Dateline: 15-17 July 2022
BirdingPI.com team spent the usable part of the weekend scouring Presque Isle State Park for any and all nature activity. As usual.
Saturday: sunny, warm, humid, dry; light wind. Beautiful weather for Gull Point. Sunday: morning – warm/moderate, light overcast, quite humid, very sub-tropical. (Seemed ok weather for the Presque Isle 1/2 marathon, although perhaps overly humid.) Decent thunderstorms by 1:30pm; much needed rain on-and-off through the evening and night.
Before the rain at least, all trails dry and in good condition except where previously reported; lots of biting flies along some of the interior trails (Pine Tree, Dead Pond…)
Plenty of bird activity; see previous posts for other content. First up, Black-capped Chickadee along the Marsh Trail. (Marsh Trail in very good shape.)
Gray Catbird! “double vision:”
Also along the Marsh Trail. (One Catbird! in front of the other in shrubbery.)
On the trek out to Gull Point, GBH with White Pond Lilies:
In the woods bordering the Gull Point mud flats, Common Yellowthroat (male):
Spotted Sandpiper @ Gull Point:
Sparrow (Song Sparrow?) @ Gull Point:
Flock of (definitely) Mallards, perhaps some American Black Ducks, in for a landing @ Gull Point:
More bee/flower:
Next up, the BirdingPI.com Insect Moment(TM), finally an ok shot of a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis). Note the white markings (curve and separate dot) in the second shot, i.e., forming the eponymous question mark.
Comparing to the Comma butterfly, the Question Mark has a row of four dots on its wings, one at an angle, as shown in this annotated excerpt:
Comma butterfly: three in-line dots but not the fourth, angled dot (arrow).
Finally, BirdingPI.com is happy to announce the rollout of its new refreshment station located off the Dead Pond Trail. All hot and tired birders, be on the lookout!
Stay tuned this week for more turtles, BIF, and some rather nice photographs of birds sitting on plants.
I don,t get concept of how the refreshment station works!