"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue. March 12, 2005, Saturday. Clear becoming fair, 35-48 degrees,
wind west 15-20-5-0, then suddenly 15-20 from WNW after sunset. Some ice
formed last night in ditches and protected north-facing areas. 42 species,
13 of them waterfowl.
1 Common Loon. 8 Horned Grebes, one in pretty advanced breeding plumage.
19 American Wigeon. 165 Canvasbacks. 26 Redheads. only 7 Long-tailed
Ducks. 1,475 Surf Scoters. 10 Black Vultures in a group (ties 2nd
highests of 10/9/82 and 9/14/96). 3 Bald Eagles. 4 Red-tailed Hawks. 14
flickers (a spring high count, all feeding in one field). 30 Myrtle
Warblers. 40 juncos.
Migration late in the day, birds heading north: 2 Bonaparte's Gulls, 2
Ospreys, several flocks of Tundra Swans totalling c. 270. Tundra Swans in
migration here often seem to appear late in the day. When this happens and
it's still sunny they sometimes take on a striking roseate hue.
27 deer, 9 in Field 2, 18 seen from Lucy Point but on Deep Neck, including
the partial albino. 1 Eastern Cottontail. The trapline: 1 mouse caught in
the back porch shed, 3 in the garage (1 inside the bureau there). These
are attractive, furry, wild mice (White-footeds?) not House Mice. 1 rabbit
and 9 deer seen last night c. 10:45 P.M. on arrival. A lifetime supply of
Chorus Frogs ratcheting away in Woods 2 and nearby in low areas of young
forest on Jim Meholic's property. Not bad considering there are areas of
skim ice less than 100 feet away from some of these froggies.
A peaceable kingdom. Out in front of Tranquility is a tight group of
waterfowl feeding, milling around, preening and resting cheek-by-jowl with
no signs of hostility consisting of c. 90 Canvasbacks, the Redheads, the
wigeon, 20 or so scaup, and several dozen each of Tundra and Mute swans.
Skunkhead hegira. Around sunset over the space of a few minutes the many,
many hundreds of Surf Scoters began to take off for the central Choptank
River mouth and the air was alive with the magical, musical, bell-like
ringing of the males' wings, one of the great sounds of the Chesapeake.
Spent 3 hours at the end of the day at Lucy Point scoping the waters,
sitting in the wan sun, and napping a few short times. Changeable skies
and nice cloud formations, some of them trailing virga. Missed today:
Great Blue Heron. gannet. Mallard. Mourning Dove.
March 13, Sunday. Southern Dorchester County, MD, 5:45 A.M. - 6:45 P.M.
116 miles by car, 2 by foot. Overcast in the A.M. becoming fair, changing
back and forth several times, but the bright, red sun suddenly appearing
for about 10 minutes at sunset at Elliott Island, which seemed to energize
the Short-0eared Owls. 38 - 47 - 44 degrees. Light winds almost all day
long from NW or WNW. Excellent visibility. 84 species (28 of them
waterfowl, my best day ever for them here; with considerable luck I could
also have seen White-winged Scoter, Ross's & Cackling geese - Lord knows I
sorted through many hundreds of geese and scoters carefully looking for
them - and ended with 31 waterfowl species).
5:45 A.M., Cambridge Wawa, a male House Sparrows up early and foraging
around my car, not exactly nocturnal as some of this species are here but
at the very least this dude was crepuscular.
BALD EAGLES. 99: 80 at Blackwater including the Sewards, Wildlife Drive,
Route 335 areas but with 57 in sight from one point, Stop 10 on Wildlife
Drive, by virtue of slow, careful scanning and scoping. 10 at Hooper's
Island. 1 at Cambridge. But very few the rest of the day in several areas
where they're often many, to wit, only 2 at Bestpitch, 1 at Lewis Wharf
Road, and 5 at Elliott Island. Amazing day total, especially since many
adults were presumably out of sight at their nests. My best day ever here
for Bald Eagles.
Blackwater N.W.R.: 6:15-11:15 A.M. Ran into Greg Inskip and we talked
raptor talk for quite a while. Greg saw a NORTHERN GOSHAWK on March 6 near
Decoursey Bridge. He says there are at least 6 Golden Eagles wintering in
southern Dorchester this winter. 1 Great Egret. 425 Tundra Swans (some
migrating, looming out of the south in long Vs). 3,000 Snow Geese c. 150
of them Blues. 110 Green-winged Teal. 425 pintails. 2 Blue-winged Teal
(Pool 1). 115 shovelers. 22 Ring-necked Ducks. 17 Hooded and 70 Common
Mergansers (1 imm. eagle was diving continuously at some of the Commons).
14 Black Vultures. 4 Ospreys (1 male doing a sky dance while carrying
beaucoup nesting material). 7 harriers. 4 coots (They like to hang in the
willowy areas of Pool 3). 7 Greater Yellowlegs. 30 Dunlin. 1 snipe. 1
screech-owl. 2 Pileated Woodpeckers. 4 Brown-headed Nuthatches. 1 Marsh
Wren (usually have the dickens of a time getting any in winter anywhere).
A pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets (feeding ON THE GROUND, no less, at the
entrance to Wildlife Drive; great views of the crowns of these exquisite
little sprites). 3 Field Sparrows.
