of the day is this lovely male Blackpoll Warbler, first BirdingPI.com sighting this season:
Blackpoll I
Note the black cap, white cheeks, and black chest markings. (BirdingPI.com bird ID tip: Black above the eyeline with a white throat. Black-and-white Warbler, in contrast, have white above the eyeline, then a strip of black above that. Black-capped Chickadee have a black throat and a much rounder overall appearance.)
Blackpoll II
Not the best pictures, but you get the idea.
There was a second bird interacting with the male Blackpoll before they both flew off. Can’t see the throat markings in this shot, but it does have the coloring of a female:
Romeo and Juliet
Closing it out with some fun insect activity, because everyone loves insects. Especially birds.
Common Eastern Bumblebee (?)
Next up, more Gull Point! Where the highlight may actually be the Budny Beach parking lot.
[Editor’s note: Meaning activity on or around the parking lot, not the parking lot itself.]
[Photo Editor’s note: Nice shot of that Green Frog!]
Just a few nice shots of Palm Warbler, along one of the little, red-sand beaches off Misery Bay (Presque Isle State Park) by the dirt parking lot/fishing access.
From earlier in the spring, finally posting these excellent shots of male and female Downy Woodpecker engaging in (presumably) mating behavior. This was off Budny Beach (Presque Isle State Park), along the Gull Point Trail just past the end of the inner old trail.
From ‘warbler week,’ let’s enjoy the Northern Parula!
Not many (e.g., two) BirdingPI.com sightings of this lovely bird so far this year.
Gray head with yellow throat, white eye arcs, yellow chest, white rump, gray wings with white wing bars, patch of burnt orange on the chest. (Latter feature best seen in the shots immediately above and below, but this may be a juvenile or first-year male – or perhaps molting plumage – since it’s less apparent than normal.)
Shots taken off Misery Bay near the Sidewalk Trail east end trailhead.
In the running for BirdingPI.com’s “bird of the weekend” was this amazing male Wilson’s Warbler sighted off Budny Beach both Saturday and early Sunday morning. Totally unexpected, and a first for BirdingPI.com at Presque Isle State Park.
Males are easy to ID with olive wings, a general “yellow warbler” appearance, and the defining trait, as here, a distinct black cap. Flitting about the shrubbery, this was difficult to photograph = good thing there’s digital photography with unlimited shots and cheap memory cards.
For whatever reason, usually associate Wilson’s Warbler more with the west coast (of North America). Hence the surprise.
In birding, you hear plenty of “Wilson this” and “Wilson that.” (E.g., plover, snipe, warbler.) Better-educated birders would know, but sometimes just need a little motivation to dig into the history.
From Scotland, and apparently no history with slave ownership = a big step up over JJA.
“Because he devoted little time to his trade as a weaver, Wilson lived in poverty. In 1794, he decided to emigrate to America. … Opportunities were scarce for weavers in the Philadelphia area, and Wilson turned to teaching.” (!) Not saying much for the teaching profession in late 1700’s America, apparently.
“Wilson died on August 23, 1813, ‘of dysentery, overwork, and chronic poverty’….” Sounds about right for an ornithologist, or a teacher for that matter. Yikes.
Whatever the case, let’s be glad we’re in the 21st century with access to quality sanitation (hopefully) and giant cameras from Japan, or wherever it is that Nikon, Sony, or Canon (etc.) manufacture their stuff.
Not the right “Wilson”
[Editor’s note: “World Wide Web?” Seem to be stuck in the ’90s here.]
[Editor’s note: “JJA” is not “J.J. Abrams.” Absolutely no disrespect intended to J.J. Abrams, who is 100% completely unaffiliated with anything relating to this website.]
[Editor’s note: quotes above attributed to the linked Wikipedia entry. Please consider supporting Wikipedia at https://donate.wikimedia.org/. No affiliation.]
