LOWER EASTERN SHORE, VA & MD, DECEMBER 14-17, 2012, esp., in Virginia at the Wachapreague & Nassawadox Christmas counts. Jared Sparks, Harry Armistead.
Many thanks to George and Barbara Reiger for their hospitality Friday night, and to Ruth Boettcher and the Tarwaters for their helpful, cheerful, and expert guidance in the Carolina Skiff during the day on Saturday in the Cedar Island area.
DECEMBER 14, FRIDAY. Getting there.
A thousand plus Snow Geese flying W over Route 13 at Milford, DE. We see something like that here every year on this weekend.
In Maryland:
Ocean City, MD, inlet, 10:15-11:15, clear, W5, low 50s: nothing fancy. American Black Duck 15 S of the S jetty and in the sea, Rock Pigeon 95, Red-throated 9 & Common 7 loons, Ruddy Turnstone 35, Purple Sandpiper 14, Northern Gannet 7, Bald Eagle 1, Sanderling 8, Long-tailed Duck 15, White-winged Scoter 1, Bufflehead 5, Forster’s Tern 28, Brant 18, Turkey Vulture 1, and Double-crested Cormorant 18.
Skimmer Island, 11:30: American Oystercatcher 5, Brant 315, Red-breasted Merganser 5, Bufflehead 6, Dunlin 180, Bonaparte’s Gull 3, Sanderling 35, Common Loon 3, and Double-crested Cormorant 3.
West Ocean City Pond: Lesser Scaup 71, Pied-billed Grebe 4, Hooded Merganser 20, Northern Shoveler 12, Gadwall 4, Green-winged Teal 20, Great Blue Heron 2, Bufflehead 1, Mallard 55, Canada Goose 160, American Coot 3, Northern Pintail 14, Ruddy Duck 35, American Black Duck 4. 52°F.
Castaways and Eagle’s Nest Campground, 12:45 P.M. gannet 4, black duck 6, Bufflehead 10, Common 5 & Red-throated 1 loon, oystercatcher 2, Dunlin 1,860, Bald Eagle 2, Tree Swallow 8, Mallard 16, American Wigeon 3, Red-breasted Merganser 6, Black-bellied Plover 35, Forster’s Tern 1, Pied-billed Grebe 1, and Greater Yellowlegs 2. 560 Brant are present, many of them within 100 feet of us just out from the dock, trumpeting and bleating away, eating sea lettuce (“Brant salad”; Ulva lactuca), so close.
Route 611: 2 Red-shouldered Hawks. Verrazano Bridge: 2 Bald Eagles.
In Virginia:
Chincoteague causeway 3-3:30 and at dusk: Marbled Godwit 3, Dunlin 1,000, Common Loon 3, Willet 4, Brant 175, black duck 2, Bufflehead 70, Tricolored Heron 1, Great Egret 3, Boat-tailed Grackle 115, Bald Eagle 2, Black-bellied Plover 10, Hooded Merganser 2, Forster’s Tern 110, and oystercatcher 8. Without making any special effort to detect them at great distance, Jared counts 65 blinds recently brushed up and ready for hunters. Black-crowned Night Heron 3, at dusk.
Chincoteague N.W.R. 3:30-4:45 P.M. Snow Goose Pool is loaded with dabbling ducks (mostly rough, sloppy estimates). AMERICAN AVOCET 1, black duck 150, dowitcher unID’d 66, Bald Eagle 1, pintail 600, shoveler 400, Great Egret 7, Ruddy Duck 100, Tricolored Heron 1, Mallard 250, American Wigeon 40, Green-winged Teal 700, Tundra Swan 10, Greater 3 & Lesser 6 yellowlegs, Dunlin 85, Forster’s Tern 18, Snow Goose 1,000, Great Blue Heron 2, Willet 47, Common Loon 1, scoter unID’d 4, Bufflehead 6, Killdeer 1, Sanderling 20, Brant 25, and Canada Goose a mere 40.
The rest of these field notes all comprise Virginia sightings:
DECEMBER 15, SATURDAY. Wachapreague Christmas Bird Count, Cedar Island party: Ruth Boettcher, Jeremy & Ally Tarwater, Jared Sparks, Tim Krawczel, Harry Armistead. Fletcher Smith, Zak Poulton, and Ned Brinkley are on the S end of the island for 1 hour, c. noon-1 P.M., conducting a search for Ipswich Sparrows, finding 11 out of the day’s total of 18, one of them having been banded previously. So the totals below, a complete list, are the results of what 3 sub-parties found, a 4th partial sub-party being the sparrow folks trio. 45, species, 11 of them waterfowl, 12 being shorebirds.
