Presque Isle State Park thrummed with activity Saturday.
Bank anglers rimmed ice-free Presque Isle Bay and some of the interior waters.
Fishermen bobbed in boats and canoes in PI Bay and ice-free Misery Bay.
The recreational trail carried bikers, skaters, walkers and runners.
Birders had to look halfway across PI Bay for the greatest concentration of waterfowl. Killdeer watched traffic carefully at the West Pier. Those who know where to look were looking -- in great numbers -- for the park's nesting American bald eagles.
On the lake side, red-breasted mergansers were wooing potential mates along the breakwalls; gulls rode tiny icebergs at Gull Point, where horror-movie fog rolled off the icy lake and over the busy parking lot; and a red-bellied woodpecker let out its wild buzzsaw call over the Rotary Pavilion again and again.
Beaches were trafficked by walkers, many barefoot or in shirtsleeves or shorts, all pining for an early taste of July. Waterworks' playground was alive with children.
Construction work crowds Marina Road a bit. Extensive winter treefall around the park is obvious. So is a growing disdain for parking lots -- drivers don't bother with them, but simply pull off the road wherever it is convenient, tail ends often jutting into a traffic lane.
The park as we know it in summer is coming alive.