FERRY NECK & BLACKWATER N.W.R., FEBRUARY 28-MARCH 4, 2013 [&, off topic: “Homage to I-495]. Too much wind, not enough sun. A lot of surface water, soggy fields. No gannets or Forster’s Terns yet. Unless otherwise noted all observations are at our place, Rigby’s Folly, in Talbot County. Liz & Harry Armistead.
A CONSECRATION: This batch of field notes is dedicated to the memory of friends, all guests at one time or another at the Maryland place, who are no longer here: Van Hubbard, Larry Keenan, Roy Neale, Cook Pell, Pete Sexton, Pete Tyler, Drayton Valentine, and Smoothie Williams.
FEBRUARY 28, THURSDAY. On the way down: 181 Turkey Vultures, 13 Red-tailed Hawks, a kestrel, a harrier, and just 1 Black Vulture. 75 Tundra Swans at routes 301 X 481. In the little wetland near routes 309 X 481: 7 pintails, 8 Green-winged Teal, and 6 Mallards. In the Easton Acme parking lot trees, 205 of Les Roslund’s Cedar Waxwings. c. 1,000 Ring-billed Gulls in the fields around Carroll’s Market.
Arrive at 3:45 P.M. overcast, winds NW 10-15, 49°F., high tide (5:31 P.M) above normal. At Frog Hollow: an ad. Bald Eagle. Seen from our dock: 2 ad. Bald Eagles, 10 Tundra Swans, 2 Buffleheads, and 7 Canvasbacks. At dusk 10 deer (does) out in front of our house.
MARCH 1, FRIDAY. Fair becoming mostly overcast, then totally overcast, 44°F. all day (!), winds NW 15, a gray day, 1.1” in the rain gauge accumulated since our last visit c. 10 days ago. 3 Gray Squirrels. Canvasback 45, Canada Goose 570, Tundra Swan 24, Cedar Waxwing 35, Red-tailed Hawk 2, Bald Eagle 1 imm., Ruddy Duck 30, Bufflehead 2, Surf Scoter 84, American Robin 34, Myrtle Warbler 2, Horned Grebe 1, Eastern Bluebird 6 (Field 1), Northern Flicker 2.
MARCH 2, SATURDAY: Nice-looking Red Fox in one of John Swaine’s fields. In the “headwaters” of the Tred Avon River (i.e. Easton) are 8 Lesser Scaup, where I’ve not seen them before.
EGYPT ROAD: Canada Goose 1,000, Bald Eagle 1, American Kestrel 1, Ring-billed Gull 1,100, and 1 Red Fox. The eagle nest here seems to be unoccupied this year.
BLACKWATER N.W.R. 9:00 A.M. – 1 P.M. 35-37°F., winds NW 10-15, overcast, tidal waters high, impounded waters very high. No ice or snow. Cold and windy.
A field trip with the Friends of Bombay Hook N.W.R. (Mary Long, leader) and the Anne Arundel Bird Club (Kevin Smith, leader). Harry & Liz Armistead, Maureen Bonnes, Deb Boudra, Norris Brock, Peter Bungay, Joy Chambers, Peter Hanan, Jim & Mary Long, Eileen McLellan, Sheryl & Wes McNair, Don & Carol Palmer, Kevin Smith, Nita Sylvester, and Bill & Sue Thompson. = 19 persons. 49 species.
Some of the birds listed below are seen before or after the official field trip, or in Cambridge or Egypt Road. Disappointing in some respects: not for lack of trying - no rails, shorebirds, warblers, or ANY of the so-called tits (chickadees and their ilk); few landbirds or raptors. Waterfowl help compensate for these deficiencies. I was busy getting folks on birds so any totals of, say, birds in the hundreds or more are really rough, uncareful estimates.
Complete bird list: snow goose 2,000 (on S side of Blackwater River c. 2 mi. distant). Canada goose 3,000. tundra swan 55. wood duck 4. gadwall 12. American wigeon 2. American black duck 8. mallard 22. northern shoveler 225. northern pintail 30. green-winged teal 80. redhead a pair in Pool 1. ring-necked duck 95 in Pool 1 except for 3 in Pool 3C. lesser scaup 1. bufflehead 2ø (Pool 1). hooded merganser 8 (pool 5B). red-breasted merganser 5 (Blackwater River).