Earlier in the day Fletcher, Zak, and Ned band marsh sparrows, netting all 3 species, on Parramore Island (outside of this C.B.C. circle). Ruth and the Tarwaters stay with the boat, ride around all over the place. Jared & Tim cover the N part of the island, I the S segment. This island has been creamed by Hurricane Sandy, flattened, most of the dunes gone, perhaps 2-3 acres of Eastern Redcedar forest all that remains, but that has been steadily diminishing for years. Almost all of the beach houses are destroyed, many of them disappearing years ago.
WATERFOWL: Snow Goose 80 (Blue Goose 1 imm.; plus c. 2,000 Snows in a pre-dawn flyout from the Finney Creek estuary by the Reigers’ house), Brant 37, CACKLING GOOSE 1 (8:15 A.M., with a flock of 35 Canada Geese flying N just beyond the surf line, Mallard-sized with a proportionately shorter neck and stubbier bill than the CGs it was with, seen by HTA only), Canada Goose 80, Tundra Swan 5, black duck 276, Surf Scoter 376, scoter unID’d 95, Long-tailed Duck 22, Bufflehead 417, Hooded Merganser 32, Red-breasted Merganser 27.
Red-throated Loon 71, Common Loon 64, Horned Grebe 26, Northern Gannet 1, Brown Pelican 1 (an imm,., flying just beyond the surf line, inches above the waters’ surface, huge, ponderous, slow flight to the S, long bill, neck curled, big wingspan, unmistakable, dark upperparts, HTA, JWS), Great Blue Heron 9.
RAPTORS, charismatic ones: Bald Eagle 12 (downsized from 15 to try to avoid duplicate counting), Merlin 1 (spectacular dives at a wheeling, confused mass of 2 flocks of Dunlin, totaling perhaps 1,000 in each flock, the flocks close together, sometimes coalescing into one flock), Peregrine Falcon 4 (downsized from 5, the duplication thing again).
SHOREBIRDS: Black-bellied Plover 202, Semipalmated Plover 2, oystercatcher 292 (Ruth and the Tarwaters are able to discern the variable color band combinations on several), Greater Yellowlegs 15, Willet 18, Marbled Godwit 4, Ruddy Turnstone 11, Red Knot 9 (regular for this count on the bay side of Cedar c. 1/3 of the way N from the island’s S end), Sanderling 91, Western Sandpiper 97 (probably a lot more present but several of the big Dunlin flocks, where the WESAs like to hang, are seen only in the distance), Dunlin 6,380, Short-billed Dowitcher 2.
EVERYTHING ELSE: Ring-billed Gull 6, Herring Gull 284, Great Black-backed Gull 18, Forster’s Tern 110, Belted Kingfisher 2, Myrtle Warbler 19 (in what’s left of the cedar forest), Savannah Sparrow 1, Ipswich Sparrow 18, Nelson’s Sparrow 2, Saltmarsh Sparrow 1, unID’d “sharp-tailed sparrow” 7, Seaside Sparrow 1, Song Sparrow 1, and Boat-tailed Grackle 177.
I am able to see all 3 of the identified marsh sparrow species close and well enough to determine none are banded. EFFORT: 9 observers in 4 sub-parties, 11 hours and 10 miles on foot; 7 hours and 26 miles by boat. 7 A.M. – 2 P.M. 40-60°F., winds calm, initially overcast becoming fair then clear, a beautiful day.
At noon I sit in the sun on a dune next to some Opuntia damaged by Hurricane Sandy, basking in the warmth and scanning the inlet and Dawson’s Shoals in between Parramore and Cedar islands. As pretty a day as one could ask for. High tide c. 9 A.M., then subsiding rapidly. Find 3 dolphin vertebrae. Jared sees a life dolphin out in the sea. No deer prints. 100s of small mammal footprints, which Ruth and Ray Dueser tell me are those of Marsh Rice Rats (Oryzomys palustris).
DECEMBER 16, SUNDAY. 7th Nassawadox Christmas Bird Count, seaside, mainland areas. Because of fog and rain the boat is cancelled, having only gone in 2 of the now-7 years, the destination being Hog, and to a lesser extent, Cobb (the N end), islands. How frustrating, costing the count 10 or more species. Consequently Bob Anderson, Thuy Tran, Jared, and I pile into the ‘Osprey’ and explore the seaside area between Willis Wharf and Box Tree Road (Machipongo). 4 observers in 1-2 parties. 87 species.
