FERRY NECK, ELLIOTT ISLAND ROAD & BLACKWATER N.W.R., FEBRUARY 7-13, 2013. Liz & Harry Armistead. 45 white pelicans, 4,610 Ruddy Ducks.
FEBRUARY 7, THURSDAY. On the way down: 115 Turkey Vultures, 12 Red-tailed Hawks – just like old times. 15 deer S of Ruthsburg, one an 8-point buck and 9 deer seen from Rt. 33 E of St. Michaels. S of Cordova: Killdeer 6, Horned Lark 5, starling 4, junco 16, Ring-billed Gull 30, distant blackbirds 1,000±, Canada Goose 1, Tundra Swan 20, bluebird 5, Great Blue Heron 1, Red-tailed hawk 1, and Turkey Vulture 8.
Arrive at Rigby’s Folly at 3:50 P.M. Minutes after casting seed on the ground, which hadn’t had any for a week, there are 61 White-throated Sparrows and a cardinal eating it. Seen from Lucy Point: a flicker, 30 Buffleheads, 35 Surf Scoters, 26 Tundra Swans, a ♂ Common Goldeneye, and 31 Canada Geese. Still bleak out here.
Strong W winds have blown one of the chairs we keep at Lucy Point 87 yards back NE into Field 1 and dislodged 2 plastic buckets and a plastic chair from the front porch. Across Irish Creek at Holland Point a large oak has been snapped off about 7 feet up, had been a favorite place for the occasional Bald Eagle to perch.
Overcast, E 5-20, 43°F. - 38°F )at 8:30 P.M.)
FEBRUARY 8, FRIDAY. Overcast, N-NE 10- NW 15, 39°F to 38°F. (at 1 P.M.), 43°F (10:30 A.M.), 40°F. (5 P.M.), rain. Just plain nasty. 16 Tundra Swans in the cove. See a handsome ♂ Red-bellied Woodpecker, the rosy wash on its breast quite distinct - don’t see that very often. 18 vultures on the water tower next to the St. Michaels fire dept. 9 deer at Bellevue Road X Ferry Neck Road. A day for restin’, writin’, readin’ (Ghost birds: Jim Tanner and the quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 1935-1941 by Stephen Lyn Bales, U. of Tennessee Pr, 2010, 270p; an excellent book), and listenin’ to music (The Moldau, Les Préludes, the “Great Mass” in C minor).
FEBRUARY 9, SATURDAY. Clear, NW 20-10, 30-40°F. 185 starlings with 3 ♂ Red-winged Blackbirds in Fields 1 & 2, the RWBLs singing. At the feed: 63 White-throated Sparrows, 1 Fox & 1 Song sparrow, 7 cardinals, 5 Blue Jays, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a junco, a towhee. And a Gray Squirrel.
Take an hour to clear brush past the driveway bend to improve our view from the house of the distant Choptank River waters. I must get Carhartts to protect from the thorns of brambles and briars during such brush work, tire of receiving the stigmata on my legs. When finished working Bruce Olszewski and friend come over to join us; we have a good hour talk or so about deer, firearms, birds, and other topics. Nearby are deer remains - vertebrae and a skull with complete dentition and intact antlers. Bruce keeps the skull after I decline.
Two Turkey Vultures sun on the N side of Field 1, wings spread, because it feels so good to be in the sun and out of the wind. 2 deer in Field 1. 4 flickers in Field 7 and a kingfisher flies over there. 3 bluebirds in Field 1. 180 Canada Geese shelter on the low tide mud in the cove. One Bald Eagle.
FEBRUARY 10, SUNDAY. ELLIOTT ISLAND ROAD in its entirety but also including Vienna, the adjacent Route 50 borrow pit, Kraft Neck Road, Drawbridge (Chicamacomico River), Lewis Wharf Road, and Henry’s Crossroads. 6:30 A.M. – 6:30 P.M. 97 miles by car.
28-42°F., clear becoming fair, wind dead calm in early morning, then N5, then SW 5-10. gray clouds overspreading from the SW from 4:45 P.M. Ditches and marsh ponds lightly frozen, melting by afternoon. Tide extremely low in morning, then a slightly-above normal high in the afternoon. No birds on Savanna Lake. As elsewhere in our region, several large Loblolly Pines have blown over from the strong W winds of the past few months. List below is a complete one. 76 species.
OF MOST INTEREST: American Black Duck 91. Ruddy Duck 4,610 of the little dears, all of them cute (in 7 areas, c. 20 rafts, incl. one of 2,300 birds seen from Fishing Point). Pied-billed Grebe 8 (2 Island Creek, 3 Drawbridge, 3 borrow pit). Turkey Vulture 86. Bald Eagle 37 (find 2 nests I was unaware of previously). Killdeer 39. Tree Swallow 41 (hovering, fluttering over a wet saltmarsh area [ADC map 38, coordinates J13]). Brown-headed Nuthatch 6. Fox Sparrow 9 (they seem to like the pine hammocks on the lower road as well as the woods at the beginning of the mainland areas). Eastern Meadowlark 17.
