---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Les Roslund <lroslund...>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 22:01:29 -0400
Subject: FW: Ferry Neck, June 29-July 3, 2012.
Forwarded on behalf of Talbot Bird Club Member Harry Armistead
From: Harry Armistead [mailto:<harryarmistead...>]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2012 7:48 PM
To: Les Roslund
Subject: Ferry Neck, June 29-July 3, 2012.
FERRY NECK/RIGBY’S FOLLY, JUNE 29-JULY 3, 2012. Very hot but with bearable
humidity. Drought conditions. No Cedar Waxwings this time, the first miss
in many visits.
JUNE 29, FRIDAY. A ♂ Surf Scoter in Poplar Cove, which will be seen each
day of this visit. 7 Cattle Egrets. 3 Diamondback Terrapin. One deer. 2
Green Herons on the dock. Field 1, 2 & 7 harvested today (wheat). Fields
3-5 are fallow. Fireflies at dusk.
Arrive at 3:45 P.M. 100°F. at 4:30 P.M. Clear, hazy, and dead calm. 96°
F. at 6:45 P.M., 89°F. at 8:45 P.M., 79°F. at 11:30 P.M. From c. 11:30 P.
M. until 12:15 A.M., Saturday morning, there is a storm with thunder,
lightning, a little rain, and scary, violent, erratic winds of 35-40+
m.p.h., the same storm that caused several million to lose power in the
Middle Atlantic region, mostly in Piedmont areas from NC – NJ.
We lose many large branches but that’s all the harm that happens here. The
cleanup will take 2 hours. Storm blows some early Black Walnut nuts off the
trees. Last year there was a horrific blow in June also that downed a large
American Hackberry down by the boat ramp.
JUNE 30, SATURDAY. Clear 74 - 93°F. (4 P.M.), NW 5 becoming SW 5, very
nice early on until mid-day with low humidity and a refreshing N breeze.
High tide at 12:55 P.M. Still 87°F. at 7:21 P.M.
For the first time in many years no Barn Swallows nest (or attempt to nest)
under the dock. Jimmy and Bruce Olszewski visit. We find a Diamondback
Terrapin at 9:15 A.M. attempting to lay eggs at the front of the car port,
where the boat is kept, scraping the gravel away. Even though we are
circumspect and leave very soon that apparently is enough disturbance so
that, when I check later, I see that she was unsuccessful. Field 6
harvested today.
Three ♀ Wild Turkeys cross the lawn between the house and cove with a crè
che of 21 poults. Liz sees another turkey on the Gunners Range driveway.
At 8:20 P.M. a Great Horned Owl takes a swipe at a Green Heron. Green
Herons don’t hold back; you should have heard the squawks. In Field 2 at
dusk are 22 deer, 8 of them bucks. On the back of a white plastic chair on
the front porch is a Green Tree Frog at 9:30 P.M.
Liz finds a dragonfly that she diagnoses to be an Elisa Skimmer, which
belongs to the Common skimmer group. See singles of both Broadhead and
Five-lined skinks. One Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Butterflies: Red-spotted
Purple & Tiger Swallowtail.
Continued cleaning up the garage. Sorted 5 boxes of books from the 2nd
floor east bathroom and discard c. 2/3 of them. Now have 17 boxes of
trash/discards, 3 large bags, 3 old space heaters, 20 framed prints, et al.,
ready to be picked up by Tidewater Cleaning Service.
JULY 1, SUNDAY. 3 LEAST SANDPIPERS flush from the Ruppia maritima flotsam
jetsam that the Friday storm blew onto the rocks at Lucy Point; these are
the earliest ever fall Leasts here, but by just one day. An adult ♀
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK seen in flight over towards Anderby Hall; I’ll bet there
are no more than a handful of records for the entire lower Delmarva
Peninsula in summer. Finishing off the short list of notable birds are 19
CATTLE EGRETS consorting with a neighbor’s steers: a significant percentage
of the total Talbot County breeding population, which is restricted, I
believe, to Poplar Island; the most CAEGs seen here in decades.
Clear, calm, 76-98°F. (90°F. at 8 P.M.; 88°F. at 10 P.M.), SW 5 becoming
NW 5-10 c. 6 P.M. Do brush work at Lucy Point 10:45-11:45 A.M. where I see
61 Canada Geese, 4 terrapin, and a Red Fox kit. The storm blew one Black
Locust branch 37 yards out into Field 1 to the NE from the nearest tree.