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN 46, On the S. side of Blackwater River, distantly visible from the new observation platform, a flock of 27 - massive, ponderous, and majestic - in wheeling flight plus at least 18 near those, sitting, and, finally, one resting in the sun and out of the wind on the bank of Pool 3C, probably the disabled individual that has been present for 3 years.
great blue heron 5. turkey vulture 20. bald eagle 24 (counting the brooding bird on the video cam, whose nest has hatched 2 of its 3 eggs). northern harrier 1. red-tailed hawk 3. American kestrel 2. American coot 16. ring-billed gull 60. herring gull 14 (Cambridge-Malkus Bridge). great black-backed gull 7 (Malkus Bridge). rock pigeon 45 (Cambridge). mourning dove 2.
belted kingfisher 1. northern flicker 1. blue jay 3. American crow 8. tree swallow 2 (Pool 1). Carolina wren 1. eastern bluebird 5. American robin 7. northern mockingbird 2. European starling 35. Savannah sparrow1. song sparrow 3. swamp sparrow 1. slate-colored junco 1 (Cambridge). northern cardinal 3. red-winged blackbird 40. eastern meadowlark 2 (Cambridge). common grackle 35. house sparrow 6 (Cambridge).
Mammals: 1 Fox Squirrel, 1 Muskrat and, d.o.r., 1 Striped Skunk (requiescat in pavement).
On the way back to Rigby’s Folly listen to the end of unremittingly somber and solemn (2-hour) Act 1 of Wagner’s ‘Parsifal.’ Back at the place: 2 Gray Squirrels and an Eastern Cottontail. 41°F at 2:30 P.M. Sit out at Lucy Point for a while c. 5:15 P.M. when it is 37°F., winds 15 m.p.h. from the WNW, cold, mostly overcast with flurries and virga but to the WNW great shafts of light and some clearing: 61 Surf Scoters and 40 Lesser Scaup. Also an American Kestrel on the pole in Field 2.
MARCH 3, SUNDAY. Mostly overcast becoming completely overcast, NW 15-20-15, 35-41°F., occasional very light flurries, skim ice in some ditches, vernal pools, and field water. Black birds: in Field 1 325 starlings with a few Red-winged Blackbirds mixed in plus 9 bluebirds and 9 robins. In Field 6 390 Red-winged Blackbirds, with conversely, a few starlings mixed in. At one time 65 Red-winged Blackbirds are at the corn. 42 Canada Geese in the cove. Off Lucy Point: 80 Surf Scoters and 20 Lesser Scaup.
Deer: 7 does and a small buck (its only antler a small left one) in Field 5 [One of my HS classmates is Wright Horne, who we used to call Left Antler. In Field 1 4 does. In the hedgerow separating Fields 5 & 6 a dead doe; about 200’ to the E of there, in the hedgerow along the driveway next to Field 5, a dead 4-point buck. I hung up its intact skull and antlers to air out some, plan to hang them in the garage eventually. These dead deer perhaps victims of the chronic wasting disease prevalent last fall.
At Bellevue: 65 Cedar Waxwings, 2 Gray Squirrels. In the field where Bellevue Road meets Ferry Neck Road: a flicker, 3 Blue Jays, 30 Myrtle Warblers, 5 bluebirds, and 17 robins. That’s the field with the half-dead Red Maple in which I once saw a Cape May Warbler on the St. Michaels Christmas Bird Count.
Using a good rake with long tines I clear 100 feet of the ditch along the driveway on the S side of Field 4 that drains into Waterthrush Pond. There’s a certain pleasure (up to a point) in playing with mud, leaves, and water. An imm. Bald Eagle. One Sharp-shinned Hawk.
