Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 23:07:05 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Maryland's Newest hotspot: The Poplar Island Impoundments Comments: cc: georgearmistead@hotmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, Last Thursday George Armistead and I pirated my family's small Sea Ra= y jetboat and trailer and made for Lowes Wharf near Tilghman Island. Our intention was to explore the brand new and IMMENSE impoundment contructed= at the Poplar Island archipelago. Our hope was to find that good shorebird habitat had been created. George and his father had ventured there in Ma= rch (and Harry once even last fall) and stated that the habitat looked good. Unfortunately our time was very limited so we only had two hours on the island. Still, it was a lot of fun and the place clearly had great potential. Lowes Wharf is located due east of the islands and the boat t= rip is only about 2 miles. Although the winds were high, even my little boat managed it easily and we made the trip in 7 minutes or less. SPECIES LIST: I kept good notes on the species and numbers in a microcassette recorded,= but have not yet transcribed the totals. The following totals are from memor= y, but should be a fair representation of what we saw: 2 Common Loons (in the bay around the islands) 300+ Double-crested Cormorants (active colony with numerous nests, the ol= d colony island is now part of the impoundment so the cormroants have moved= ) 1 female OLDSQUAW (in the impoundment, interestingly, on my only previous trip here 4 Jul 1997 Jim and I had 3 Oldsquaw here in the Bay around the islands) 10 Killdeer 150 Semi Plovers 8 Black-bellied Plovers 1 Greater Yellowlegs 4 Lesser Yellowlegs 5 Eastern Willets (may be nesting) 400 Semi Sandpipers 30 Least Sandpipers 6 Ruddy Turnstones (in addition to 3 on the beach at Lowes Wharf) 40 Dunlin 15 Sanderlings 10 White-rumped Sandpipers 2 STILT SANDPIPERS 30 Short-billed Dowitchers 1 Caspian Tern 2 Royal Terns 4 Least Terns (at least one apparently tending a nest) 4 Common Terns (at least one pair engaged in courtship flights etc. that = may suggest nesting) 100 Herring Gulls (at least 30-40 pairs nesting) 100 Great Black-backed Gulls (no signs of nesting, though some apparently paired adults were seen) Ospreys 3 Chimney Swifts Barn Swallows Red-winged Blackbirds IMPRESSIONS: My only other visit to the Poplars was with Jim Stasz in the same trusty = boat 4 July 1997. This was my first look at this archipelago which then inclu= ded 5 islands in a ring. The southernmost was the largest and well forested, with a heron colony on the east edge. Proceeding countewrclockwise, the = nest iosland was riprapped and had a house on the south edge. This is where t= he comorants now nest. The next island was just adjacent to that one and is= low and marshy. Farther out was another tiny marsh hammock where we found a Herring Gull nest and a Willet nest. Cutting back south along the west s= ide of the ring one passed some sunken barges which Herring Gulls were nestin= g on (see the relevant issue of Field Notes for a photo of a Herring Gull on a barge). Finally, there was a small sandy island with dead snags and some vegetation where a huge cormorant colony was located. These latter two islands, and the barges, now form the backbone of the east dike of the impoundments, which stretch far out into the Bay. We saw evidence of 3 impoundments, and suspect a fourth which we did not = have time to investigate (at the extreme south end, by the loading dock). The more westerly is the largest, stretching almost the entire north-south le= ngth of the oblong impoundments. Surveying the impoundments will not be as ea= sy as at Hart-Miller which allows an easy figure-8. Here the two mega-impoundments are long north-south affairs with the easterly one divi= ded in the middle. Thus, there are three north south dikes to walk, along wi= th a crossdike. Time will tell what the best route will be, but it may involv= e splitting into two parties with two-way radios. LOGISTICS: We did have a chance to talk to some of the workers who had absolutel= y no problem with us birding here or making return visits. They did suggest t= hat they would prefer to have people present on the island in case anything happens, suggesting that visits should be limited to working hours Monday-Saturday. They do not work Sundays so do not plan any visits then. Lowes Wharf is the only sensible launching point. Ramp fees are $5. = I know nothing about the possibility of renting a boat or making arrangemen= ts with the work boat for the crew on the island. The best landing point (for a small boat) is the sandy beach on the e= ast side of the impoundment. Use the southern end of the most northerly beac= h and you will be very close to the crossdike and will have a view of two impoundments on disembarking. The entire west dike is rip-rapped and uns= afe to approach closely. As with Hart- Miller, bring plenty of sunscreen, fo= od, water, perhaps a chair, a scope, and bug repellent. I was troubled to no= tice that the island has already been populated by those annoying ankle-biters= so prevalent on Hart-Miller. OTHER: My small boat only (legally) holds 4 people, but I do plan to make ot= her trips out there. If I ever have space anyone is welcome to join and I wi= ll try to post a note (probably at short notice) to that effect. If anyone else makes a trip on their own PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep detailed notes on the species you see. I would like to create a database= of sightings like that maintained for Hart-Miller Island by Bob Ringler, Ric= k Blom, Bob Dixon, and most recently, Gene Scarpulla. It will provide fascinating comparison with its neighbor to the north. Interestingly, the impoundments seemed to not harbor quite as many shorebirds as one might expect given the appearance of the habitat. Inde= ed Hart-Miller at the moment appears to be harboring several times more peep= and a greater diversity than George and I saw at Poplar. Obviously, Gene's surveys are more thorough and George and I were hampered by our time limi= t. Still, We wondered whether there is some maturation factor in these impoundments, and whether Poplar is so new that microorganism shorebird f= ood has not yet fully colonized the mud. Do Bob, Rick, Gene or others have a= ny thoughts on this especially as it related to Hart-Miller's history. A great place for a Saturday boating trip or a concerted Curlew Sandpiper search. We did not see Brown Pelicans or storm-petrels, but I predict bo= th before the summer is out (Hart still needs both!). Good birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================