Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, West
Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue.  Liz & Harry
Armistead. 

SATURDAY, June 30, 2007.  mostly overcast, calm or N 5 m.p.h. - NE 5 - E5,
73-83, rain for c. 0.5 hrs. at 2 P.M. but not enough.  rather humid and
warm.

36 species.

DUDDY RUCKS (a Chandler Robbinsism).  A species not seen since April, a
male and 2 female Ruddy Ducks, present also on Sunday, are the first ever
summer records, save for birds seen in the 1950s thought to be cripples
(should now call them disabled?).  Tame and at close range most of the
time, diving frequently, lots of preening, vigorous wagging of tails.  A
bird of many virtues, not the least of which is that it is ... the cutest
duck.  Ruddies are notorious for sometimes being present in small numbers
at impounded coastal areas in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, often for
weeks on end, but not actually breeding.  

" ... locally regular early summer visitor (especially at Craney Island and
Chincoteague) ... breeding should be looked for ... Peak counts ... summer
- 29, Chincoteague, Jun-Jul 1976 ..." (pp. 31-32, "Virginia's birdlife: an
annotated checklist", 4th edition, 330pp., Virginia Society for Ornithology
[Virginia avifauna 7], 2006, by Stephen C. Rottenborn & Edward S.
Brinkley).  In my humble this book is terrific and has application and
wisdom far beyond the boundaries of that state.

Pileated Woodpecker 1.  a hen Wild Turkey.  1 Surf Scoter, probably a
cripple.  Orchard Oriole 2.  a male Blue Grosbeak singing.  Mute Swan 19. 
2 adult Bald Eagles.  4 Chimney Swifts.  1 Chuck-will's-widow calling c.
9:15 P.M. when Liz and I watched what we could see and hear (quite a bit
for both the eyes and the ears, really) of the St. Michaels fireworks, 6
miles distant.  2 Downy Woodpeckers.  

RAIN CROWS.  2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos living up to their old colloquial
name.  Calling all day long, every minute or more often, from 3-10 notes
each time, but usually 7 or 8:  "TOO TOO TOO TOO TOO TO to to."  Sure
enough they presaged the rain.  Who needs AccuWeather?  On Sunday there is
much less calling.  Only give their full call a few times each day.  

MID-AFTERNOON PREDATION JAMBOREE.  In the space of a half hour, 3:15-3:30
P.M., see:  1: an adult Bald Eagle causing an Osprey to drop its fish which
the eagle catches in mid-air then flies purposefully with it N to Deep
Neck.  2: a Red fox with a full-grown Eastern Cottontail in its jaws by the
bend of the driveway.  Once on Bloodsworth Island in September I happened
upon a Red Fox on the shore of Okahanikan Cove with a juvenile but
adult-sized Herring Gull locked in its jaws.  3: an adult Double-crested
Cormorant catches and swallows a 1'+ long Eel.  4: additional Ospreys
carrying fish.  

BUTTERFLIES and their ilk:  a flight of Red Admirals heading N, 18.  2
Pearlcrescents.  7 Cabbage Whites.  2 Common Wood Nymphs.  3 Little Wood
Satyrs.  Also: several unID'd bluets, a Common Whitetail, and a large
darner.

OTHER NON-AVIAN TAXA:  17 Diamondback Terrapin.  3 Cow-nosed Rays.  A
pretty good Firefly show in the evening.  2 Red Foxes; once there was a den
on the W side of Field 1 where one would find fish scales, feathers, and
fur in the area.  2 small, spotted fawns cantering past about 50' away in
Field 1 right on the edge of the lawn.  Last weekend we saw the first
numbers of Sea Nettles.   

Spent 2 hours trimming overhanging vege on the Olszewski trails as well as
that in the yard.  

SUNDAY, July 1, already.  A gem.  clear, NW 5-10, 70-80, very low humidity.
 At 3:15 A.M. suddenly the winds come up, building to 25 m.p.h., blowing
off small limbs, with rain for only 15 minutes, necessitating closing the
N-facing windows.

Pied-billed Grebe, a healthy adult preening offshore just SE of Lucy Point,
only the 10th property record (all seen in the period July 1-November 16)
and the first in 2 years.  An early post-breeding bird?

Seen (or heard) today but not yesterday: 1 Great Horned Owl (calling at
3:00 A.M. just before the squall hit), 2 Indigo Buntings, 2 Red-tailed
Hawks, a Great Crested Flycatcher & 1 Snowy Egret.

2 American Crows on the dock, where I've never seen them before, probably
after the Barn Swallows' eggs, of which there are 3 in their refurbished
nest under the catwalk, an apparent 2nd brood.  Over Field 1 later in the
day a Barn Swallow really lets a Fish Crow have it.  The swallows give fair
chase to the crows after I flush them.  Once at Honga I saw Fish Crows go
under the Fishing Creek bridge in pursuit of swallow nest contents.    

Scoter still present.  A Mallard X American Black Duck hybrid, has the
lovely purple speculum but lacks the very pale brown head of a pure black
duck.  20 Laughing Gulls, the most seen since spring, their fall influx
starting apparently.  

2.5 hours of trail work on encroaching vegetation on all the trails along
the water plus much of the driveway.  Axed a medium-sized Red Cedar that's
been leaning low over the Beach Trail for months.

BUGS:  2 Tiger Swallowtails, 6 Red Admirals, 5 Pearlcrescents, 1
Red-spotted Purple, 2 Common Whitetails, 3 bluets, 2 Little Wood Satyrs,
and a dozen LBGJ (little blue-gray jobs, Eastern Tailed Blues?).  

TOKEN LIZARD.  a 6" Five-lined Skink on the front porch in the sun,
switches its tail back and forth every so often, a strategy to confuse
predators?

HEADIN' HOME:  a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flying across Rt. 481 near where the
Guanacos (or whatever they are) farm is just a ways N of Rt. 309 (Queen
Annes County).    

A bad time for the frog and the toad due to the drought but the Pond has
some Green and Southern Leopard Frogs (and Duckweed) in spite of the low
water.  Fields still not planted so we are enjoying their fertile
fallowness and variety, the grasses and flowers, and the swallows coursing
over them.

Start of fall migration:  the last few days of June are when the first
southbound birds appear regionally, such as Least Sandpiper, Upland
Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher & Whimbrel, but we
never see them here this early, if at all in the fall.  We are more likely
to see the first post-breeding swallows, such as Bank, Tree, and Northern
Rough-winged, but these not until a week or more later, even though someone
will probably see them in the region in very late June in areas where they
do not breed.  Well into July the first kingfishers and kestrels appear,
and Yellow Warblers.  These last 2 days, although at slack tide for
migration, with none of these very early, first, migrants seen,
nevertheless gave us much to see and enjoy.

Best to all.-Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia,
PA 19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to: 
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com  (never, please, to 74077.3176 ....)