Dateline: 21 May 2022
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:
The honeysuckle is blooming/starting to bloom, pretty much everywhere. Here’s a bad shot of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird:
Another beautiful Green Heron:
Bird of the day is this lovely male Blackpoll Warbler, first BirdingPI.com sighting this season:
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.)
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:
Closing it out with some fun insect activity, because everyone loves insects. Especially birds.
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!]