Other goodies: Canada goose 475, tundra swan 10, gadwall 1♂, American wigeon 3, mallard 28, green-winged teal 49, canvasback 155, redhead 8, lesser scaup 34, surf scoter 1♂, bufflehead 38, common goldeneye 28, hooded merganser 14, common merganser 2, red-breasted merganser 2, common loon 1, double-crested cormorant 2, great blue heron 10 (plus 1 d.o.r., Lewis Wharf Road).
black-crowned night heron 2, black vulture 2, northern harrier 8, sharp-shinned hawk 1, Cooper’s hawk 1, red-shouldered hawk 2, red-tailed hawk 3, clapper rail 3 (5 P.M.), Virginia rail 2 (10:59 A.M. & 1:29 P.M), American coot 3, greater yellowlegs 12. lesser yellowlegs 2, dunlin 13, Wilson’s snipe 1, Ring-billed Gull 140, herring gull 40, great black-backed gull 2.
mourning dove 18. eastern screech-owl 2 (6:30 A.M.), great horned owl 2 (dusk), short-eared owl 2 (dusk), barred owl 1 (1:12 P.M.), belted kingfisher 2, downy woodpecker 4, northern flicker 6, blue jay 6, American crow 60, fish crow 2, Carolina chickadee 12, tufted titmouse 2, Carolina wren 4, ruby-crowned kinglet 2,.
eastern bluebird 9, hermit thrush 2, American robin 7, northern mockingbird 4, European starling 195, yellow-rumped (myrtle) warbler 30, eastern towhee 1, song sparrow 26, swamp sparrow 3, white-throated sparrow 11, dark-eyed (slate-colored) junco 8, northern cardinal 11, red-winged blackbird 475 (some singing), common grackle 8, boat-tailed grackle 4 (McCready’s Creek), house sparrow 8.
MAMMALS: Gray Squirrel 1, Eastern Cottontail 1, Sika Deer 14 (in configurations of 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 7; all at dusk on the south 12 miles of E.I.R.).
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? It was 1980, to the best of my reckoning. My family was staying in the Baltimore (population 785,618) Holiday Inn. In the parking lot there a man approached me: “I have seen your car at Elliott Island” (population c. 100). He recognized my vanity plates ‘OSPREY.” Today, Feb. 10, 2013, a man approaches me at McCready’s Creek, Elliott Island: He: “You’ve been coming here a long time.” Me: “Since the late 1950s.” It is the same man, a third of a century later. Bob Burch. Same vanity plates 3 cars later. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to tell him his Super Bowl Ravens’ rookie running back, Bernard Pierce, was a kid at Ardmore Day Care when Liz was the Director, a mere 20 years ago. Liz likes to say that life is like a Russian novel (full of coincidences). The Eastern Shore is especially graced by serendipity. John Donne was right: “No man is an island.”
FIRES. I have problems with the annual winter marsh fires in Dorchester County. Often they run through wooded hammocks, favored breeding areas of Bald Eagles. Last year’s vegetation, burned by these fires, is used by early nesting Black Rails and Saltmarsh Sparrows. Today a big fire is started to the W side of Island Creek. By dusk flames of 21 sub-fires, some 6-7 feet high, slowly burn towards the SE, into the wind, which indicates that some care is spent in the fire’s strategy. Its quite a sight against the backdrop of the western sky and gathering dusk. Earlier I take some shots of the great, dark gray, clouds of smoke. In spite of this conflagration the Short-eared Owls and Black-crowned Night Herons seem to go about their business as usual. I know of 3 then active Bald Eagle nest trees killed by these fires in previous years. The great smoke columns can be seen from miles away, even from the western shore sometimes.
TRAPPING. I find trapping horrendous. Yet there is a morbid interest it engenders. Today I see 4 trappers in action. Pickup trucks with dozens of spear-like saplings, Sweet Gums, I’d guess, bright orange ribbons on their tops, piled in the truck beds to mark where the sets are. The marsh fires enable the trappers to get around in the mashes more easily. I wish I’d stopped to talk with the trappers, find out if the Nutria eradication program has made their Muskrat trapping more successful, ask if they inadvertently trap any rails, and whether the rails’ bodies can be obtained to make specimens or do stomach content analysis.
KRAFT NECK ROAD is a 3-mile, unpaved gem that connects Elliott Island and Steele Neck roads. Not a single permanent dwelling. Large, long fields surrounded by woodlands. Brushy areas, too. It is variously sandy, muddy, and/or wet. All 3 today. The brimming over wooded swamp inundates the road for 30 feet. A visit to a carwash afterwards is indicated. This swamp has breeding Prothonotary Warblers in season. It’s a good place to look for Red-shouldered Hawks. Present is a species of Smilax that has bright red berries. It as a much more diffuse growth than the more common Smilax (greenbriar, catbriar), lacking its intimidating, concertina/razor wire-like appearance and impenetrable thickets, and so casts a subtle, nuanced beauty in these swamps, that otherwise lack much color.