Suddenly there are TWO ♂ Surf Scoters in the cove, probably cripples thanks
to the inane sea duck hunting season (a.k.a. target practice). At least
they can keep each other company as the rest of their kind are most likely
in Labrador or northern Quebec now.
Liz sees a Silver-spotted Skipper. There’s a Velvet Ant on the front
porch, a ♀ wingless wasp that can sting. Do brush work on the driveway
3:30-4:30 P.M. when it is 98°F., after which a complete change of clothing,
a cold shower, and Gatorade are the order of the day. It helps while doing
this work to eat wild blackberries, but there are only a few black ones…
1000s of red ones but, as happens so many summers, because of the drought
these will not morph to black. Fowler’s Toad in the front yard. Japanese
Beetles have almost completely denuded many of the wild rose clumps this
summer.
It’s not enough that a ♂ Northern Cardinal fights (with its feet) its
reflection in 4 of our house windows, but it also does so with both front
windows of the car, and the 2 side view mirrors, leaving its calling cards
on all of those.
Butterflies: Red-spotted Purple, Orange Sulphur, Red Admiral & Cabbage
White. No Sea Nettles this visit although numbers seen weeks ago. An
Osprey platform across the cove that had 2 youngsters earlier, in June, has
been abandoned. There have been more fish rises in the cove and Irish Creek
this summer than usual.
One Five-lined Skink. 2 Orchard Orioles. A Least Tern. An Eastern
Kingbird seen chasing both the Sharp-shinned Hawk and an Osprey.
JULY 2, MONDAY. Clear, NW 5 becoming calm, 75-94°F. There’s a small
Southern Leopard Frog on the front porch. That makes 5 species of herps
there this year, none of them snakes or turtles. We turn the lights out at
night, so they’re not there because of insects that might have been
attracted by the lights. And there is no greenery or clutter on the porch.
More brush work out at Lucy Point, where there are 43 Diamondback Terrapin,
basking in the calm created by the lush growths of Ruppia, an adult Bald
Eagle, this visit’s 1st Royal Tern, the 61 Canada Geese, and 18 Turkey
Vultures in sight simultaneously in a kettle. A doe with 2 little baby
fawns in Field 1, then later 11 does in Field 2.
Fields 1, 2, 6 & 7 planted today by no-till. The other fields have been
mowed. Surprising how much green there is in the fields following the wheat
harvest. Good. In the yard some of the pine cones from a Loblolly Pine
have been blown 17 yards from the base of the tree by Friday’s storm.
Birds: an adult Red-tailed Hawk, a Snowy Egret, a Killdeer, and a Great Blue
Heron catching minnows from sunset until dusk at the head of the cove in a
very low tide. The egret is feeding right next to the shore, oblivious to
the soccer going on a few feet away. Scores of schools of minnows stipple
the water’s surface as an essentially full moon rises over Woods 1. I sit
out on the dock until it is almost dark, except for the luminous moon.
Butterflies: Pearlcrescent, Silver-spotted Skipper, Red-spotted Purple &
Clouded Sulphur. This place does not have a rich assortment of butterflies.
Dragonfly: Common Whitetail.
JULY 3, TUESDAY. Clear, calm, 76°F. at the start. Water the plants before
we leave at 10:00 A.M. The Carolina Wren flushes from its nest in one of
the planters. The nest has 4 eggs. On the way home, d.o.r.: 4 deer, 2
possums, and a Raccoon. Damage from Friday night’s storm is especially
evident along Route 301 in the Sassafras-Middletown area in the form of many
downed big limbs and some trees, too.
Spend much of this visit reading Chasing the wind by Hal Roth, on loan from
Ben Weems, an account of Roth’s participation in a solo, round-the-world
sailing race. The sailing jargon I do not fathom but it is interesting
reading about how he copes with weeks of being alone, the meals he prepares,
his health issues, the birds he sees, and amazing he can get so much reading
done: Somerset Maugham, Thomas Hardy, accounts of WWII, naval history,
Graham Greene, and the ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy’s classic
Logbook for Grace when Murphy sailed down to South Georgia along the E coast
of South America in one of the last, old traditional whaling ships, writing
100s of words a day to his wife in a miserable cabin with temperatures in
the 40s.
MARIA SHARAPOVA sounds very much like a Red Fox when she screams as she
serves or volleys.
Unrelatedly, pray for rain.
Best wishes. – Harry Armistead.
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