MARCH 4, MONDAY. Clear, 32°F., NW 20. 17 American Robins. Leave at 9:55 A.M. At routes 481 X 309 5 Tundra Swans and 3♂ & 2 ♀ Mallards in the little wetland there plus an ad. Bald Eagle nearby. Near routes 301 X 481 in the fields: 1,400 Snow Geese (hardly any Blue Geese) and 45 Tundra Swans. At mile 109.1, Route 301, 3 Wild Turkeys fly, low, at risk, across the highway. At mile 117, Route 301, 155 Snow Geese in flight headed W.
‘THE SPIRIT OF TRANSPORTATION’: HOMAGE TO I-495, the Wilmington bypass. ‘The Spirit of Transportation’ (1895) is an impressive bas relief in Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station featuring some classical imagery by sculptor Karl Bitter, a “triumphant procession of progress led by a small child carrying a model of an airship, a prophetic vision of a mode of transportation to come.”
In this vein the 11.5-mile stretch of I-495 (which, though a bypass, is a shorter drive than if one goes through Wilmington on I-95, the cloaca, if you will, of megalopolis) offers a plethora of real life transportation.
Skirting the Delaware River, I-495 affords intimate looks at a convergence of myriad transportation forms: container ships, freighters, huge commercial aircraft, 90 mile per hour Amtrak trains, and of course rivers of automobiles and big 18-wheeler trucks. Sometimes there are military aircraft from Wilmington airport. Small models of all of these have enthralled generations of children. Writ large, the real things, are impressive to us grownups.
Off in the distance smoke and steam issue from gargantuan chimneys across the Delaware River in New Jersey. Miles away the driver sees Delaware Memorial Bridge to the south, Commodore Barry Bridge to the north. Although 4 miles distant, it’s easy to see with the unaided eye big truck rigs moving over the DMB.
The I-495 bridge takes you over the mouth of the Christina River. Father up the river is the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge. One passes the sprawling DuPont Edge Moor plant, the Heritage Concrete Company, and the port of Wilmington, where the lovely, pale yellow Dole freighter is docked every weekend. Towering cranes and networks of massive, high power lines are everywhere. There are long piles of undifferentiated trash and steaming, drying sewage waiting to be processed.
Off to the east is the Cherry Island landfill with its attendant flocks of hundreds of gulls. Farther south, opposite the Peterson area, is another monstrous landfill, always with a green and yellow Waste Management truck parked on its summit, a sort of virtual billboard advertizing that corporation. Farther south still, beyond the beckoning horizon, is the Salem, New Jersey, nuclear power plant, and its carafe-shaped tower spewing massive clouds of white smoke.
To the west is the Wilmington skyline. To the north I-495 goes under I-95 and up river lie great ships at anchor off Marcus Hook, with its smoky oil refineries. Down river, and north of the Delaware-Chesapeake canal, is a huge refinery with its forest of cracking towers, some of them belching fire, that was originally targeted to be built at Tilghman Island. Close to this refinery we heard a Black Rail once, and Purple Gallinules and King Rails have bred in that same area, in Dragon Run.
Motoring through at 65 m.p.h. there is so much to see, be it horrific, awesome, or even pleasing at times. During the warmer months there is enough suspended, fine particulate matter in the air that, even with the windows closed, it can be felt, the grit building up slightly in your mouth, though there is no visible smog.
But check the river to see if the water level is high or low, or, sometimes there are windrows of floating logs, empty 55-gallon barrels, and other detritus and flotsam and jetsam after a big rainstorm or hurricane upstream. Occasionally a Bald Eagle is seen working its way through these industrial monstrosities. Once we saw a roadkill Beaver in the midst of all this, on an elevated section of I-495.
There are even extensive wooded areas, stands of Phragmites, some wetlands, and scrubby abandoned fields, but all of this is usually bereft of birds - even Red-tailed Hawks - save for vultures riding the updrafts and some cormorants on the river. Yes, there’s a lot to see. And what a contrast when we arrive south to spend days in the welcome and nearly pristine areas of the lower Eastern Shore.
BUMPER STICKER NEWS. Most notable this time: Inside an oversized decal of a dog’s paw print: “Some say I have the attention span of …. There goes squirrel.” Another: “The socialist republic of Obama bin Biden; God help us all.” Whatever. And so it goes.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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