GBBC Weekend III

Lengthy post of wintery content from last Saturday at Presque Isle State Park, featuring weather + birds. Very cold temps (esp. w/ wind chill), alternating between patchy blue sky and lake-effect snow squalls.

Long Pond w/ hint of blue sky
R-nDIF (Ring-necked Ducks in flight) in snow
Long Pond w/o blue sky
Ring-necked Ducks + deer in snow
More Ring-necked Ducks over Long Pond
More ducks in snow
Over Long Pond – ducks in flight in snow
More R-nDIF w/ hint of clear sky

Moving on from Long Pond, it’s a Red-tailed Hawk in the woods by Beach No. 11:

View north of Thompson Bay from Beach No. 11 w/ Tundra Swans
2 Bald Eagles on Gull Point

Brief stop at North Pier:

Mixed gulls on South Pier
More gulls @ South Pier (view south towards East Ave Boat Launch)

Now over at Thompson Bay by the Thompson Circle access:

View south of distant snow squalls

As seen above + in the following shots, fascinating rapidly-changing conditions of snow squall (almost whiteout) + almost clear/sunny:

Geese and Coots on Thompson Bay in snow
North Pier Light + Hammermill smoke stacks in snow
Tundra Swans in near whiteout conditions
More Tundra Swans on Thompson Bay

Beautiful Common Merganser in flight in snow:

Swans and Geese @ Thompson Bay
Almost sunny – mostly Ruddy Ducks on Thompson Bay

Finally, a quick stop at the outer beach @ Waterworks:

View W/NW – sun on Lake Erie
View E/NE – cold beach in sun

Today’s weather (Friday) in Erie County, PA: chilly, foggy, overcast; weekend forecast: very cold and mostly cloudy Saturday, bit warmer and partially cloudy Sunday. Looks like a bad weekend weather-wise, but happy birding/nature nevertheless! All BirdingPI.com staff members on ‘action alert’ for heading out to Presque Isle State Park! Maybe.