7 A.M. – 5 P.M. Hours on foot 10, miles on foot 2; Hours by car 2, miles by car 26. 45-61°F. (at noon), winds calm most of the day, briefly < 5 m.p.h. variously SW or SE, very briefly 10 m.p.h. from the S in mid-afternoon. 58°F. at 2:21 P.M. Light rain until 10 A.M., barely discernable sprinkles 4-5 P.M. 54°F. at 8 P.M. It is grim to step out of the motel in the morning darkness to be greeted by steady, albeit light rain. Thank Heaven it is warm and calm.
Fog limiting visibility to 100 yards in some spots early in the morning but clearing off rapidly enough so that the distant tower on Hog Island is visible some 9 miles to the east. Shimmer hinders distant visiblity somewhat for c. 1.5 hrs. during the afternoon. Sun dimly visibly through the clouds at mid-day. The 4 of us maintain station at the end of Box Tree Road from noon until 3:15, a very productive decision, do a lot of scanning out over Hog Island and Outlet Bays. High tide 1-2 feet above normal at noon, right up there. Complete list:
Snow Goose 1 (heard only), Brant 972, Canada Goose 99, Tundra Swan 16, black duck 8, Mallard 2, Surf Scoter 2, Bufflehead 334, Hooded Merganser 50, Red-breasted Merganser 6, Red-throated Loon 1, Common Loon 7, Pied-billed Grebe 2, Double-crested Cormorant 5, Great Blue Heron 10.
Black Vulture 1, Turkey Vulture 18, Bald Eagle 6 (4 adults, 2 immatures), Northern Harrier 7, Sharp-shinned Hawk 2, Cooper’s Hawk 1, Red-shouldered Hawk 2, Red-tailed Hawk 6, American Kestrel 2, Peregrine Falcon 3 (2♂, 1♀; one of the ♂ makes a spectacular stoop from on high of c. 1/3 of a mile at a distant group of foraging Dunlin).
Clapper Rail 7, Virginia Rail 1, Black-bellied Plover 5, Killdeer 11, American Oystercatcher 137, Greater Yellowlegs 13, Willet 15, Marbled Godwit 2, Ruddy Turnstone 65, Western Sandpiper 1, SPOTTED SANDPIPER 2 (1 seen by all 4 of us at Willis Wharf, another at Red Bank by Bob), Dunlin 215, Short-billed Dowitcher 1.
Ring-billed Gull 35, Herring Gull 170, Great Black-backed Gull 2, Rock Pigeon 7, Mourning Dove 50, Eastern Screech-Owl 2, Great Horned Owl 2 (a pair duetting at 4:30 P.M., Webb’s Island), Belted Kingfisher 4, Red-bellied Woodpecker 7, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2, Downy Woodpecker 5, Northern Flicker 4, Pileated Woodpecker 2.
Blue Jay just 2, American Crow 130, Fish Crow 1, Horned Lark 20, Carolina Chickadee 16, Tufted Titmouse 6, Red-breasted Nuthatch 7, White-breasted Nuthatch 2, Brown-headed Nuthatch 14, Carolina Wren 6, Marsh Wren 1, Golden-crowned Kinglet 5, Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3.
Eastern Bluebird 45, Hermit Thrush 20, American Robin 42, Northern Mockingbird 9, European Starling 175, American Pipit 46, Cedar Waxwing 17, Myrtle Warbler 66.
Chipping Sparrow 22, Savannah Sparrow 1, Saltmarsh Sparrow 1, Seaside Sparrow 1, Fox Sparrow 2, Song Sparrow 6, Swamp Sparrow 1, White-throated Sparrow 62, Slate-colored Junco 50, Northern Cardinal 35, Red-winged Blackbird 130, House Finch 22, Pine Siskin 60, American Goldfinch 12, House Sparrow 1♀ (the only one found on the entire count, entering a bird house at Red Bank). Gray Squirrel 4.
Bob spots 11 of the swans at what must have been a distance of 5 or more miles. Fifteen minutes later they finally appear at close range, uttering their marvelous calls, then, on seeing us, wheel warily to the south, perhaps eventually to North Carolina, where a hunting season awaits them.
The dirt road out to Red Bank is colorful. First one passes a phony bologna toll booth. Then at the end is imposing signage, such as “If you are here tonight you will still be here tomorrow morning,” and, my favorite, “Bend over and kiss your butt goodbye. You’re in the crosshairs.” That said, apparently the sign man out at the end of the road is supposed to be quite friendly.
DECEMBER 17, MONDAY. Fog and a high tide prevent us from seeing anything at Willis Wharf save a ø Bufflehead close in. 47 Turkey Vultures in the same tree on the E side of Exmore right in the edge of town among houses.
DECEMBER 18, TUESDAY. A titmouse singing at our Philadelphia home.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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