Cambridge. 11:45 A.M. - 1 P.M. Covered from Route 50 west to Hambrooks
and Riverside Drive The EURASIAN WIGEON visible to the west from Oakley
Street. 4 Horned Grebes. 2 Double-crested Cormorants. 22 American
Wigeon. 190 Canvasbacks. 1 Redhead. 1 Greater Scaup (stopped looking for
more after detecting the first 1) & 200 Lessers. 3 Black and 700 Surf
scoters. 1 female Hooded Merganser at the Chelsea Drive lake. 6 Ruddy
Ducks. 2 Ospreys. 1 Cooper's Hawk. 30 cowbirds on the lawns.
Hooper's Island. A brief visit to the Swan Harbor-Fishing Creek Bridge
area only. An imm. White-crowned Sparrow (2nd most unusual bird of the day
after the Eurowigeon) next to Fishing Creek Bridge, perched on the port
gunwale of a skiff full of debris on the lawn there. A flock of 20
Chipping Sparrows at the entrance to Swan Harbor Road. Such flocks, in the
manner they feed and the way they fly when flushed, act very much as juncos
do, very different from white-throats and songs, and identifiable, with
care, even from a moving car. 10 early Forster's Terns on a log in the
water in Tar Bay. One Myrtle Warbler was seen chasing a Song Sparrow (!?).
3 Common Loons.
Bestpitch: 2 harriers. 1 Cooper's Hawk. 30 Mourning Doves. 35
Green-winged Teal. 1 Greater Yellowlegs. Lewis Wharf Road: 20
Red-breasted Mergansers on the Nanticoke River. A few harriers.
Elliott Island Road. 8 SHORT-EARED OWLS spread up and down the road from
Langrell's Island almost all the way to Savanna Lake from c. 6 - 6:30 P.M.
My best count here in years. 8 Horned Grebes. 9 harriers. 2 snipe. 1
woodcock, peenting at 6:30 P.M. west of Savanna Lake just north of the
little poplar grove west of the road. 1 horned owl. 75 Fish Crows in a
flock on the ground at Gadwall Bend. Loads of ducks very far out on
Fishing Bay that I didn't bother to scope.
Sic transit gloria mundi (As Mel Brooks said in 'History of the World', "I
didn't know Gloria was sick."). Bulldozed out of existence at Elliott
Island Road - the Green Island Hunt Club on Pokata Creek, on the verge of
collapse for several years, and the other decrepit lodge just north of
there on Island Creek. Come April there are going to be a lot of pissed
off Barn Swallows.
Missed today: Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, kestrel or any other
falcon, turkey (but Greg saw at least 4 groups today) or any other
gallinaceous bird, Killdeer, Sanderling (usually get a few at Swan Harbor),
kingfisher, Horned Lark, Tree Swallow, towhee, Savanah Sparrow, meadowlark,
Boat-tailed Grackle, House Finch, goldfinch. Very few bluebirds around;
hope they haven't been impacted by the harsh weather.
Also: MAMMALS: 3 White-tailed Deer. 2 Nutria (at Elliott I., 1 seen,
another heard). 1 Muskrat. 2 Fox Squirrels (Blackwater). 1 Gray Squirrel
(Cambridge). FROGS: A few Wood Frogs and a Chorus Frog calling at
Blackwater. The Wood Frog is another batrachian that is not in awe of
March.
ALBINO VIRGINIA RAIL. Recently I've had occasion to query Mike Haramis of
Patuxent about some issues. He sent me an attachment showing an apparently
pure white, captured Virginia Rail in the same frame as a normal one, from
the Patuxent River. Mike's been studying Diamondback Terrapins, mostly in
the Smith Island, MD, area: "... terrapins are a legal [and totally
umanaged] commercial fishery in Maryland with an unlimited harvest ... I
have seen 500 captured in 3 hours ... Our focal study area is Martin
Refuge ... and I would guess we are approaching 3,000 captures in the
area." Mike's study tags and releases the terrapin: "look for a drilled
10th right perimeter scute with monel tag" ... A few watermen use scrapes
to extract terrapin "from winter hibernacula," where they "group in large
aggregations." Fascinating. I hope his studies enable these attractive
reptiles to fare well.
ADC COUNTY ATLASES are indispensable for birders. I've written to ADC
urging them to put out an atlas of Somerset County. They've done all other
Maryland counties. This year they have published one for Sussex County, in
southern Delaware, for the first time. Coastal Delaware has so many new
housing developments. The roads in them are so tiny the ADC maps have
resorted to putting numbers next to the streets with a side bar telling
their names. Map 43, for example, has a sidebar with 59 street names for
an area no bigger than 2500 X 2500 feet. This depresses me to see
Delaware, bucolic for most of my life, becoming so hamstrung.
ADC atlases excel at mapping cultural features. Sometimes they slip with
the physiographic ones. Their 8th ed. for Talbot County (2003) displays
fairly new features such as the Audubon centers at Pickering Creek and the
Jean Ellen DuPont Shehan facility. However, it still shows Sharps Island
(Map 16), which eroded away in the mid-1950s. Dick Kleen found Maryland's
first Herring Gull nests there. As his sub-permittee I banded a few gull
chicks there then. Map 17 shows Nelson's Island, gone for decades now. As
a boy I almost caught a summer King Eider with a crab net there once. Map
17 also shows Royston Island, which my family owned, gone since the 1950s.
In the 1930s my grandfather and namesake, Henry Tucker, found breeding
Least Terns there. Map 10 shows the Poplar Island archipelago as it
existed long before its miraculous recent reconstitution by the engineers
and their current system of dikes and roads as well as impoundments.
from "Chesapeake haiku":
i sing of the Bay.
my song is of its islands,
ere they wash away.
what creatures lived on
Sharp's, Long, the Roystons, Nelson's-
vanquished by the waves?
Terrapin Sand Point
and Okahanikan Cove -
names alone are good.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
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