Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 15:30:01 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Poplar Island, Talbot Co. 5/4 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, On Saturday morning Jim Stasz and I left my house early with my little Sea Ray jetboat in tow. We arrived at Lowes Wharf around 0605 before anyone was present and put the boat in the water. As with last time (w/ George Armistead, 5/18/00) the boat needed a jump start from the car and a good 5 minutes of cranking. Afterwards though, it appeared to run smoothly. The trip out was a bit choppy and Jim and I were drenched with spray on arrival at the island. Though it was full high tide I opted to beach the boat and tie up to an old stump, rather than have it crash against the dock in the winds and surf for the next 5 hours. Recognizing the risk of the falling tide, we struck off around the impoundments. Previously in describing the impoundments out there I alluded to a possible 4th imoundment on the south end. This in fact is rather a long diked causeway to the west end of Coache's Island. In the next 18 months this will act as the starting point for an operation that will add THREE MORE impoundments on that south end, nearly doubling the size of the current impounded area. Jim and I found water suitable for shorebirds in all three impoundments but again found far fewer shorebirds than would be expected, given the habitat (and given the counts this same weekend from Hart-Miller). The best shorebirding was in the southwest corner of the southeast impoundment. Most scoters, grebes etc. were off the south edge where the riprapped edges were sheltered from the wind, Try though we did, we saw no pelicans. On return to the boat at 11:00 or so [4 hours allowed a reasonable survey of all impoundments], the boat was, as expected, high and dry. Unexpected was how heavy it was and how difficult it would be for the two of us to get back to the water. After almost an hour of dragging it a foot at a time, we were afloat again only to discover that the battery was dead (again!). Continued cranking only made matters worse. Jim walked the boat .5 miles down to the dock [a la The African Queen without the leeches] while I trotted down the dike to find someone from the work crew on the island. We would still be out there were it not for the assistance of the crew out there, who gave us a charge. Were it not for their friendly assitance, we might still be surveying the islands! Again, I highly recommend this trip to anyone who has the means to do it. A boat is required, and I do not recommend beaching it at high tide, unless you are considerably stronger than Jim and myself! Good birding, Marshall Iliff Species list below by Jim Stasz from notes transcribed on the islands. ****************************************************************************** ****************** Observations at Polplar Island, Talbot Co. June 3, 2000 0635-1130 AM: sunny, 65 degrees, winds NW 20K Observers: Marshall Iliff, Jim Stasz *SPECIES OF NOTE Common Loon 2, non-breeding plumage HORNED GREBE *2, breeding plumage Double-crested Cormorant + [many nesting on Jefferson I. just to the east; hundreds in vincinity, flying over and on poundnets; none on Poplar I. Remains of old nests from prior colony documented 4 July 1997 seen] Great Blue Heron 10 [many more at Coaches I. where they nest] Snowy Egret 1 Mute Swan 7 [nest with 4 eggs found on remains of North I.] Canada Goose 4 American Black Duck 5 Mallard 12 GREEN-WINGED TEAL *1 female SURF SCOTER *3 ad. male WHITE-WINGED SCOTER *1, imm.male BLACK SCOTER *3 [1 ad.male, 2 imm.male] scoter sp. 3 OLDSQUAW *4 2 male, 2 female Red-breasted Merganser 1 fem.plumage Osprey 8 [at least 3 nests on Poplar I., many more seen flying nearby and on poundnets] Black-bellied Plover 10 Semipalmated Plover 64 Killdeer 12 [7 ad., 5 downy chicks] AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER *1 [one of very few Talbot County records] Spotted Sandpiper 1 Eastern Willet 5 [nest on Coaches I.] Ruddy Turnstone 14 RED KNOT *23 Sanderling 9 [2 in breeding plumage] Semipalmated Sandpiper 338 Least Sandpiper 8 White-rumped Sandpiper 34 Dunlin 27 Short-billed Dowitcher 4 [griseus] Laughing Gull 8 Ring-billed Gull 2 Herring Gull 265 [at least 28 nests, most not checked for contents. 1 nest w/ 3 eggs, 3 nests with 1 egg] LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL *1 1st Summer plumage Great Black-backed Gull 150 [3 nests. @ with 3 eggs, @ with one egg pipping] gull sp. 2 [both perhaps extremely bleached Herring Gulls, certainly not Iceland or Glaucous] Royal Tern 2 Common Tern 5 [pair in courtship flight, no evidence of nesting] Least Tern 5 [2 pairs. No direct evidence of nesting, but certainly doing so] BLACK TERN *1 [adult] Chimney Swift 2 [perhaps nesting on Jefferson I.] Fish Crow 3 Barn Swallow 20 European Starling 2 Red-winged Blackbird 4 Common Grackle 3 BUTTERFLIES Cabbage White 4 sulphur sp. 1 Variegated Fritillary 1 Eastern Comma 1 anglewing sp. 1 Red Admiral 1 Monarch 1 DRAGONFLIES & DAMSELFLIES Rambur's Forktail 1 Common Green Darner 4 Eastern Pondhawk 2 Seaside Dragonlet 30 Great Blue Skimmer 1 [female] Blue Dasher 20 REPTILES: Diamondback Terrapin 1 on beach, 10+ in adjacenty waters MAMMALS: River Otter fresh tracks Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================