From: Harry Armistead [mailto:<harryarmistead...>]
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 10:21 AM
To: Les Roslund
Subject: Smith Island, MD & South Point Marsh, VA, June 21-22, 2012.
SMITH ISLAND, MARYLAND & SOUTH POINT MARSH, VIRGINIA, JUNE 21-22, 2012.
A 2-day visit in company of photographer Dave Harp and author Tom Horton.
For a person invested in the Bay to the extent that I am, being with these
two is, for someone of such a faith, like hanging out with two Popes.
Abbreviation: I.S.S. = in sight simultaneously.
JUNE 21, THURSDAY:
Maryland: Qindocqua Road: an Eastern Cottontail, ½ grown. Cute.
Maryland: Rumbly Point - Irish Grove Sanctuary (Maryland Ornithological
Society), 10:45-11:15 A.M., 100°F., very hazy, SW5+ m.p.h., basically
clear, low tide, and tide still letting out rapidly from the marsh ditches.
Two Diamondback Terrapin on the sandy road. One of the prettiest
saltmarshes I know of on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Saltmarsh Sparrow 2, 16 Snowy & 3 Great egrets, Glossy Ibis 3, a Northern
Harrier, Great Blue Heron 2, an adult American Black Duck with 4 large but
flightless young, Willet 5, Seaside Sparrow 6, Boat-tailed Grackle 4, Blue
Grosbeak 1♂, Red-winged Blackbird 20, Fish Crow 5, and Marsh Wren 3.
Maryland: Smith Island, Ewell area mostly, no surprises: Yellow-crowned
Night 3, Black-crowned Night 3, Tricolored 5 & Little Blue 2 herons, Glossy
Ibis 3, Great 4 & Snowy 3 egrets, Double-crested Cormorant 40, Boat-tailed
Grackle 2, Canada Goose 15, Brown Pelican 4, Barn Swallow 12, Fish Crow 3,
American Oystercatcher 3, Purple Martin 3, and Herring Gull 400 (the latter
at Easter Point, where there is a huge nesting colony in the high dredge
spoil area, which has recently been replenished, and, consequently, opened
up - to the advantage of the nesting gulls).
Lunch at the store in Tylerton, which is loaded with the basic materials
for making Smith Island cake.
Virginia: Shanks-Cheeseman islands area, South Point Marsh. 5:45-7:45 P.M.
These 2 islands have shifted E and, what’s left of them (a sort of Barrier
Beach with beach grass,
Sea Rocket, and clumps of Panicum), is merged with the South Point Marsh
marshes. There’s a huge colony of pelicans and cormorants here (once
again) with Herring and Great Black-backed gulls a lesser (but significant)
component, the GBBGs more numerous than the HEGUs. It’s a great spectacle.
An ad. ♂ Northern Harrier, 1 each of Green, Great Blue, Little Blue,
Yellow-crowned Night & Tricolored herons, 2 Great Egrets, 3 Mallards, 4
American Black Ducks, 7 Seaside Sparrows, 4 American Oystercatchers, 1
Royal & 2 Forster’s terns, 2 Ospreys, 2 Black-crowned Night Herons, and a
Cow-nosed Ray plus 5 Diamondback Terrapin. Lots of Widgeon Grass (Ruppia
maritima), in fact most of the areas we visit today have good growths of
this SAV species.
Maximum counts of the major colonial species: 165 adult Great Black-backed
Gulls I.S.S. There are lots of large but still somewhat fluffy young GBBGs
though their feathering is building in; many of which swim out into the Bay
away from us. We notice but one GBBG nest with eggs (2 eggs). 110 adult
Herring Gulls I.S.S. 1,130 capable-of-flight Brown Pelicans I.S.S. 720
large young Double-crested Cormorants I.S.S. The place is rank with
fecundity.
Almost all of the nests I notice, in a brief foray into the N end of the
huge S colony here, have young so large that the nests are often vacated,
but there are these nests in this N sector of the S colony still with eggs:
Brown Pelican: 1 egg & 1 young 1 nest, 2 eggs & 1 young 1 nest, 1 egg 3
nests, 2 eggs 14 nests, and 3 eggs 9 nests or a total of 28 such nests.
Double-crested Cormorant: 1 egg 8 nests, 2 eggs 7 nests, and 3 eggs 2
nests for a total of 17 such nests.
If anything the relative size, i.e. maturity, of the young cormorants is
even more advanced than that of the pelican chicks. All of them helped
along, perhaps, by the very mild winter.
Virginia: Peach Orchard Point (actually somewhat N of P.O.Pt. per se). 8 P.
