FERRY NECK (Rigby’s Folly), TALBOT COUNTY, MD, AUGUST 16-20, 2011. Liz & Harry Armistead. Still some singing by Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, and cardinals.
ABBREVIATION: ISS, in sight simultaneously.
AUGUST 16, TUESDAY. Along the Blue Route outside of Philadelphia are 2 small fawns foraging outside of the W shoulder at milepost 5.5. 62 Turkey Vultures on the way down.
Rigby’s Folly. Present only from 2:45 P.M.: 10 unID’d peep headed S fast, 1 imm. Bald Eagle, 1 ♂ Blue Grosbeak, 4 Royal Terns, 1 American Kestrel. 8 Ospreys ISS. Also up in the air: a white, unmarked blimp over St. Michaels headed Oxford way.
Non-avian taxa: 4 deer in Field 4, a Red Fox, a c. 4.75’ Black Rat Snake by the garage, a Fowler’s Toad, 1 Monarch. Recent rains, which have put several inches of water into the Varmint Pool and the Waterthrush Pond (dry only a few days ago), have stimulated some of the amphibians and tonight there is a muted chorus of Green Tree Frogs.
Partly cloudy becoming clear, NW 15-10, 82-76°F.
AUGUST 17, WEDNESDAY. Actively birded today. 47 species (migrants indicated by an asterisk*). Of most interest:
7 Snowy Egrets (6 of these in a dusk flock presumably headed for Poplar Island to roost), 42 Canada Geese, 10 Ospreys ISS, 1 immature Red-shouldered Hawk* hunting in W8 in back of the garage where it is scolded by a Gray Squirrel; a day short of a tie with the earliest fall arrival date), 1 Solitary Sandpiper* (foraging in the scummy water covering the remains of a manure pile).
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo (series of 7-14 call notes, noon-12:30, c. 1 series every 7-9 seconds), 21 Chimney Swifts*, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, 1 Eastern Wood Pewee*, 1 unID’d empidonax*, 1 Red-eyed Vireo*, 1 Gray Catbird*, 53 starlings, 1 Magnolia Warbler*, 2 Black-and-white Warblers*, 1 ad. ♂ American Redstart*, and 3 Blue Grosbeaks.
Also up in the air, today: 2 A-10 warthogs.
Non-avian taxa: 1 Gray Squirrel, a 6-point buck, 7 Diamondback Terrapin, 2 Southern Leopard Frogs, 2 Green Frogs, and butterflies: 6 Hackberry Emperors, 1 Red Admiral, 3 unID’d foldwing skippers, 4 Red-spotted Purples, 1 Tiger Swallowtail, and 2 Monarchs. Remains of a turtle nest are evident in a deteriorating pile of pale soil on the extreme SE edge of Field 4, probably Snapping Turtle sign.
Today I walked all the trails, except for the Lucy Point trail, doing some clipping on all of them. The mowers, Kennedy Lawn Service, arrive at 6:48 A.M., take just half an hour to do it all (driveway, trails, and yard). They do good work and cheerfully accommodate any requests we make.
Clear, calm – SW5+, 73-89°F., hot but low humidity.
AUGUST 18, THURSDAY. BIG SIT. A most rewarding day with new high counts for 2 species, ties of previous highs for 2 others. I spend 9 A.M. – 1 P.M. and 2 – 6 P.M. sitting in a lawn chair looking S over the Big Field, scanning energetically, and find 37 species in this manner, taking a lunch break 1-2 P.M. In spite of a strong S or SSE breeze all day there is considerable migration going on. It is a source of wonder sometimes what the catalyst is that actually gets birds going, the German term for this being Zugunruhe. “When birds rise up to vault continents, something rises up in me.” – Pete Dunne.
