Labor Day Weekend at Presque Isle: Birds, Photography, and a Park in Recovery
Going home to Erie, PA always means at least one trip to Presque Isle State Park. At this point, it's almost automatic. Whether I'm home for a holiday, visiting my parents for a weekend, or just looking for something to do while I'm there, I usually end up driving around the peninsula at some point with my camera nearby. Presque Isle has become one of my favorite places to photograph, especially since I've gotten more interested in wildlife and bird photography over the past few years.
Labor Day weekend was a little different, though. Presque Isle was closed for the weekend as crews continued cleaning up after storms that had recently moved through the area. For most of my trip home, visiting one of the places I almost always make time for wasn't even an option. The park finally reopened on Labor Day Monday, which meant I had one chance to get back out there before the holiday weekend was over.
Back at Presque Isle With My Camera
One of the things I love about photographing at Presque Isle is that I never really know what I'm going to find. I can drive the same roads and stop at the same places every time I'm home, but the experience is never exactly the same. The weather changes, the light changes, the lake changes, and most importantly for me lately, the birds change.
Bird photography has become one of those unexpected areas of photography that I genuinely love. I didn't set out to become someone who gets excited about spotting a bird I've never photographed before, but somewhere along the way, that definitely happened.
Presque Isle makes it particularly fun because there is always something to look for. Sometimes it's a bird I've photographed dozens of times, and sometimes I have to pull out my phone afterward because I have absolutely no idea what I just photographed. Either way, I enjoy the process of driving around and looking for something.
Photographing Some Birds of Presque Isle State Park
Once the park reopened Monday, I finally had the opportunity I'd been waiting for all weekend to get back out with my camera and see what I could find.
There were all kinds of birds around that morning, including, of course, the osprey I've become so attached to photographing at Presque Isle. I've written before about how seeing an osprey there for the first time turned into me returning day after day to photograph them, so spotting them again always makes a trip to the park feel complete. Eventually, they took off to find breakfast, and I didn't hang around too much longer after they left. Apparently, I've reached the point where the osprey's breakfast schedule can determine mine too.
They weren't the only birds I saw, though. I photographed turkey vultures, a great blue heron, and several gulls throughout the morning. It was a good mix of birds I've seen around Presque Isle plenty of times before, but that's part of what I enjoy about returning with my camera. A bird doesn't have to be rare or new to me for me to want to photograph it.
What I've started to appreciate most about bird photography isn't necessarily getting the technically perfect photograph. It's the patience involved. Wildlife doesn't care that I brought my camera, found good light, or have a particular photograph in mind. I have to work with whatever happens in front of me. Sometimes that means watching a bird sit in the exact same spot for what feels like forever. Other times, something flies overhead and I have only a few seconds to react. I've missed plenty of photographs because I wasn't fast enough, wasn't looking in the right direction, or simply wasn't ready. But I think that's part of why I keep doing it.
There's something satisfying about slowing down enough to notice what's around me. I've probably seen some of these same birds throughout my entire life without ever really paying attention to them. Now I'm noticing where they gather, how they move, and which ones I haven't seen before. Photography has given me a reason to pay closer attention to a place I thought I already knew.
The Place I Keep Photographing
I've photographed Presque Isle so many times that you'd think I'd eventually run out of reasons to bring my camera. Somehow, I haven't. I've photographed sunsets, beaches, wildlife, birds, the lighthouse, changing seasons, and countless little details around the park. I've written about discovering osprey there and going back day after day because I became so fascinated by them. Even when I'm not specifically planning a photography outing, I usually find myself wishing I had my camera if I leave it behind. Part of that is probably because Presque Isle is tied so closely to home for me.
I grew up in Erie. My parents are still there, and coming home means returning to places that have been part of my life long before I ever thought seriously about photography. Presque Isle isn't somewhere I discovered because I became a photographer. It's somewhere I knew first, and photography gave me a completely new way to experience it. That's a distinction I've come to appreciate more as I've gotten older. I'm not visiting because it's a photography destination I found online. I'm photographing a place that was already part of my life.
Final Thoughts
This wasn't the Presque Isle visit I originally expected to have over Labor Day weekend. For most of the weekend, there wasn't going to be a visit at all. But the park reopened Monday, I grabbed my camera, and I got to spend part of Labor Day doing something that has become one of my favorite parts of going home: driving around Presque Isle and seeing what I could find.
Presque Isle never looks exactly the same twice. Sometimes that's because of the season, the weather, the wildlife, or the light. Other times, a storm quite literally changes the landscape. Through all of that, there are still birds flying overhead, wildlife moving through the park, waves coming into shore, and something new to notice if I'm willing to slow down and look for it.
I went home for Labor Day weekend hoping I'd get to photograph Presque Isle. It took until the final day of the weekend, but I did. And after waiting all weekend for the park to reopen, I think I appreciated that familiar drive around the peninsula a little more than usual.