M. A brief reconnaissance in preparation for a more thorough visit
tomorrow. Clear, 88°F., SW5+. Low tide:
American Oystercatcher 3, American Black Duck 1, Seaside Sparrow 2, Snowy
Egret 1, Great Black-backed 10 & Herring 35 gulls, Little Blue 4 & Black-
crowned Night 2 herons, Double-crested Cormorant 6, and a Diamondback
Terrapin. A maximum of 200 Brown Pelicans I.S.S. It doesn’t look, from
our brief visit, as if many gulls and cormorants are nesting here, but
it’s easy to see there are dozens of BRPE nests, most with largish young.
Smith Island, MD: birds in the Tylerton-Rhodes Point area today: Clapper
Rail 1, American Oystercatcher 6, Yellow-crowned Night 2, Black-crowned
Night 4, Green 1, Tricolored 2 & Little Blue 5 herons, Snowy 10 & Great 3
egrets, Forster’s Tern 2, Willet 2, Glossy Ibis 1, Fish Crow 4, Boat-
tailed Grackle 10, Double-crested Cormorant 20, Barn Swallow 7, Purple
Martin 40, Osprey 4, House Sparrow 4, and Rock Pigeon 2 plus any number of
Herring Gulls.
Few Glossy Ibis and no starlings seen this visit. Surprisingly few Seaside
Dragonlets. Red-winged Blackbirds practically absent. No Cattle Egrets
noticed. The only butterflies I see are a few Cabbage Whites.
Our lodging is in a comfortable, commodious Sears house, renovated, and
immaculate, full of paintings, photographs, maps, books, carvings, and
charts on Chesapeake Bay themes, but also with a modern kitchen, CDs of
Bonny Raitt and others, AC, and all the comforts. Many of the books Tom
and Dave have written, several of them collaborations, are of course here.
I like best the 16 one-gallon oyster cans, on display on high shelves in
the kitchen, from as many MD and VA oyster canning companies. These cans
are all in mint condition, not a single blemish on any. Would be a hit on
Antiques Roadshow.
Dave’s photography graces an attractive pamphlet, “Smith Island water
trails: paddler’s guide,” which has 22 color photographs, 2 maps, details
on 7 trails, and much other information. I filch a copy.
Other Chesapeake/Delmarva area water trails include Captain John Smith
Water Trail, E. A. Vaughn Kayak and Canoe Trail, Blackwater National
Wildlife Refuge Paddling Trails, Janes Island State Park, and Tangier
Island Water Trails. Kayaking and canoeing are certainly a recreational
growth industry.
Tylerton has nice plantings, Loblolly Pines, American Hackberries, Red
Maples, Eastern Redcedars, Pomegranates, big fig bushes … heaven only
knows what neotrops and other passerines may drop out into them, especially
in the fall.
JUNE 22, FRIDAY. Up early and off to the Peach Orchard Point area again,
5:15 - 6:45 A.M., to see the hot, burning sun rise:
“Wagner’s ‘Liebestod’
may bring the Bayrise sun, though
Willets will suffice.
workboats from Ewell,
scrapers on Big Thorofare,
soft crab your cities.” - from Chesapeake haiku
A more thorough visit today. 90 flight-capable Brown Pelicans I.S.S.
(curiously vs. 200 some last evening). I do not disembark but Dave does to
secure photographs. He says most of the pelican young are large but there
are still “naked chicks” and even a fair number of eggs. With Tom’s
21’ Carolina Skiff nosed up on the shoreline I’m able to stand on the bow
area and scan numerous times for distant as well as close birds:
Clapper Rail 2 (1 well-seen at close range for several minutes as it stalks
around, calling), American Oystercatcher 2, Boat-tailed Grackle 1♂,
Laughing Gull 5, Great Blue 5, Tricolored 2, Yellow-crowned Night 6, Black-
crowned Night 5 & Little Blue 6 herons, Willet 1, Seaside Sparrow 8, Double-
crested Cormorant 35, Herring 30 & Great Black-backed 20 gulls, Forster’s
Tern 1, Purple Martin 1, Barn Swallow 1, Glossy Ibis 1, Northern Harrier 2
(an apparent pair), American Black Duck 1, Great 3 & Snowy 4 egrets, Fish
Crow 2, and Osprey 4.
Later in the morning we visit Rob & Linda Kellogg, who operate a charming
B&B, Inn of Silent Music, on the S end of Tylerton (www.inofsilentmusic.com
<http://www.inofsilentmusic.com/> ) April through October or so. The rest
of the year they’re in Colorado. Tylerton has no cars. Instead there are
a few golfcarts. It’s the most isolated of the 3 Smith Island
communities.