AMONG THE MISSING: blue-winged teal, ring-necked duck, long-tailed duck, American kestrel, rough-legged hawk (don’t see them much here lately; Cedar Creek Road is probably better for them?), rock pigeon, yellow-bellied sapsucker, red-bellied woodpecker, horned lark, American pipit, Savannah sparrow (Savanna Lake lacks the h), brown-headed cowbird, house finch, American goldfinch.
Royal Oak: 3 deer at 7:05 P.M.
FEBRUARY 11, MONDAY. Calm becoming SW5+, 45-53°F., overcast, fog, visibility 700-800‘ (or less; often can’t see across the cove) becoming merely overcast in the afternoon, light drizzle off and on. 48°F. at 9:23 P.M.
Blackbird day. Early on 335 blackbirds in Field 1, c. 3/5 starlings, 1/5 Common Grackles & 1/5 Red-winged Blackbirds. When they flush into the trees some of the red-wings and grackles sing. Later there’s a group of c. 530 Red-winged Blackbirds (99% ♂) in Field 1, at 5 P.M., along with 3 starlings. Finally … a raft of Canvasbacks in Irish Creek, 435, tightly concentrated, many of them diving in unison. First of year Red-breasted Mergansers, 4ø way up the cove, along with 8 Tundra Swans. Some Buffleheads are all the way up to the head of the cove – unusual for them to be so far in.
In Field 2 thirty-two American Robins. Maximum count of Blue Jays at the feed simultaneously - 7 . First of the year Brown Thrasher foraging in the leaves by the boxwood. First Brown-headed Cowbird that we’ve seen at the feed. Also of note: a Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Cedar Waxwings, and a Gray Squirrel. At 9:23 P.M. an Eastern Cottontail out in front of the house, seen on the way home after seeing ‘Silver linings playbook.’
FEBRUARY 12, TUESDAY. Clear, up to 51°F., W or NW 5-10 m.p.h., impounded areas have very high water, tidal areas somewhat low. 57°F at Cambridge 3:30 P.M.
EGYPT ROAD: tundra swan 30, turkey vulture 6, northern harrier 1 ad. ♂, red-tailed hawk 7 (1 or 2 often perch on the wires here, don’t even flush when you drive by), American kestrel 1, Gray Squirrel 1, ring-billed gull 1,660, eastern bluebird 3, horned lark 1, starling 2,000±, red-winged blackbird 2,000±, Painted Turtle 1 (at the “prothonotary place”).
BLACKWATER N.W.R., 11:15 A.M. - 3 P.M. 45 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS (at least 44 on the distant S side of the Blackwater River, 1 sunning on the bank of Pool 3C). AMERICAN BITTERN 1 (seen from the new observation platform). Snow Goose 1,150 (resting on the water c. 2 miles away on the Blackwater River), Canada Goose 3,000±. 2 Painted Turtles. 2 Chorus Frogs.
Tundra Swan 4 (tha’s all), Gadwall 4, American Wigeon 16, American Black Duck 2, Mallard 41, Northern Shoveler 175, Northern Pintail 37, Green-winged Teal 149, Redhead 6 (Pool 1), Ring-necked Duck 95 (Pool 1), Bufflehead 3 (Pool 1), Hooded Merganser 8, Common Merganser 2 (where did all the 100s here earlier in the winter go to?), Red-breasted Merganser 5 (Blackwater River), Great Blue Heron 7, Bald Eagle 22, Northern Harrier 2, Cooper’s Hawk 1, Red-tailed Hawk 5, American Kestrel 1, American Coot 20, Greater Yellowlegs 6, Ring-billed Gull 200, Eastern Bluebird 3, Song Sparrow 5, Northern Mockingbird 2.
Distant marsh fires along Shorter’s Wharf Road. As seen looking W from the Observation Spur road, and no further out than the end of the observation platform: 25 Muskrat lodges (all of them lacking wi-fi), some the size of a small Volkswagen.
26 deer seen from the Easton bypass (Route 322) at 3:53 P.M. S of the Oxford Road, in a favorite field of theirs.
FEBRUARY 13, WEDNESDAY. Leave by 10:15 A.M. Mostly overcast, NW 5-10, 38°F. Perhaps 3000 Canada Geese in fields between Rigby’s Folly and Easton. Along Routes 309 and 481 between Easton Cordova, Ruthsburg, Hope, and Route 301: 700 Snow Geese (only see 2 Blues; almost all of the whities are adults). 45 Canada Geese. 2 Mallards. 2 adult & 1 mmature Bald Eagle. 4 Red-tailed Hawks. 1 Horned Lark. 3 juncos. 5 Killdeer. 14 Tundra Swans. 10 bluebirds. A kettle of 23 Black Vultures near milepost 103 on Route 301.
Best to all. ‘til the next time. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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