Presque Isle State Park (11-Feb-2017)

Eastern Pennsylvania was covered in snow, so I decided to take a trip with some friends, Joe Greco and Rick Wiltraut, to Presque Isle State Park. Presque Isle is in Lake Erie and there had recently been sightings of a Slaty-backed Gull there, a species which rarely shows up in Pennsylvania. I have to say I was more excited to see a new part of the state than to see a rare gull. As soon as we arrived after the five hour drive, we parked and Joe and Rick got out their scopes and started looking through the gulls. I honestly didn't expect to see so many, thousands of Ring-billed Gulls with a few Greater Black-backed Gulls. Joe and Rick seemed content looking for the one gull that may or may not be there, but I got bored quickly. I snapped a few photos of the Ring-bills then I started walking to see what was around the park.  

The Ring-billed Gull on the left was flying away with a freshly caught fish. The one on the right looked as though it was viewing its reflection on the ice. 

It didn't take me long to start finding trash. These were just a few items I picked up near the parking lot and dropped off at the truck before continuing on.

This gives you an idea of what the other two were looking at. This is at a location further into the park, but was about the same as the first stop. A Slaty-backed Gull doesn't look that much different from a Greater Black-backed Gull so they had to scan and find those first and look at them closely to make sure of what they were. In this photos there are at least two Greater Black-backed Gulls.

Walking up the road I found a place where I could access the Lake Erie side of the isle. I have to say I was surprised to find beaches. I thought it might just be a rocky shoreline. As I started to walk through the sand I found that there was plenty of trash to be picked up. I didn't even have my back pack on me so I found a planting container and started to fill that. 

Then I came across this. I don't know if it was a fishing net or just a volleyball net that somehow made it into the lake. Whatever this netting was originally, as trash floating in the lake it managed to catch and kill a Red-throated Loon. I hand never seen one this close before and I was saddened that this is how I had to see it. I had nothing to cut the netting off of the dead loon so I had to take the whole thing with me. There was no way I was going to leave this netting on the beach to potentially find its way back into the lake and catch something else. I would have preferred to leave the bird, but it was really entangled. 

The non-recyclables and sadly the loon too were thrown away and I took the recyclable items with me. We then left the park to try to find another vantage point for Joe and Rick to look for the Slaty-backed Gull. 

After no success we returned to the park and I hit the beach again as they set up in the same spot as before and continued looking through the gulls. I got this handful before they were ready to move on again. 

We then drove to the very last parking lot and hiked the trail to Gull Point. If we were going to find this gull it would be on Gull Point right? The trail was icy in places, like in the photo above. It was a nice hike out though. 

All of the edges facing Lake Erie had a coating of ice. I thought this was the coolest looking tree and isle edge.

Out on the point we did see gulls and more Greater Black-backeds than before, but still no Slaty-backed. At this point I was sure we were not going to see the gull on this trip. 

When I think lakes, I don't think lighthouses, but there were several that we passed like this one that can be seen from Gull Point. 

It was time to call it a day so we started to head back. Earlier in the year in this area a Snowy Owl was reported, I really was hoping we would see one of those more than a gull. We did not see either. 

Got to the end of the trail just as the sun was starting its departure out of sight. 

I filled my pockets on the way out to Gull Point. I would have had more had I thought to bring a pack along. We had planned to go back out looking for the gull the next day, but a storm was on its way in and in the morning we decided to head back home.

We did make a couple stops on the way back. This Red-tailed Hawk was in Bald Eagle State Park. We stopped there in hopes of seeing a Northern Shrike. We missed every bird we were chasing on this trip. Just no luck at all. 

We did see two Bald Eagles in Bald Eagle State Park. They are the darker spots in the trees. In all it was a good trip. We didn't see the birds we wanted, but I got to explore a new area and was able to remove at least some trash. I would do the trip again, probably not for a Slaty-backed Gull though.

See my most updated posts on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Gateway National Recreation Area: Sandy Hook (29-Jan-2017)

Taking a break from clean-ups in Pennsylvania. I decided it would be fun to go pick up some beach trash in our neighboring state, New Jersey. I was joined by fellow trash picker-upper Leigh Ann Stratakos of 3 Moons Studio. We set out to explore and clean up a portion of Sandy Hook, a part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. This area was chosen for two reasons, it was one of the closer beaches and because it is part of our National Park Service. All Americans should help keep our National Parks clean for both wildlife and our future generations to enjoy!   

Walking out to the beach, a Northern Harrier passed by, as it was hunting over the dunes. I have only visited Sandy Hook three times and on each visit I have been amazed at the wildlife that can be seen so close to New York City. 

Just beyond the dunes we ran into a long debris line full of trash and we got to work right away. Thousands of small plastic items mixed in with natural debris. We knew right away that we couldn't pick up everything, but we were going to do our best to at least remove a good portion of what was on this tiny stretch of beach.  

Every tiny piece is a potential hazard for wildlife and we all have to do more to not only clean up what we have already put in the environment, but work towards reducing our waste that gets there. 

Syringes may be the last thing that you think of on your vacation to the beach. Sadly they are something you should be watching out for. In the small section we were picking up in, we removed four syringes. One of which was uncapped with the needle still intact.   

Here Leigh Ann is picking through the debris and getting the plastics removed! Far in the background  you can see the New York City skyline. It was a windy and cold day, but at least the sun was shinning nice and bright down on us as we picked our way down the beach. 

The view of the city from Sandy Hook. 

These are just some of the interesting plastic toys that we found. The two above look like they might be older items. You never really can tell though. Fred looked as though some sort of critter had been chewing on him a little. I wonder if these items spent time out at sea or if they just came down the river.

My favorite trash finds are those in the shape of reptiles and amphibians. Here I found multiple turtles and the much rarer plastic frog.

Leigh Ann got the trophy for her clean-up efforts. Seriously, she found one! 

After taking our bags of trash back to the car we returned to the beach for a short walk to enjoy the sun and see what kinds of birds were around. In this photo a male Long-tailed Duck is coming in for a landing. I believe the Gull in the background is just a Ring-Billed.  

I wasn't sure what this shorebird was when we came across it. It turned out to be a Black-bellied Plover and it was a new bird for me to check off of my life list! 

We made a couple more stops before calling it a day with the clean-up and came close to filling up the back of my car. In a later post you will be able to see all of the trash we collected sorted out. The sort of all of this took about just as long as the clean-up itself.  

In addition to the clean-up, we also took the tour of the Sandy Hook Light, the oldest light house still in operation in the United States. I would highly recommend that if you visit Sandy Hook you stop by the light house for the tour. It is free, but there is limited space and the tours only run at certain times. 

Thank you very much to Leigh Ann for joining me on this beach clean-up! You can check out her Facebook at: 3 Moons Studio. Hopefully we can make another beach visit when it is a little warmer out.   
See my most updated posts on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA