Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 11:48:41 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: January 28 on the Choptank MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii January 28, 2001, Sunday, at Rigby's Folly, Talbot County. 45 species. 8:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. Clear to fair. 30-42 degrees. Wind NW 20-25-5. Ground bare but most surface water frozen. No ice in tidal water. Did a "sea watch" on the Choptank River for an hour and a half. No gannets or loons or GBBG. Not much out there: 1 Horned Grebe, 15 Long-tailed Ducks, 40 Surf Scoters, 35 goldeneyes, 180 Buffleheads. Up Irish Creek: 215 Canvasbacks, 3 male Red-breasted Mergansers, a few scaup. 2 Mute Swans. Back on July 29 & 30 there were 240 here. 2 adult Bald Eagles, one of them low over their nest. Here's hoping. Little covey of 4 bobwhite in one of our parcels that was logged in 1996. All last year I heard quail only twice and never saw any. Used to hear 2-3 any day any time from May-August. Most interesting landbirds: 1 Pileated Woodpecker, a Winter Wren (seen and heard giving its little double call note), a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and a good count of 65 juncos. 9 species new for the 2001 yard list today. The rest is somewhat "off topic". Read at your own risk. The tide was real low, the water a good 18 paces from shore (By way of comparison, during the record low tide of April 5, 1975, after several days of strong NW winds, the nearest water was 168 paces from the END of the dock.), good for progging, a term I first heard in Tom Horton's marvelous book about Smith Island, "An Island Out of Time". Progging is poking around, prospecting for things in the marsh or along the shores. I found a lovely old bottle: with large letters G-B-S surrounded by a sort of ellipse or oval with: "the Gottfried Bauern Schmidt Straus Brewing Company, Baltimore, MD." Our predecessors simply threw their trash into the cove. As the little remaining marsh continues to erode we come by minor treasures such as this bottle. 2 Gray Squirrels. 12 does and 3 bucks (4, 4 & 8 points). A few daffodils are up an inch or so now. According to my notes: In 1983 most were already up 1"-5" by January 15. In 1975 they were up an inch by January 25. On the other hand, on January 29, 1982: "Ice to the limit of visibility. Locals say it went down to 0-8 degrees earlier [in the year]. Dock at 45 degree angle lifted up several feet [by the ice] ... cover of 6" - 1' of snow. Downy Woodpecker eating Poison Ivy berries... Ice heaves way up Broad Creek." I've lost my notes from the record cold winter of 1977 but I remember pressure ridges of ice up to 10 feet high in the Choptank out from Irish Creek on a day when I walked past them to half a mile offshore. The only waterfowl I saw then, other than CG's, were a male Canvasback and one flyover Tundra Swan. Some watermen drove their trucks onto the ice that year, cut holes in it with chain saws, and harvested oysters in that way. February 17, 1979, was extremely cold here with a low of 8 (0 in some nearby places), high of 18: "Bay frozen to the limit of visibility. 6-8" snow. winds N 10-25. White-throats 'tame', desperately feeding in the few bare areas. Some snow accumulation in fire places.": [We only have a gas stove in one room for heat in the entire house.] The next day: "Low of 5. Beautiful, high, uniform Arctic gray cloud cover." By way of contrast: On the same date (February 18) in 1984: "Big Spring Peeper chorus. 2 Leopard Frogs in pond by house ... Pussy Willow blossoms almost out. 3 Painted Turtles at Frog Hollow and a bat flying over Royal Oak Rd. at 3 P.M." February 19, 1984: "Irises up 4-5", 4 Painted Turtles ... Bees and spiders seen in the woods plus a chorus of peepers." Such are the vagaries of winter, that I've been lucky enough to experience over the years during occasional visits to the old place. Weekends without running water, sleeping in a bedroom that never gets above 56, are somewhat spartan. Best to all and blockbuster birding to you.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. 215-248-4120. 74077-3176@compuserve.com. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================