Maryland: Ewell, 11:15 A.M. - 12:45 P.M. Lunch at Ruke’s (full name is
Ruke’s Seafood Deck), in my case the crabcake sandwich platter with cole
slaw, crinkle cut French fries, 2 Pepsi Colas, and Smith Island cake.
Ruke’s is also famous for its cheesesteaks, something that is lost on this
Philadelphian today. I’ll make up for it later.
Yellow-crowned night 3, Black-crowned Night 2 & Tricolored 4 herons, Great
4 & Snowy 2 egrets, Fish Crow 11, Rock Pigeon 1, House Sparrow 6, Great
Black-backed 8 & Herring 20 gulls, Purple Martin 7, Barn Swallow 20, Double-
crested Cormorant 3,
Boat-tailed Grackle 2, Osprey 4, and Willet 1. Right across from town, on
Goat Island, there is still a small colony of Great Blue Herons, at least 8
active nests.
The only birds seen at Tylerton today not seen yesterday: an Eastern
Kingbird and a Royal Tern. On the S side of town one yard has 10 martin
nesting houses.
No better book exists for a description of life in this area than Tom’s An
island out of time: a memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake (W. W.
Norton, 1996, 316p.).
The DISTANCES. It is rewarding to try to keep in sight various landmarks
to stay aware of exactly where one is in this area of, to use Tom’s term,
great horizontality. Some of these can be seen 6 or 7 miles distant, or
even farther.
To the S from the ferries on a day of good clarity the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation lodge in the Fox Islands archipelago can be made out, and, a bit
farther to the S the N-S silhouette of forested Watts Island (a unit of
Blackwater refuge), these both in Virginia.
To the N a mile or more is the Glenn L. Martin National Wildlife Refuge
observation tower, surrounded by trees now that were originally planted by
the refuge’s first employee here, Stanley Marshall. Farther N still is
Solomon’s Lump light in between Smith and South Marsh islands.
Out in the Bay to the W is the rusting hulk of the target ship the
‘American Mariner.’ To the E things get more prosaic with the Crisfield
condominiums looming above the mainland. Those are largely uninhabited due
to the Great Recession. Then there are the 4 or so pilings in the water
that indicate where the MD/VA state boundaries are.
Finally the wooded hammocks are useful landmarks: Pines, Long Branch,
Ireland, Hog Neck, Swan Island, and others. The trees in Ewell as well as
the communication tower there are visible all the way from Holland Island
to the N, as is the major hammock Cherry Island.
HAMMOCKS. It surprises me, with each visit, how extensive and numerous
these small wooded “islands” still are, in view of the frequent extreme
high tide events, occasional hurricanes, and high winds situations apart
from the hurricanes. These places are where the herons and their allies
nest.
On Smith Island heron types are in constant view winging back and forth
between their breeding territories and places where they feed. The
hammocks are also the places where tiny remnant landbird populations still
persist, especially Carolina Wren, Common Yellowthroat (in the marshy
edges), Eastern Kingbird, and Gray Catbird. The presence of Northern
Cardinal and House Wren may be a thing of the past.
Tom sees these hammocks as being somewhat analogous to the “sacred
groves” of the ancients. Within some are stagnant, circular ponds
formerly of use as watering places for livestock. They are oases of higher
ground with the precious presence of mature trees in an area that otherwise
consists of vast saltmarsh, open bay, serpentine tidal guts, and mudflats.
Some of them harbor old gravesites and the remains of houses where, 100 or
more years ago, people lived.
NO SURPRISES. Now is what I like to refer to as the uncluttered purity of
the breeding season. We see no migrating birds. It’s still possible to
see very late species such as Semipalmated Sandpiper, a little less likely
Semipalmated Plover, and even less of a chance for White-rumped Sandpiper.
But we don’t. And it is way past, say, the end of the 1st week in June
when a few Bobolinks, Blackpoll Warblers, American Redstarts, and
Swainson’s Thruhses may be straggling through. Conversely, it is about a
week too early to hope to see the first birds of “fall” - Least
Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Short-billed Dowitcher, or postbreeding
wanderers such Bank or Northern Rough-winged swallows.
Crisfield, MD. On disembarking from ‘the Jason 11’ at 4:38 P.M. I see a
♀ House Finch on the wire, the only one the entire trip.
Just S of the MD/DE line and E of Route 13 there are 18 Canada Geese
foraging in a field. And now the 186-mile drive home, the last 55 miles or
so in driving rain with frequent lightning.
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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