New highs: Barn Swallow* 351, all flying S into the wind and disappearing over Woods 7, coming by in little pulses of from 1 to 18 birds at a time. Only 2 from 5-6 P.M. Previous high: 97, Sept. 16, 1995. Today’s birds seen mostly to the S in the morning, the SE at mid-day, and SW in the afternoon. Extrapolating I probably missed 50 or so during lunch, and who knows how many before 9 A.M. 351 may not seem like a bushel basket full – I’ve seen several 1,000 on some days at Kiptopeke around Labor Day Weekend – but for here it is a gonzo count.
Semipalmated Plover* 21 (in groupings of 7, 13 and 1) all headed S, rapidly. Previous high 6 on August 10, 1996. Most shorebirds seen at Rigby’s Folly are flyovers such as these. You see them for a few seconds, if you’re lucky, then they are gone.
Other birdies: the imm. Red-shouldered Hawk, after calling for 10 minutes from Woods 7, is pursued across the Big Field by a hummingbird. 4 Snowy Egrets. 2 adult and 2 immature Bald Eagles (c. 14 eagle sightings today, but I think all comprise these same 4 individuals). 9 Royal Terns, 2 of them in synchronized flight. 5 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds* & 22 Purple Martins*, these latter 2 species tie the previous high count (I think … some data lost in a computer crash). 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher*. 1 Bobolink*. 2 Baltimore Orioles*. Asterisked (*) species represent, in my opinion, birds in actual migration.
Several times during this 4-day period we see eagles chase Ospreys and vice versa.
Non-avian taxa: a Velvet Ant, 4 Red-spotted Purples, 5 Monarchs, and 1 unID’d sulphur, 1 Red Fox, and numerous grasshoppers hovering for 7-11 seconds at a time as if they are kestrels or kingfishers, mockingbirds and kingbirds preying on the ‘hoppers (which are really locusts?).
Partly cloudy but essentially clear or fair most of the time, 78-89°F., S or SSE 20 m.p.h., lots of roaring whitecaps out on the Choptank River mouth
AUGUST 19, FRIDAY. Fair, E5 m.p.h., 76°F. at start.
Before leaving at 10 A.M. we nurse along our coffee out on the dock, where we see 8 Diamondback Terrapin, the largest Blue Crab I’ve ever encountered, a Green Heron, a bluet, 3 Forster’s Terns, only one Barn Swallow, a goldfinch, and a Spotted Sandpiper. Spotties alight on the rip rap frequently. I hope they prey on Sea Roaches, one of the few life forms that inhabits the rip rap, and by the thousands.
Out in front of the house is a Red Fox at its usual station on the driveway. A Gray Squirrel works its fussy way through the lower branches of an Eastern Redcedar, that is gravid with cedar berries (which are actually cones, we’re told), but doesn’t appear to eat any.
Two roadkill Gray Squirrels in the Royal Oak area. On the way back to PA we count 64 Turkey Vultures.
Laura Oppenheim, Anna Oppenheim, Doug Moak, and George Armistead arrive c. 5 P.M. On the way in they see 14 deer (incl. 4 bucks) and a Bald Eagle in Field 4.
AUGUST 20, SATURDAY. More rain last night. Good.
George sees a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH in the Varmint Pool, only the 3rd record. Others are Aug. 24, 1955 (Dick Kleen, HTA, et al.) and April 29, 1972. This is a new species for the immediate yard around the house, no. 208 (I think). Although they breed along freshwater streams in the interior of the Delmarva Peninsula I’ve only seen them a few times near the Bay proper. In 25 years of banding I’ve never netted one here. They are a rare catch in the Kiptopeke nets in the fall.
DISMAL SWAMP FIRE REVISITED. Jane Hulse, Fire Dispatcher at Shenandoah National Park, kindly forwarded me this URL; it gives information on that fire, called the Lateral West Fire, started by lightning on August 4, which has by now involved at least 6,071 acres from south of Lake Drummond all the way into NC. Some of the fire is in deep peat, burning up to 1.5 feet underground. Much of it is burning in the “fire scar” of the 2008 fire. Up to 433 personnel are fighting the fire, which is predicted to continue until very heavy rains AND swamp flooding ensue.
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2458/
‘til the next time. Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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